The first proper outing I got on the wheels was on a rainy and cold Tuesday morning over Swinley forest. My plan was to ride the blue route hard and give the wheels a good thrashing. I continued with my plan although the weather was making for very tough conditions with mud and grit all over the trail spraying up into my face. I have been told I will notice the stiffness of the wheels a-lot more in dry conditions because of the firmer ground which does make sense. I could still notice the difference in the wheels with the main difference being less rotational mass, better power transfer/stiffer, better control through corners through less flex and more forgiving over roots and bumps etc. All these factors contributed to me gaining the Kom on the Blue trail with an average of nearly 14mph on wet trails! Since I rode this my time has been beaten by 20 seconds by a very good local rider Lee Gollop on dry trails. I often visit Swinley forest whilst training so will hopefully be able to regain this Kom on my next visit ;).
http://app.strava.com/activities/47974559#839010936
Last weekend me and a few riding buddies decided to head over to the North Downs/Peslake trails for a good 25+ mile loop including most of the well known trails ie Barry Knows Best, Yoghurt pots and more. I rode my training bike which is a Scandal 29er with the Strada carbon 29er wheels and fox 100mm forks. This was my 3rd ever outing over to Peaslake trails as its not an area where me or my usual riding buddies know well. The trails were running fast with all the sun and dry weather weve been experiencing the past week. We came to the end of our 27mile ride and I wanted to give Barry Knows best a real thrashing to see hows the wheels felt on a bumpy/fast trail. I was slightly unsure if this was a good idea after doing that sort of mileage but went for it anyway. They didn't dissapoint with me gaining the Kom by 3 Seconds back to Zac Blackwell who had put in very respectable time of 1m 59seconds 2 days prior to me riding it in 1m 56seconds. I was very suprised to get the Kom with this being my 3rd ever time riding Barry knows best, I just found with the Strada Carbon wheels there was room for error. Check out the Barry Knows best Strava Page below via the link.
http://app.strava.com/activities/49877272#882829985
All these years I have been wondering how much faster a set of carbon wheels would be and are the Pros just riding them because there sponsors tell them too?. The truth is the wheels are significantly faster with a bag full of pros and only 1 con the extra cost in Price. With the most important part of the bike after the frame the wheels make a huge difference in weight and not just static weight Rotational weight which counts for 3X the affect of static weight. For example if you save 10grams on anything rotational ie wheels, tyres, rotars this counts for at least 3x so 30grams on a set of bars or seatpost.
My next race on the Mountain bike wheels will be on the 5th of May at the Gorrick 100 over at Porridgepot Hill in Deepcut.
I have also been supplied with a set of road wheels for my local time trial which i will be testing out tomorrow evening at Hounslow Wheelers 10mile Time trial event. The rear wheel is an 88mm carbon tub and a 50mm front. My previous time last week on 27mm Clinchers was 24:16 and hope to break 24minutes tomorrow night with the new stiffer and more aerodynamic wheels.
Stay in touch to see how I get on at both of these events.
A big thanks to my main Sponsor Aw Cycles - www.awcycles.co.uk and my 2nd sponsor Strada Hand Built Wheels - www.stradawheels.co.uk
Thanks for sharing your experience of riding of bike using carbon mtb wheels. This has been a so interesting read, would love to read more here....
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