Easton EC90 Aero Carbon Tubular Wheelset Review

Grant approves of the new wheels

After 4 years of cycling, I finally took the plunge and purchased a set of carbon tubular wheels. I’m definitley a “gear junkie” so I’m actually suprised that I was able to wait this long to join the carbon tubular ranks. However, the new wheels will be put to the test as I race the Gary Glickman Memorial Crit in Richardson, TX on Saturday and the ThinkCash Texas State Criterium Championship on Monday in Fort Worth.

Here’s the skinny on the wheels:

Material – Carbon

Type – Tubular (that means the tire and tube are one piece and are actually glued to the wheel)

Rim Depth – 56mm

Weight – 1,335 grams!

That’s right, besides being aero, these wheels weigh less than 3 pounds. The first thing I noticed when I put these wheels on my bike was the smoothness of the hubs. They have ceramic bearings and when I spin a wheel in the stand, it literally spins for minutes before friction finally brings it to a stop.

The wheels ride smooth and spin up fast. I haven’t used them on any significant climbs yet (is there such a thing in North Texas?), but I can say that I notice a difference when I get out of the saddle and accelerate.

I hope to never crash these wheels, but if I do, apparently they are pretty solid. The picture above is George Hincapie’s front wheel (with a special US Champ paint job) after a crash in the Tour of California. Even with this hole in the rim, Hincapie was able to finish the race on the wheel and when the mechanic put the wheel in the stand, it was still true!

I’ll give an update on the wheels once I put a few more miles on them.

Race Report – Horse Country Time Trials

Last weekend I rode in the Horse Country Time Trials in Aubrey, TX.  This is a 20K TT series that runs 3 or 4 times a year. This was my first time on this course and only my 3rd time trial ever (the other two being the 39.5K TT in Mineral Wells last summer and the 6 hour Texas Time Trials in Sept.).

I rode my Kuota K-Factor with Flashpoint FP60 wheels. My rear Flashpoint has a PowerTap hub, so I ordered a disc cover from Wheelbuilder.com to make it a disc wheel. This was also my first time racing in a skinsuit, which definitely makes you feel more aero. I wore my LG TT helmet, shoe covers and I glued my number own, so no excuses for not being aero.

Got to the race in plenty of time, visited with my teammates, set-up the rollers to warm-up and counted down the minutes to my start.

The winds were pretty rough (20 mph) so I knew the way out would be fast, but the return trip would be brutal. I was right – averaged 30.3 mph and  270 watts at the turnaround, but finished in 29:30 (good for 5th) at 25.2 mph and 280 watts for the 20K. So I did a pretty good job of pacing myself and putting in a negative split from a power output perspective. My normalized power was 311 watts, which shows how deceptively hilly the course was.

Next up is the Mineral Wells TT in June and then the state championships in August.