I don’t know whether to file this as a minor issue or “no shit, dummy,” but at high speeds my Polaris front wheel will wobble/oscillate if “provoked.”
As in anything that might cause an abrupt steering force like a push from my hand or an uneven patch in the road will result in a fast wobble. I won't call it speed wobbles because it doesn't endure for more than 1-2 seconds and doesn't seem to be caused by a lack of stiffness. With my ENVEs, if the wheels get pushed in on direction, they keep steering in that direction. It feels like these wheels are so deep, there’s a rudder effect trying to push them back into a neutral position against the wind. When this happens, there is an over-correction and it points past neutral, then back-and-forth. This seems to happen when I have neither a firm grip on the bars, nor a loose grip. If I grip my bars more firmly or more loosely the oscillation dissipates (or is less likely to occur in the first place.)
I also don’t know if this is specific to my position on the bike, my Madone, 28mm GP5K, etc. I just know that it’s real and it made a fast descent a little more exciting than usual on Saturday. There was another rider on Polarises in my group and he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, but he also hasn’t ridden too many deep-section wheels before.
On the other hand, I also descended faster than pretty much anyone else on Strava that day. I came within 3 second of my Kings Mtn descent PR and I wasn’t trying to.
Ultimately extremely deep wheels want to keep going straight against a pure headwind even when something else is trying to steer it in another direction. There might be a pendulum / Newton’s Cradle kind of effect when this happens. Maybe this is why pros tend to stick to the 50-60mm range.
Don’t worry QX, I still like your wheels very much, though if you recall I did ask if a 50-60mm version was in the works when we first talked.
CFD, custom molds, and testing are expensive.
