I built up a new bike last year, a Flandria Professional carbon frame with Dura Ace 9000. I love the bike, but I've been riding it with some Mavic Cosmic alloy wheels which I already had, which are fine, but it was always my intention to buy something lighter.
Looking around I have seen some good deals on carbon wheels from decent brands, coming up maybe 200g lighter than say the Dura Ace 9000 C24 and not much more expensive. I have never ridden carbon wheels and my main concern is braking. How much breaking performance do you lose?
I have another bike to ride through the winter, but that doesn't mean I won't be riding in the wet on a semi regular basis.
After weighing up all the pros and cons of braking surfaces on carbon wheels, I bought a set with alu braking surfaces. Slightly heavier, but part of that is that they are a deep section rim.
brakes will only slow you down in the long run!
How much difference in weight is the rim on the carbon ones compared to alloy ones? From my personal experience and research the rotational weight of the rim is the most important factor rather than the hub - youve probably already considered this but just to cover all bases I thought Id ask
The braking isn't pleasant on carbon rims in my experience. I'm not sure if it's worse overall, but the brakes do grab; it's much harder to feather them.
What a load of BS.
No problems with Bontrager cork pads. Been riding and racing on my Lightweights for years with no problem.
1 in 4 descents in the Lakes and Alpine passes come rain, shine and 36 degree heat.
I have a "Summer" bike equipped with carbon Enve Smart 3.4 Clinchers with Enve carbon specific break pads and a "Winter" bike equipped with alloy Fulcrum Quattro clinchers. I'd say the breaking performance of the Enve's is about 70% that of the Fulcrums in the wet and 90+% in the dry. You have to be a bit more on the ball with the Enve's and modulate your breaking a bit more as you would do on a mountain bike.
