Oh that sounds like a fast combo! Does the Conti Aero grip as well as the gp5000?
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According to Bicycle Rolling Resistance data, the Aero 111 has better grip than the GP5000. It has slightly worse rolling resistance, however.
Parcours aero testing showed the Aero 111 to have a massive drag advantage at high yaw angles vs. other race tires.
I haven’t had enough mileage yet, particularly on windy days, to make any observations on how stable this wheel/tire combo feels.
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I frequent that forum and it’s like less than 5% of the post about carbon wheels, probably closer to 1%. Look at the Farsports or Craft threads. It’s like 99% just people posting their experiences or asking questions. I honestly can’t remember reading a post from a Chinese wheel brand advertising their wheels.
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I actually got a great deal on Zipp wheels but returned them because they were terrible quality. The carbon started falling apart within a month of normal road riding. Ended up buying some Farsports Hypers and they’ve been amazing. 58mm deep and weigh 1300g, cost $800. So half the price, a good 300g lighter, and hooks.
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I don’t think this testing method is fine enough to suss out the difference between similar wheels sets. Even when you look at aero tests of wheels done in expensive wind tunnels, wheels of similar depth clump together especially under 10 degrees of yaw. We ride 90% of the time close to zero yaw. The only athletes that really need wheels that perform well at 15+ degrees of yaw are Kona riders. They get that side wind for a 100 miles.
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I’m was running a similar setup in one size narrower but tubeless in the rear also. With my new setup of 28c f/r GP 5000 S TR’s it is noticeably faster even with the drag penalty compared to the narrower Aero 111. The wheels I’m now using are 24 internal giving me greater volume so running lower pressure. Have lagged behind the wider tire train but it is tough to argue they are faster, better riding and handling.
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I’d guess for most mass start bike races 10%+ yaw angles are very very rare, and most of the time 0-6% would be the norm. I think grip and CRR are probably more important based on that graph, for me anyway. Might be worth a try anyway. Thanks for the info.
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Hey Steve - One of the really difficult pieces is figuring out what one likes and the progression as a cyclist. Starting as an upright casual rider, then moving further to performance, caring about aero, wanting stiffer, etc.
That said, i’ve had experience with 3 wheelsets because they came on the bikes I own. So taking a pretty random shot as what I think I like is one of the first steps. I this wheelset just feels incredibly harsh or squishy, i’ll know i’m not a fan of that style going forward. Only way to figure it out is to try.
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Great point. As I was typing my test out I started to think about how pointless it really was. There have been a few videos where Norcal Cycling attempts to do loops in his neighborhood testing different equipment and i cant help but think ‘this is all so pointless’
I think it’s interesting and some of the larger takeaways may hold up but its also extremely marginal in the real world. I think I’m general deeper will be faster and then the question between similar depth wheelsets are around stiffness, crosswinds and weight.
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Norcal videos are fun but their conclusions are suspect. They find a few seconds difference and call it a win but did they even find a difference greater than their margin of error.
They could go all out with the Chung method and maybe an cda sensor but that probably wouldn’t be the same quick fun video. And even those methods don’t isolate just a wheel/tire.
I seem to recall that Norcal did two tests. One was that basically $350 Superteam wheels were really close to $2000 wheels and if you are on a budget, don’t worry about the last watt. The other test was the wider tire test which was more interesting. They concluded that 32mm tires were faster than 28 or 34mm tires. They did use 35mm wide rims so I don’t know if wider is always better. Maybe the conclusion should be to use the widest tire that is still narrower than the rim. In any case their times were still a small number of seconds over their course.
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I remember both of those videos… though back to the point of the collection being trivial. End of the day, that channel is a business, and sponsorships are the primary revenue driver. He’s historically been very bad about mentioning when things are being sponsored. For example, he’ll mention that neither of the wheels being reviewed are sponsors, he’ll neglect to mention that the aero sensor he’s using for his data collection is actually the entire point of the video. Then you’ll find a tiny note in the description about ‘this video in partnership with aero sensor blah blah blah’
I get it - but have to be skeptical when watching/listening.
Whether they get free wheels for tests doesn’t bother me at all. To me, YT is entertainment and most of it is staged for fun.
What is more annoying to me is when the forum denizens trot this stuff out like it’s science to support whatever their own point of view is.
Saying that all 58mm wheels sets are all super similar under 95% of riding conditions and within 5 watts of each is super boring for wheel marketers, podcastes, and youtubers.
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You can surprisingly get incredible carbon wheelsets for $800 these days…25mm wide internal, 32-34mm wide external, 50mm depth, steel spokes, brass nipples, and a bitex or house hub that’s based on DT Swiss internals. It’ll likely last forever with a bit of easy maintenance. They’ll weigh only 1350 grams. Run tubeless 30 or 32mm road tires for more grip and lower tire pressure.
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After going through this thread, I just placed an order for a set of Nextie 45CGX. Now I’m hoping that they’ll be able to finish the build before their Chinese New Year break and that shipping and custom to the US won’t be too long.
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This essentially describes my recent purchase. A few differences in width and dollars but close enough.
@christophebp Looking forward to your review of the Nextie - are they intended for gravel?
They are intended for Gravel and possibly CX later in the year.
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Way to put them under stress right out of the gate. If one explodes at least you’re only out a couple hundred bucks.
Haven’t watched yet, but this may be of interest
Couple of things with that video…
Neither or those wheels are anywhere near the best…
The ‘best’ Chinese wheelsets (e.g. Farsports Evo S) are OEM manufacturers releasing under their own brand. Farsports are OEM for many major Western brands. They are made by the same people on the same machines. You are paying for the brand, and what comes with that… yes, some amount of aftersales support, but also margin and marketing.