i'd stick with the nanobots

next question?

What's up with the replacement Garmin heart rate monitor strap situation these days you ask?

I had switched to the Polar strap after my initial strap disintegrated. The Polar was ok. It lasted about a year. This new/updated Garmin seems to be way better than either of them.

That's all.

#theOtherKindofMalfunction

You are right there...the ball is on the Tee !!!  Just get yourself a Stealth 50.  Your dreams of pseudo power are so close !!!!

I have a set of Reynolds Assault clinchers and can recommend them.  It was between those and the Easton EC 90SL.  I also looked at the Mavic Cosmic Carbones which are great looking wheels, and have an aluminum brake track for a little better stopping power, especially in the rain, but they're heavier than the other two and tended to be more expensive.

I like the Reynolds.  I bought a previous year's set so they were on discount.  They've been through a couple of crashes, I had to replace a few spokes when someone's handlebar went through my rear wheel but held up much better than I thought they should have.  They stay relatively true.  When I got the spokes replaced, it took a while because the store had to order them and I don't know of stores that will carry them on hand, so keep this in mind if they need to be fixed.  And you can buy their extended crash warranty, if you want, where they'll fix or replace the wheels.

I just checked Nashbar and they have a good sale on the Easton's right now.  I'm all for buying 

sponsor's equipment, but it's worth comparing the prices.

For example:  I had a set of last generation Zipp 404 tubulars (pre Firecrest), which, by all hype measures, should have been great.  And, in a flat TT with no breeze, they were.  But in a real race?  Or normal spring or fall weather conditions?  Or, worst of all, any kind of fast decent with any kind of wind at all?  Well, add any of that (also known as "normal riding conditions"), and they were completely terrifying.  I mean really scary.  The thing about carbon wheels (that no manufacturer wants to discuss) is that the braking surface is, to some degree, bound to be slightly uneven (as a result of either manufacturing or when the wheel comes ever so slightly out of true), and not particularly well suited to interaction with a brake pad.  This means that braking will be sluggish (at least as compared to what you are used to), and probably a little grabby.  The build up of the spent pad (which needs to be softer for the carbon)  on patches of the rim just makes the stuttering worse.  Not a big deal for any sub-20 mph braking, but it gets pretty damn unacceptable when the brakes are stuttering heading into a curve at 30 mph or higher, or on a wet road.  It's kind of like a resonance shimmy, but coming directly from your front and/or rear wheel.  Completely horrible.  To make matters worse, carbon doesn't deal well with heat build up, so the "feel" of the brake (and severity of the stutter) changes dramatically under hard or nuanced braking.  This just really shouldn't be what you're focused on at high speed.

And sidewind stability.  Remember that high speed decent?  Start there, then add all the braking issues described above, then pretend that someone is jacking your handlebars sideways.  At random!  Sometimes hard, sometimes soft, sometimes REAL hard for several seconds, then (like the old playground trick) it lets up real quick.  

The big wheel names have done their best to address these problems, and some of the new rim profiles are much more stable than my last gen Zipps.  I have a set of HED Jet 5s now (with ALUMINUM braking tracks, thank you) with one of the more modern rim profiles (rounded and wide), and I can verify that they are much, much more stable in cross winds.  And from the sound of things, many of the big companies have been able to produce better and more consistent carbon braking surfaces.  I'll probably test some of these new offerings at some point.

But the big take away is this: for the types of riding and racing we do, the focus should be on real world stuff like braking and stability THEN aero performance and weight.  Because do you really want to drop $1000 (or more) on wheels that you're constantly fighting?  And which exhibit their worst qualities when your life is at risk?

So, back to Reynolds.  I don't know what a "lip swirl generator" is, and I don't really care, if it means that they can't handle a breeze.  Anyone have any insight as to braking and sidewind performance on those things?