tri wheel questions - race v. training wheels

if no one beats me too it, i think the reason for race wheels is because people get aero wheels for racing. Since aero wheels are expensive (easily $1000 for a pair), it is not worth the risk of training on them. Aero wheels are lighter, and more aerodynamic, so they are faster.

I don't have any race wheels, yet.  I may get some, but it's hard for me to spend that much on a set of wheels! 

There are a lot of reasons:

Say you are going to pay $2000 for a new pair of 2009 zipp 404 wheels weighing in at a whopping 1250 grams.  The carbon rims are going to require special brake pads, if the brake surfaces are dirty (riding in the rain and sand) the rims can wear down quickly.  Part of being light and aero means having less spokes, so they are obviously not as strong and robust as a regular heavy 32 spoke wheelset (that probably weights over 1800 grams).   You also will probably go with tubular wheels, so now you have the fun of gluing the wheels on the rims and carrying around an entire spare wheel instead of just a spare tube.  Though you can get some flat repair kits that will fill the tire with a foam that stops the leak.

 So when you are training now, a few thousands of km per year, you want a bomb-proof, clincher wheel that you can ride in the rain, snow, bad road conditions.   A wheel that if you happen to break a spoke or two, the worst that happens is that the wheel goes out of true a bit, so you can loosen your brakes and still ride home.  On a lightweight aero wheel you would be walking.

Very few factory wheelsets on OEM bikes are 32 spoke anymore.  Most are 18 - 24.  So the "less spokes is weaker" argument goes out the door, especially with deeper section rims.  The surface area and shape of the aero rim is actually stronger than a typical box rim.  And even if you are running tubulars if you compare a traditional road rim to an aero rim, the aero one is typically heavier.

But the general principle of not wanting to ride around on a $2500 set of wheels and risk a failure usually outweighs the aero advantage and cool factor (unless you have a lot of disposable income).

Interesting thing is, since I run tubies for my race wheels and clinchers for my training wheels, I drop close to a pound on the bike by swapping them out!

Even on my uber-light road bike, it was almost .2 pounds swapping out the clinchers for the 999's.  Who'd of thunk that putting on a disc wheel on my road bike would make it LIGHTER!

Guess I should use them when I weigh in the bike ..... it would make it under 14 lbs.

A lot of people are using the Zipp 404's for race and training, evidently they are pretty duarbale.  If you are going to train with a power tap, it is a nice option so that you can train and race with power without having to buy two PT hubs.  This cycling stuff gets pretty darn expensive when you start pricing out the options.  I don't think I would go for that option if I have tubulars for the reasons mentioned in the prior post.

I suppose that makes the point, sort of.  But in both cases, it sounds like the permanent damage could have been avoided.

I concur with the sentiment.

I have cheap, heavy duty training wheels that are easy to fix/replace. I have had nails go through the rim on rides before, and fixing spokes are cheap ($1) and easy.

My racing wheels are tubular and a flat will run me $70. I was riding a spinergy years ago on a prerace prep ride and dropped my chain. It shot up and tore the carbon spoke. bye bye wheel.