Thinking of my first major upgrade once I put a couple thousand miles or so on it. My question is..will upgrading to carbon wheels make a noticeable difference? Thx
by pedigrief
Thinking of my first major upgrade once I put a couple thousand miles or so on it. My question is..will upgrading to carbon wheels make a noticeable difference? Thx
by pedigrief
4 Comments
Unfortunately the answer is “it depends”.
Are the new wheels a lot lighter than the stock set? Then yes, you will notice faster acceleration/spin up and *might* notice the weight difference on uphill segments.
Will the new wheels be significantly stiffer? If so, you might notice your bike handling quicker.
Do you ride really fast? If yes, then the aerodynamic benefit of deeper wheels will be noticed.
One thing that will always be true though – with new wheels your bike will look cooler.
Yes. Put some 40mm carbons on it and you will go miles faster. Get some wider internal rim width and you will be far more comfortable. Get something with both, yay! You honestly don’t need expensive ones even. Makes a huge difference
Yes, they lighten your wallet significantly, but they look so cool!
I bought a pair for my Roubaix over a year ago from a company called Scribe in Ireland. They look great at their 42mm depth and my bike is a little lighter, but performance-wise, no real discernible difference. Especially since I use 32mm wide gravel tires because I was sick of getting punctures all the time with tubed or tubeless road tires. You wanna go faster, get in better shape. But yes, the difference they’ve made in my life is I love looking at my bike even more now.
https://preview.redd.it/5oeuo9uc3aee1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2131323ffdfcbc386bd481c30a9175bf084fe391
The simple answer is yes. And I hear very often the first upgrade are the wheels.