Train on what you race....?

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eric
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Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 9:47 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, California, USA
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by eric

I ride on aluminium rims for most of my training. I ride the carbon race wheels enough to be comfortable with their handling on race day and to make sure they're in good shape for each race. I have carbon tubular and carbon clincher race wheels. I dislike changing tubular tires and fear doing so on the road, so the tubular wheels are race only. Some of the descents I do are too steep and technical to safely ride on carbon clinchers... one is the road I live on. Until I started building my own wheels I was breaking rear wheels a lot. Even without that, I ride a lot and wear out parts. I'd rather wear out or break inexpensive training wheels than expensive race wheels.

I build all my own wheels now so expense is relative but the parts for the carbon wheels cost at least twice the training wheels.

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Canadian
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Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 1:28 am
Location: Las Vegas, NV
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by Canadian

This is a great question that we get a lot. I think there is a lot of value in training on your race wheels during the year. It allows you to get used to how they handle in specific wind and weather conditions so there are no big surprises on race day. I personally train on my race wheels a lot. That said, I think there are also good times to be logging miles on a shallower or all aluminum training wheel. I like to use a shallower wheel when the winds really pick up and I'm doing a big training ride. If I'm doing a lot of climbing and high speed descending on a windy day, I'll also tend to use a shallower wheel. When the weather gets bad, rain, snow etc, I would lean towards using an all aluminum rim to keep the race wheels in better shape.

I hope that makes sense.
Chris
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