Recently our ever-cryptic, ever bitter French correspondent triggered a
long thread
<http://tinyurl.com/89vxn>
by "mentioning" a massive wheel test published in the most recent Le
Cycle. I finally got around to examining it at the newsstand, and for
the curious who didn't want to or couldn't download the 18meg scan that
someone else eventually posted, I summarize the results here- an easy
task since there is hardly anything in the test worth mentioning.
They examined 100 pre-built wheelsets. No traditional (32-36h, standard
spokes hubs and rims) ones were tested. The following tests were done:
-weighed each wheel
-hung 10kg weight from side, measured deflection. Almost all front
wheels deflected about 1-2mm, almost all rear wheels deflected about
2-3mm.
That's it. No tests for durability or wear resistance, in any form
(contrary to our correspondent's explicit claim in his second post to
that thread); no tests for strength; no tests of multiple samples to
check for consistency; no tests of spoke tension uniformity; no tests
for strength; no tests for aero. In short, nothing of any interest,
unless you want to compare manufacturer's claimed weights with those as
found by a second party.
So, that's what all the fuss was about.
Oh, and by the way: yes, pretty well all the photos taken by Le Cycle
(throughout the magazine) had the riders on the drops, standing out of
the saddle. I would have put it down to a Le Cycle oddity, except
looking again at the newsstand, at the CycloSport next to it... I saw
exactly the same thing. .