Exotic Road Bike Shootout!!!

Firstly, would you look at that, it's another Outside column!

I certainly put the "pro" in prolific.

Secondly, on Monday I talked about the wood bike and since then I've performed some scientific experimentation.  Specifically, I took the fancy crabon wheels off of it and put them on my Ritte:

Which in turn made the Renovo the recipient of a pair of cheap pre-built Shimanos:

The idea here was two-fold:

1) See how much the Renovo owed its ride quality to the crabon;
2) Determine if said crabon is the source of the creaking I've been experiencing, since it had all the hallmarks of a rear hub issue scenario.

Let's address the simpler issue first: did swapping wheels eliminate the creak?  No, it did not.  The wooden bike still creaks.  So clearly something else is going on, and you can rest assured I'll be conducting a thorough investigation.

Putting that aside for the time being, let's go back to the wheels.  Here's what came on the Renovo:

And here's what I swapped them with:

As for how this Shimano technology trickled down to me, they're the wheels that came on my Milwaukee, and they generally sell for about $200.  Since then they've bounced around between my bendy-bar bikes, and they've been perfectly serviceable.

Of course I also had to swap the cassettes, since the wooden bike is 11-speed and the Ritte is 10-speed.  And yes, I remembered to swap the brake pads, since naturally you've got to use special pads with the crabon, which is the second-most annoying thing crabon wheel enthusiasts like to point out, just after reminding you to toe in the brakes.

As for tires, the crabon wheels have (or "wear," as the bike reviewers like to say, barf) 23mm Continental Grand Prix 4000s, and the Shimanos have (or "are shod in," which is even worse than "wear") 25mm Continental Gatorskins.

If you're wondering #whatpressureyourunning, I'll never tell.

NEVER!!!

Anyway, after putting everything together I first headed out on the wooden bike.  As much as I tend to be skeptical about fancy equipment, I figured I'd notice the $1,500 wheel downgrade immediately.  Not so.  Indeed, the bike felt more or less the same (and that includes the creaking, unfortunately), though I thought I detected maybe a bit less shock absorption on rough pavement--and when I say rough pavement, I mean it:

There are some fucked-up streets around here.

Then again, I couldn't be sure the bike felt a tiny bit harsher with the metal wheels, and even if it did maybe the real difference was the tires.  (I'm assuming the Grand Prix 4000s have a higher TPI than the Gatorskins, but I'm too lazy to look them up.)  Regardless, when you find yourself thinking that way it means whatever tiny differences may or may not exist don't mean shit.

What I did notice right away though was how much better the braking was with the metal wheels.  This isn't to say braking with the crabon wheels is bad; not at all.  It's perfectly predictable.  At the same time though it's loud--scraping, with some occasional howling.  It sounds like cantis in a muddy cyclocross race, but all the time.  I'm sure some people like that because they associate it with the raw performance of crabon, but to me it's at odds with the air of ostensible refinement the wooden bike seems to want to convey.  (And YES I'M USING THE GODDAMN CRABON-SPECIFIC PADS AND EVERYTHING'S TOED IN.)

In any case, I'd gotten used to this when riding the wood bike, so the first time I grabbed a couple handfuls of brake on a steep descent my immediate reaction was "Wow!"  Smooth!  Quiet!  And while I'd never accuse the crabon wheels of being grabby, the metal ones are noticeably more stable, or progressive, or linear, or whatever term you're supposed to use as a bike reviewer.  (I'm just gonna stick with "more good.")  In fact, it was so much more good that if anything I'd consider them an upgrade--especially when paired with those Ultegra Di2 levers.  Because while I could take push-button shifting or leave it, the shape of the levers happens to be fantastic.

Of course, there's a ready-made Fred response to all of this:

I absolutely agree that disc brakes are a solution to the issues carbon presents as a braking surface, but I'll also point out that IF YOU USE METAL WHEELS YOU DON'T NEED THE FUCKING DISCS.  Also, I enjoy the weight savings of my integrated rim/700c brake rotor, thankyouverymuch.

So in short, the ride quality was pretty much the same with the cheap wheels, and the braking was noticeably better.

Next, this morning, I did the exact same ride, only on the Ritte with the crabon wheels.  But before I address that, a few words about the Ritte, which looked like this when I took delivery of it in August 2011:

And which looks like this now:

Which is just a tiny bit ironic given the description on their website:

Other than that though it's been great, and maybe mine just looks that way because it's a prototype.

Regardless, once again it was the same experience: bike felt mostly the same, wheels might have been smoother but I could easily have been imagining it, and the brakes were loud.  Somehow though the loud braking kind of fit better with the Ritte, probably because it's all rusted to hell.  In fact between the corroded frame and the flashy wheels the bike took on sort of a rat rod street racer aesthetic that, quite frankly, I was enjoying. Was I enjoying it so much that I'd spend almost $1,800 on those wheels?  Not a fucking chance.  Still, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it.

Oh, fun fact: according to Strava I climbed slightly faster on the wooden bike, so there you go.

So basically there are two lessons here: be wary of exotic frame materials, and don't bother with crabon wheels.

But you probably knew that already.