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"Black Hole Aero Wheel"?
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okay kids, here's the link (on e-bay, of course).

http://cgi.ebay.com/...75&category=2918

anyone seen/ heard of/ ridden one?

thoughts/ comments?

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Re: "Black Hole Aero Wheel"? [sydnrusty] [ In reply to ]
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I saw this wheel being demo'd at the expo at the 1994 ITU World's in Wellington NZ. The bearing mechanism is kind of weird. There is the "inner core" with the "black whole, with a carbon fibre rim that rolls around it on "rails" with bearings. Not sure how this would hold up to real world riding. I think the idea is that the inner core does not rotate, so it minimizes airflow turbulence and keeps the boundary layer laminar.

I think you need John Cobb to endorse the aero theories, but regardless, I can't see it holding it up to any real world riding, based on what I saw.
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Re: "Black Hole Aero Wheel"? [sydnrusty] [ In reply to ]
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Holy smokes...I knew there had to be one hiding in someone's garage somewhere.

I got the chance to test ride one at BIO in 94 or 95, when Mr. Paul Lew (later with Sun Rims, then XNG!, then Lew Composites) was the head engineer at Wear-n-Tear...there was one of the original versions mounted on his Nishiki road bike at the show. He was cool enough to let me take it out of the convention hall and test ride in a parking lot. This was the original version, without as much of the inner loop being filled in (noticed it's filled in behind the steering axis...the idea was to counteract sidewinds...kinda like Slowman's concept with the Carbonaero), and the outer loop rotated on 3 ABEC 5 bearings, like what you would have on inline skates. One set of bearings was at approximately 4:30pm, another at 7:30am, and one more at 1pm...if you look at the Blackhole from the drivetrain side...at least that's kinda how I remember it. It rode like a normal wheel, even out of the saddle, although granted I wasn't cranking on it that hard in a parking lot, considering it wasn't on my bike, and it was a prototype. It was LOUD though...

Aerodynamically they said (IIRC) it was approximately the same as a disk wheel front, without the control issues. MSRP (heheh) was about $1200-1400 range...pretty expensive in those days.

It definitely looks cool...one of those concepts that just didn't quite make it though. Don't know if it was ever ridden "in anger" (as Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett would say" by anybody.

Dave
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Re: "Black Hole Aero Wheel"? [sydnrusty] [ In reply to ]
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"This is the Rarest road bike RACING wheel ever made. It is Hubless, SUPER AERODYNAMIC. It was made for Triathlon.... the most EXPENSIVE Wheel ever Manufactured. There is less than 25 in existence, and this may be the ONLY UNRIDDEN Black Hole WHEEL in the WORLD. I have been offered well over 5,000 for it, but will let bidders decide their value of it."

The above was taken from the ebay description. It's stuff like this that puts the "geek" into the word tri-geek. This falls into the "absolutely gotta have catagory". Somebody will pay the big buck for it. But you gotta wonder how it spins hubless. Wasn't it PT Barnum that said something about ....... IMO this guy should have taken his 5 k and ran.
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Re: "Black Hole Aero Wheel"? [cerveloguy] [ In reply to ]
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But you gotta wonder how it spins hubless.




Agreed.

Plus look at the front profile it presents. How the hell can that be stable and balanced, airflow-wise ??

Interesting, though.




Last edited by: alpedhuez: Oct 11, 03 19:22
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