Is The 45 mm/46 mm Depth 700C Carbon Wheels Your Best Choice?
Choosing the perfect wheel depth as an upgrade is something that every passionate rider has pondered. If you want to update your aluminum wheels into carbon ones, especially a transition from shallow to deeper 45 mm or 46 mm, it's crucial to understand the differences. While a 45-millimeter rim boosts the performance of your road bike, a 46-millimeter carbon wheel could be an ideal choice for gravel riders. However, when it comes to picking the correct rim depth for your road bike, an avid rider should consider the aero advantage and operability of the wheel. This is mainly due to the sudden transition they are venturing into. But before that let’s see how different rim depths influence the performance of your bike.
How To Measure the Rim Depth?
When we talk about the rim and its depth, it certainly points out the area from the edge of the tire down to the part where the spoke meets the rim. Many different applications of wheels are there and there is the ideal depth of wheels you can opt for your road bike. If you have a 700c carbon bike, people usually tend to go for 25mm to a maximum of 40mm thickness while you could also try out 45mm section carbon rims such as ICAN’s AERO 45, AERO 45 Disc, Alpha 45, etc.
In ICAN's online store we can find carbon wheels with different rim depths.
Customers maybe ask what is the difference between 45mm and 46mm depth carbon wheels.
In terms of rim depth, there is almost no difference between them, but if you look closely at the structure of the two wheel sets, the difference between them is obvious. The usage scenarios of the two wheel sets are also different. We will describe their differences in this article. .
- Differences in rim geometry
The internal structure of 45mm and 46mm carbon wheels is different.The rim of the 45mm carbon wheels is symmetrical and designed for aerodynamics.
The rim construction of the 46mm carbon wheels is asymmetric and designed for comfort.
46mm depth carbon wheels
- Different usage scenarios
Because the rim width between the two pairs of wheels is different, which means that they can support different size tire. We all know that the wider the rim width, the less air pressure you need, and the more comfortable you can feel. The wider the rim width, the better the aerodynamic performance.
45mm depth carbon wheels have a rim inner width of 18mm and 46mm depth carbon wheels have a rim inner width of 21mm. A bias towards road cycling. one better suited for riding on gravel roads.
Are 45mm and 46 mm wheels Deep Enough?
Rim depth largely depends in terms of what you can tolerate with the handling of the bike. For heavy riders, a 45 mm depth might not be ideal but for some other 45 mm could be an ideal one due to its unique crosswind ability. People also prefer different wheel depths for front and rear as the front one counts for more than the rear wheels in lots of aerodynamic situations. However, handling plays a crucial factor and it varies from person to person to choose whether 45mm rim depth could be ideal for them.
Wheels with more than 45 mm pr 46 mm rim depth could be faster but for your 700C carbon wheels, this might not be a good choice for your handling but for braking and comfort a deeper section wheel will cut through.
Being a shallower wheel than 50 mm, a 45 mm tubeless wheel can absorb more turbulence efficiently making it easier for you to ride through off roads. But in the case of aerodynamic ability, you may find your 45 mm wheel lags a bit behind its deeper-rimmed siblings. But it’s also a valid argument that if you go up 50mm, your only consideration is all-out speed out of that wheel while you may feel the heat of the off-roading, thanks to stiffer spokes.
Crosswind Stability and Aerodynamic
Although we have deeper versions of rims than 45 mm in the version, a 45 or 46 mm rim is decent enough to provide you with the right aerodynamics and crosswind stability.
But again, it largely depends on the rider’s weight, handling, and experience in challenging situations. For example, if the rider isn’t bulky enough to put his weight on the bike that keeps it grounded, the strong gust of crosswind may disbalance the bike.
But there’s no way to assume that a 45mm rim depth is too flaky to handle crosswinds. As mentioned before a 45 mm is considered a decent depth for aerodynamics and is engineered for crosswinds as well. You’ll easily feel the difference when you upgrade your shallow rims to 45mm.
Torsional Strength
When you want to upgrade your bike to 700c carbon wheels, you might want to go for a deeper profile. For entry-level, you don’t want to increase the depth to 50 mm or above, instead, you can start with 45 or 46 mm ones. When you get a deeper profile the torsional strength of the wheel gets increased as well. This is because the spokes become shorter and therefore they are not susceptible to twisting easily when heavy torque is being applied.
Why 45mm Depth 700C Carbon Wheels are Good for Road Bike?
The good old 700C wheel is considered as the standard size aside from the newly manufactured smaller 650B that has its own advantages for road bikes. Coupled with a 45mm rim, a 700c wheel should produce decent performance when it comes to rolling resistance.
Of course, a bigger 700c wheel can cover greater distances with minimal effort due to its size and rotational speed. A 650B has to rotate faster in order to match a 700c wheel and unlike gravel bikes, speed and distance matter in road cycling.
700c 45mm depth carbon wheels have 4 models: disc wheels: AERO 45 DISC, Rim disc wheel: Aero 45, Alpha 45.
Why ICAN’s 46mm Depth Is Good For A Gravel Bike?
The 700c is the standard size for gravel racing. Due to the large diameter and clearance off the road, a 700c wheel with a deep 46mm performs better when it comes to overcoming obstacles. Because gravel racing is all about offroading and having big wheels in your bike always means you’re gonna do well in eliminating those hurdles that show up. You can throw ICAN’s 46-millimeter wheels in most gravel bikes and do off-roading without any worries. The AERO 46 Disc and Alpha 46 Disc are the popular two sizes that top the list when it comes to the 46 mm gravel series.
Having said all this, upgrading your bike wheel shouldn’t only be fancy stuff as it involves a handsome amount of money. Choosing the right wheel size depends on the type of bike you have, your purpose, and most importantly your skills and handling. 45mm or 46mm wheels are good enough in terms of aerodynamic performance, ground clearance as well as crosswinds stability. But if you’re already a pro, and want to try deeper options for speed and acceleration, try out ICAN’s other AERO series.
