I am familiar with the ADA wheels used by Jalabert, Hamilton, and others in the climb stages of this year's tour. I was the US distributor for these wheels for a while - they retail for $4000 apiece and a front / rear set weighs about 1200 grams including quick releases. Very impressive design and execution in exotic materials, including carbon filament spokes, titanium cassette carrier, etc. However, the RIDE leaves a lot to be desired. There is absolutely no resilience to these wheels - they are very harsh.
I cannot imagine what it would be like to go down hill at 60mph on a set of these wheels. Also, Tyler Hamilton's crash in the Giro was attributed to a failure of an ADA wheel, apparently the ring gear (ratchet mechanism) broke away from the drive side flange and the wheel "exploded". Tyler broke his collarbone and that put him out of the race.
Unless I was going for a worlds record (yeah right) give me a set of 32h Campy hubs laced 3X to a set of Superchamp or Mavic tubular rims in the 350g range anytime.
================================================ Mark Petry 206 618 9642 mailto:mpetry@bainbridgeisland.net Beautiful Bainbridge Island ================================================ "Be quick, be quiet, be right. Especially right" - Kelly Johnson ================================================
From: Wdgadd@aol.com Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 20:09:05 EDT Subject: Re: [CR] To ride or not - some facts To: GPVB1@cs.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In a message dated 9/9/02 5:33:27 PM, GPVB1@cs.com writes:
<< Many wheels today are heavier than many of the wheels of 1982. >>
I've been wondering about this for some time. Has anyone weighed just the rim from a modern "ultralight, climing specialist" prebuilt wheel, such as Mavic Helium? Are they much below 400 gm.? As light as a Fiamme Ergal, Mavic GEL 280, etc.? (I'm REALLY asking; I don't know.) If they are this light, and can deal with the tension of an 8-10 speed dished rear wheel, with reduced spoking, technology has indeed progressed. If, however, since total wheel weight is all that is ever specified, the rim is 400gm or so (as I suspect it might need to be), and all the weight reduction is in the hub and the deleted spokes, it seems to me that there has been a sacrifice of low rotational inertia in favor of more cogs. Remember "an ounce on the wheel is worth two on the frame"? Granted, all this makes not much difference, but are more gears an easier sell?
Best regards, Wes Gadd Unionville,CT From: Wdgadd@aol.com Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 20:09:05 EDT Subject: Re: [CR] To ride or not - some facts To: GPVB1@cs.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org