Previous thread on my CAAD10 - CAAD10 - time for an upgrade?
I’d like a new set of wheels. I like the idea of running wider road tires on aero wheels. The tires need to properly fit the shape of the rims - no bulb shapes! One thing that kills me a bit - while I’ve read plenty about how wider tires and aero wheels are superior, I haven’t ridden them. Maybe I’m having marketing induced hallucinations.
I guess I’ve started to think seriously about this since I crashed a couple of months ago. Just a lot of road rash but its taking me some time to get my confidence back. I hit some fresh chip seal and have been skittish around even small amounts of gravel ever since. I’m getting more comfortable but its slow. Anyway, I can’t help but think that wider tires would be preferable on the paved country roads where I do most of my riding.
In all seriousness, I can justify a new set of wheels. I have some old wheels on my steel commuter that I dislike - they’re fine, just waaay too narrow. So I want to move my caad10 hed belgium plus wheels to the steel commuter and get aero carbon wheels for the caad10.
Should I be worried about rim wear with carbon clinchers? When I was doing more bike commuting (in nyc no less) I once wore through a rim in 18 months. Since living in Wisconsin, rim wear seems to be significantly reduced, I suspect due to less road grit, less riding in the rain, and less brake usage in general.
I like the idea of wheels made for 30/28cc. Easy to find for disc brakes but I have clinchers!
Yeah, rim brakes are on their way out. If I were you, I’d look on the used market.
Also, rim brakes usually only work with tires up to 28 mm. Moreover, rim brake wheels are more old school since most of them are based on older designs and are optimized for narrower tires.
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While your CAAD 10 might have limited clearance you can definitely find some aero wheels that will support 25-28mm tires. I run a slightly older set of Zipp 404 firecrests on my 2012 CAAD 10 with Specialized Turbo Pro 26s. I probably would not run larger tires due to lightbulbing. I believe the later CAAD 10s had slightly better clearance so maybe you could run wheels with a larger width that would also allow larger tires.
I disagree with OreaCookie considering the Dogma F is still sold in rim brake and Tadej only stopped using rim brake this season and probably only at the demand of his sponsors (we see how well that worked out when he locked up in that turn and lost it in the gravel).
Anyways I agree with most of the commenters on your other thread that the CAAD10 is a fantastic bike. I recently added black inc carbon integrated handlebars and seat post and it really modernized the look and shaved a few grams.
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Definitely measure the clearance. Some older frames will struggle with a tubeless 28. I know my old Pinarello FP3 did. If you go tubeless, over time it will even bulge further. One quick way to damage a frame is by a tire wearing through the carbon weave.
Otherwise, wider tires, especially tubeless will have more traction, allow lower air pressures, and be more comfortable for the same speed, particularly on chipseal or other rough pavement.
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This…. I have a caad10 and 28’s on 19-21mm wide inners will slightly rub under power in the rear.
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Good point. My HED belgium plus wheels have an inner width of 21mm. I can test tires on my existing wheel.
What tire are you running? Not all 28s are the same size.
Not the same bike, but similar era
I have a 2011 Cervelo R3 team - Reynolds AR58 as my daily wheels
I can run a 25 GP5000 in the front, and a 23 in the rear, if I run a 25 in the rear it rubs on the seat stays. The wheels says its 28 MM wide, but that is not at the brake track, the brake track is more 25MM ish, if I run the rear brakes too narrow/close to the rim, it will just rub a bit (just annoying enough) on the brake pads under hard efforts or climbing. Worn/shaved or trimmed brake pads are perfect for the rear.
I also desire the larger more comfy tires and feel I will need to modernize my bike if I really want to make those changes.
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Gp5k or Pro 1’s only. Resorted to 25mm max width for that bike.
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Thank you, very helpful! Do you know what the 25mm measure? I’d assume 27mm or so.
@MikeMckinney I was just browsing the Reynolds site. Its great to see they have wider aero rims but its taking me a moment to tell the difference between any of them.
I ran specialized turbo 28mm tires on a CAAD 10 years. They barely fit but they did. You will have to deflate the rear tire to remove the wheel. The tire had about 2mm clearance under the old dura ace brakes but it was never a problem. You’ll have 5mm clearance between the chainstays at most.
The wheels were old reynolds DV66. Narrow rim width.
Not sure if this helps
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I had an early caad10 and a late model caad10. Exactly the same.
This is a good point so I just broke out the micrometer and specialized turbo 28s with 3000 miles on them and silca latex tubes at 80 psi measure
Reynolds DV66: 29.2mm
Firecrest 404: 30.1mm
I think you misunderstood my intention for mentioning that: we are past the peak of the transition to disc brakes. Most new bikes are disc brake bikes. Can you find rim brake bikes? Yes, there are a few. But it is a shrinking minority.
My point is that this is the right time to buy rim brake gear on the used market as people who buy new bikes will have to get rid of things like their old wheelsets. Upgrading a CAAD10 (or a CAAD12, which is also a great frameset) makes sense, if the rest of your bike is in good nick.
Another wildcard - a while back I picked up a CAAD12 disc fork so I could go disc on the front. I had just worn through a couple of rims pretty quickly but my rim wear rate seems to have gone down considerably.
Looks like it would cost me about $400 to get a di2 hydro shifter and brake. I could go 28 in the front, but the main benefit would be better stopping and less rim wear. At this very moment I think the biggest reason not to do that direction is spending the extra $400. Oh, what about a cable actuated disc brake? Thoughts?
I picked up a set of tubeless rim brake ENVE SES 3.4’s. They came with GP 5000 TL 28mm’s which fit in the back but not the front. I installed a GP 5000 TR 25mm in the front - its has plenty of room to spare and measures its stated size. I’m curious if a GP 5000 TR 28mm would work in the front but I’ll be some time before I wear through my current set of tires.
They cost me $1700 used which I didn’t think was too bad considering they came with tires, pads, rim tape, and skewers and basically look brand new. I’ve very happy with them although its going to be a while before I’m riding fast outdoors to really take advantage of them. The brakes work quite well and I like the sound they make.
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