Epic-o wrote:de zwarten wrote:If you can choose between a Trek with SRAM and some Bontrager wheels, or a Colnago with Record and Boras, the choice is obvious.
Yep, the amount of watts that you save with the 1st setup is a good reason
But then again, what is the relevance of watts when the combo Colnago/Campa/Hyperon is still good enough to win on Alpe d'Huez in 2011?
Maybe as much as relevant as the list of winners on Alpe d'huez, as almost all names below 40 minutes have been involved in doping?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpe_d'Hue ... ez_ascentsThe take home message: doping and training and thus the rider will deliver the watts. The amount you actually transfer to making the bike go forward is, since decades, just not important enough for competition. (not even sure why the Trek would save watts, you tell me!)
I would want to add that Lightweights are there for more than a decade (approx. 15 years), and they still seem to be the very same wheels (though a bit better finished) than the first version. For sure they are more mainstream than in the early days, but I would still consider them 'boutique' and thus not 'industry leader'. Industry leader, for me, is something that is made for the big masses (thus no boutique stuff), but excells in quality, durability and innovation. I would include any high-end Campa system wheel, most of the non-electronic Dura-ace line, SRAM double tap shifters, C40 frames, King headsets. Call me old-fashioned, but it works well enough.
You do not (at least in my book) become an industry leader introducing over-stickered dimples, non-rebuildable oxydizing shifter levers, industrial bearings, aluminum shimano-type cassette bodies, so-called aero frames in 3 sizes, oversized seat posts, to the people believing in planned obsolescence.