Is it just a better road feel or does carbon provide some other benefit? Or is it just about the quality of the wheel bearings that determines how fast a wheel will be?
Iād say that the biggest benefits of carbon over alloy is weight and the ability to produce a variety of shapes.
You are correct that hubs and bearings also have a big effect on speed also.
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Way better.
Crabs on fire.
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there is simply more possible with carbon, you can stretch the limits further with ācheap/light/strong pick 2ā
alu is always cheap, and can be either strong and heavy or light an weak.
You can go further on those limits with carbon, due to the manufacturing options (different fibers, combinations, layup, quality control etc. Resulting in for example a really light and pretty strong expensive rim.
The most important thing is that carbon looks better.
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What I can never get my head around is are they proportionally better in terms of monetary value?
I guess its rather subjective but Ā£/W or Ā£/improvement is, imo, ridiculous.
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Better - yes, Worth the extra dosh - not so sure. But if carbon wheels get you excited to ride your bike, then in the long run it gets you way faster.
I moved from a 32 spoke 2kg gravel wheel set with gator skins to a tubeless 24 spoke 45mm deep carbon wheel set up tubeless - I probably got about 1kmh faster, but my bike looked hella better
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Yes and in the age of disc brakes and direct to consumer sales, the internal business case is a lot easier. The Ā£ delta between some of my alloy sets and carbon is not that big. A carbon set with perfectly OK hubs is close to an alloy set with shinier hubs.
On the mountain bike I find that carbon tracks like itās on rails around corners. Aluminum always has a vague wandering that Iām assuming is due to the flex. Not sure if this would translate to road riding as well.
The bearings and hubs make a huge difference!
Remember, thereās a big difference between poor carbon wheels vs excellent alloy wheels.
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Hot take: on a hardtail, Iād rather have a good set of aluminum wheels than carbon. On the constantly bumpy trails in my part of North Carolina, the extreme stiffness of carbon is not comfortable and I find myself out of the saddle more and fatiguing faster. That extra bit of compliance in aluminum wheels makes a real difference (or at least Iāve convinced myself that it does). Love carbon on a full sus though.
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Iāve had a google around without much success, interested in whether this can be quantified.
The only numbers I could find are across the entire drive train and from a company who sell ceramic bearings.
With CeramicSpeed products in your hubs, pulley wheels and bottom bracket, tests show that youāll save between 6ā9 watts , compared to using standard bearings
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I use good quality steel bearings and Iām happy with how smooth my hubs run. Donāt get me wrong, I like the āblingā part of having ceramic bearings but Iām not sure if theyāre worth the money. It seems the only people that ābig them upā is the company selling them.
I do run the ceramic speed jockey wheels and they do spin better than Shimano, but the real reason for buying them was because they were red.
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They arenātā¦ceramic bearings are almost worthless in a bike application.
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To me the primary benefit is aerodynamic and lighter for the same shape in aluminum especially as you go deeper.
IMO, ride quality on my 50mm rims is worse than my old 23mm deep aluminum rims.
Definitely not. Honestly if one is a slower rider and isnāt competing or trying to save 15 watts so they can hang on a group ride then carbon rims have little relative value.
I personally donā t understand people buying expensive carbon gravel rims only to put wide knobby tires on them and defeat all the aerodynamics.
Iām not really into the mountain bike scene but I think there is a case for a really strong carbon rim that can be abused and that wonāt dent or break. Donāt quote me on that though.
If you use the right, softer pads youāll have almost zero wear on your brake tracks unless you ride in the wet. I highly recommend Campagnolo red pads. They were a game changer for me.
I would assume this is more due to how the different wheels were built - spoke geometry, spoke tension.
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Yep same - in my experience carbon tracks wear far slower than aluminium - but that could either just be down to my particular wheels (campy bora wto60) or the fact I donāt like riding my nice bike in the rain 
The main advantage of carbon wheels is you can make deep aero wheels (like 50mm+) much lighter. An alloy wheel at that depth would be a boat anchor. The weight advantages at shallower depths can still be there, but arenāt as dramatic, and I personally donāt see much point in shallow carbon wheels in most cases (for example something like a Zipp 202 isnāt aero or light).
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I still train on alloy rims, but Iām a retro grouch or sorts, still using rim brakes.
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Thanks for all the replies. Good to read everyoneās opinions.
Watts per dollar or your opinion doesnāt matter!
