Worst Wheelset Ever

smokey26_02 said:

This may sound weird but I am trying to build the worst wheelset ever. What do I mean by worst ever, I want to build the slowest wheelset!

Why? Not only because am crazy, but because I want to use it for training.

I want to build a wheelset that is going to take a lot of extra power to maintain and accelerate to speed compared to other wheelsets.

Can anyone please tell me which are the worst spokes, aerodynamically, as well as other tips to making the slowest wheelset possible?

Go Heavy, most spokes, heaviest guage and widest tire with the lowest pressure you can stand. Rolling resisitance will be increased greatly if you put a cyclocross knobby (mud) tires on them too (not slicks) -- it will require much more effort to overcome all this than anything you can do with spoke shape and hubs and rims.

Don't screw with your wheels, instead:

deflate your tires
shift to your largest gear combo
sit upright
lower your seat
ride uphill into the wind
degrease your entire drivetrain
attach bricks to your frame
drag a parachute behind you
drink a 12-pack the night before

That should provide some resistance.

Scotty_Dog said:

Don't screw with your wheels, instead:
lower your seat
ride uphill into the wind
degrease your entire drivetrain
attach bricks to your frame
drag a parachute behind you
drink a 12-pack the night before

That should provide some resistance.

I don't think he said he wanted to kill his knees... :eek:

I do like the 12-pack idea though.

Go to a garage sale, buy a department store bike, and salvage the no-name hubs. Rebuild the hubs reusing the old bearings and a very thick, almost wax-like grease. You can actually mix parafin wax into a thinner grease to thicken it. Adjust the cones a tad tighter than you normally would to increase the drag. After this, build up the wheels using old steel rims. Use a standard cross three pattern to get a strong wheel cause you're gonna need it. It may be a bit difficult to get the bike going, and once you've got it going, it will take a lot of energy to keep it going. Using knobby tires or partially deflating them are options. I don't know how safe it would be to try to ride partially deflated tires.

What ever route you go, be sure to check that everything is still holding together so that you don't end up getting injured by an equipment failure.

I nominate this one of the more original threads. Try silly putty instead of grease in the bearings, cheaper than building a wheel😄.

Thanks to everyone that has replied so far. A couple of things, I live in Miami, we have no hills just flats!

My bike is the Cervelo Carbon Soloist so it wont allow anything bigger than a 25c tire on it.

I suck at greasing my chain so am already using more energy than necessary. Basically I cant use knooby tires so I would need to use some cheap 25c tires. As for spokes I was thinking 32-36 spokes on both wheels with probably some strong but heavy dt swiss spokes. Probably competition spokes.

As for rim I was going to use somethign heavy, but I hadnt had thought of using steel rims. I am only 23 and when I started cycling we didnt use steel rims!!! 🙂

As for hubs I would buy something decent to make sure it doesnt brake, I dont want to have to maintance the hub every weekend cause I am plannign on putting roughly 300+ miles a week on the wheelset.

As for the gentleman with the beer and biggest cog and attaching bricks to my frame.... I dont drink, I live in the flat land so I dont have a problem pushing a 54x11, but no I wont put bricks on my Cervelo Carbon Soloist!

You could always either make or buy a weight vest to use for training. Adding 10, 15, or even 20 Lbs to your load will do the same as riding a bad a wheelset, and will be easier to change over too. But tweaking your adjustments and using a heavy grease will do the trick. I think Rigida still makes steel rims for department store bikes. When I first started riding, all you could get were steel rim bikes.

smokey26_02 said:

I dont have a problem pushing a 54x11

Really?

If you have no problem consistently pushing a 54x11, that means you're traveling 34.5MPH @ 90RPM, 38.4MPH @ 100RPM. Why are you asking us mere mortals for advice?

umm...

buy a mountain bike, and try to keep up with the peloton 🙂 there, what more do you want from us??? 🙂

smokey26_02 said:

This may sound weird but I am trying to build the worst wheelset ever. What do I mean by worst ever, I want to build the slowest wheelset!

Why? Not only because am crazy, but because I want to use it for training.

I want to build a wheelset that is going to take a lot of extra power to maintain and accelerate to speed compared to other wheelsets.

Can anyone please tell me which are the worst spokes, aerodynamically, as well as other tips to making the slowest wheelset possible?

You could get a bottle generator and run it.
How about adding a Bob trailer during training runs?

smokey26_02 said:

Thanks to everyone that has replied so far. A couple of things, I live in Miami, we have no hills just flats!

My bike is the Cervelo Carbon Soloist so it wont allow anything bigger than a 25c tire on it.

I suck at greasing my chain so am already using more energy than necessary. Basically I cant use knooby tires so I would need to use some cheap 25c tires. As for spokes I was thinking 32-36 spokes on both wheels with probably some strong but heavy dt swiss spokes. Probably competition spokes.

As for rim I was going to use somethign heavy, but I hadnt had thought of using steel rims. I am only 23 and when I started cycling we didnt use steel rims!!! 🙂

As for hubs I would buy something decent to make sure it doesnt brake, I dont want to have to maintance the hub every weekend cause I am plannign on putting roughly 300+ miles a week on the wheelset.

As for the gentleman with the beer and biggest cog and attaching bricks to my frame.... I dont drink, I live in the flat land so I dont have a problem pushing a 54x11, but no I wont put bricks on my Cervelo Carbon Soloist!

why are you doing this? training is one thing but you have a cervelo? just ride it and ride it hard, dont build a slow wheelset, are you serious or just dicking us around.

Get a dynamo generator. You don't have to hook it up to anything, but it will provide a hell a hell of a lot of resistance.

I have two Cervelo Soloist (AL & CF) and I only ride them with my fastest wheels for the inspiration of speed. If you want slower for a training ride maybe you should get an entire entry level bike like a Trek 1000. Otherwise, maybe the Mavic Askium or any 32 spoke wheel would be slow.

mongooseboy said:

umm...

buy a mountain bike, and try to keep up with the peloton 🙂 there, what more do you want from us??? 🙂

Actually, that's good advice - a mountain bike. When I rode my Kona on the road last year, it was like trying to cycle the car along. Can't think of anything that would make it much harder work. Of course it nearly put me off the idea of cycling at all ...

mongooseboy said:

umm...

buy a mountain bike, and try to keep up with the peloton 🙂 there, what more do you want from us??? 🙂

Preferably a 25kg downhill rig converted to singlespeed.

ozelise said:

Preferably a 25kg downhill rig converted to singlespeed.

i was thinking just an old cro-mo rigid bike converted to single speed, try a road crank with a 54 tooth front and an 11 tooth rear, and use the widest mountain tires available, with old steel rims. also, a big riser bar so your not at all aero, and maybe use some silly putty in the wheel bearings. and while your at it... just flat pedals.

hows that? 🙂 yea, its 90 out and im bored... not going biking today, way too hott for me (id dump way too much sweat) tomorrow my gf and I are going to go for a ride 🙂 only gonna be 77 😄

I ride my mountain bike with my partner (who's on a road bike) and sometimes I forgotten to increase tyre pressure, so head off with about 30psi in them.
Man, it is tough work just keeping momentum - you work the whole time and because I don't want to be left behind, I keep pushing. Lung busting sometimes but when I put the pressures up, even just to 50psi, it feels too easy.

Scotty_Dog said:

Don't screw with your wheels, instead:

deflate your tires
shift to your largest gear combo
sit upright
lower your seat
ride uphill into the wind
degrease your entire drivetrain
attach bricks to your frame
drag a parachute behind you
drink a 12-pack the night before

That should provide some resistance.

You can press both brakes (front and rear) while riding. That will provide resistance man !!! 😄

smokey26_02 said:

Thanks to everyone......!

Heavy wheels may hold their speed better. The World Hour Record holder used a 3kg rear wheel to help maintain momentum

Sorry, but the idea sounds a bit silly. 🙂 Why don't you just ride with brakes rubbing; that will get the result you're after.....you said you want to make riding harder, right?

Just buy some used, old wheels with crapped out hubs, and put cheap, [censored] tyres on them with low tpi and thick tread -- perhaps even 'cross' tyres. Doing this will be enough to appreciate your good wheels

Or, as the other guy suggested, do your hardest training into the wind;