Should You Ride Aero Front Wheel or Back Wheel?

There are many reasons why you should wonder should you ride an aero front or back wheel. There are huge aerodynamic gains to cutting through the wind for speed.

Not only that, you will also have a higher top speed when riding without wind. The only thing that will leave you wondering is trying to figure out if there is any advantage to riding with an aero front wheel and why it may make a difference for your cycling set up.

There are many folks that like to ride with disc wheels, and this post will relate to this (though in high wind situations, disc wheels are not recommended on either front or back.) If you are looking for highest speeds down hills, then aero setups are important.

In this post, you will learn about why aerodynamic wheels make a difference. You will also learn the difference between an aerodynamic wheel and a hill climbing wheel. You will learn why they are important and you will also learn which is better:

Should you ride aero front wheel or back wheel?

Do Aero wheels really make a difference?

Yes, aero wheels really make a difference. It’s fairly noticeable how much faster you will move through the air when you have a pair of aero wheels.

The faster that you go, the harder it is to go faster and aero wheels solve for this problem quite easily amongst other things like bicycling position, your choice in helmet, your choice in clothing and feet position.

What are the disadvantages of an aero bike?

An Aero bike uses more mass to create the aerodynamic positioning to allow the air to move past the cyclist in the most efficient way. For this reason, there can be a touch more added weight to an aero bicyclist.

For many where weight is the largest concern (places like northern California where hills mountains are abundant) some cyclists may choose to not want the extra weight.

Some cyclists will opt for a setup more attune to climbing – which minimizes the mass and weight of the bicycle in order to climb hills faster.

Will I catch the cyclist on the downhill if I am a slow climber?

As an aside, because of the way that wind resistance works, all things being equal, the idea that you will “catch them at the downhill” with cycling is generally a fallacy.

The faster climber uphill will typically be the faster cyclist overall (even if they are slower at descending) because they are dealing with far less wind resistance to even the playing field.

Should you have an aero front wheel or back wheel?

If you are riding indoors you should have both wheels as disks.

Now that this is out of the way, the main reason why you will not have a disk in the front wheel or more aero wheels in the front is because of wind.

If you catch a strong cross wind, your bicycle will not be as stable in if you are riding with more aero wheels in the front.

This is why it is more advantageous to ride with an aero wheel in the back as opposed to front.

If the wind were to catch the aero wheel in the front, your bicycle will not be nearly as stable (and could be dangerous to ride).

For example, riding by windy coasts, over the Golden Gate Bridge, downhill in the headlands. There are plenty of places that are known to have strong head and cross winds throughout the bay area and around the world.

Is aero or weight more important?

If you are riding more hills and climbing more often than sprinting, weight will matter more. If you are aiming for top speeds, then aerodynamics are more important.

When you are riding up hills more often, you do not have to face the challenges of wind resistance as much because your overall speed will be lower. Therefore it will not be as hard to reach the top speed that you are aiming for.

When you are riding at top speeds on flat ground, what will limit you is not your weight (which may help you maintain that speed) but your aerodynamics. It is 3 times more difficult to move from 24 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour than it is to move 14 miles per hour to 15 miles per hour.

For this reason, riding at top speeds makes aero dynamics more important.

Conclusion: Aero Front or back wheel

When choosing to ride with an aero front or back wheel, it is most advantageous to choose to ride with a back wheel. When the wind gusts come during your ride, the air will get caught in your front wheel if you are riding aero wheels.

You will not have as much control and it could cause a problem.

Aerodynamic wheels may be more aerodynamic, but also come with the added weight. This can be a problem to some cyclists that find themselves climbing very often. However, better aero dynamics will help you descend at top speeds, and is a great consideration to be made.