take the 87 on the rear and the 38 on the front

So Roval wheel C38 front and the Hunt 87 rear?

I'm about your weight. Yeah definitely 38 in the front otherwise you have to hold on to the aero bars really tight during the entire ride. Learn how to lean into the crosswind. Always stay low, so you can lower the center of gravity too.

That's what I would do

Ah ok cool. Somehow thought one shouldn't have mixed wheel brands as a set-up. Thanks for your advice.

In general you feel the depth more at the front than at the back so a popular choice is shallow front, deep back. Also, the fastest time will come if you can stay in the aero position as much as possible. So it's better to have a wheel you're comfortable with than one you're not.

Lanzarote this March was way worse than Kona last October. I actually think Kona is easier from many points of view. I'm aware that last October was considered mild wind for Kona standards.
The thing is that in Kona you're always going straight and you can always see where you're going. Also, the road is very wide, the tarmac is decent and when it's closed to traffic for the race you've got a lot of space and better tarmac.
It feels scary at first in Kona but it can get a lot better very quickly. The best tips I've been given were:
- stay in the aero position
- try to stay relaxed
- keep tension in the chain (keep pedalling)
- practice as much of the course as you can

I think it worked quite well for me.i had 808 front, 808 back.

Mixing wheel brands can sometimes tear your bike in half, so be careful.

I remember I once had real problems putting a Hed front wheel and a Flo disc wheel in the back. The bike nearly killed me. Then I had the idea of buying some HED stickers off Ebay and replacing the Flo stickers on the disc. Never been a problem since!

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

You should have given me a call. I have a Flo up front and a HED disc in the back... we could have traded stickers.

Can you expand on that a bit more? I have always wondered if mixing brands was acceptable or taboo. I have been racing with an Orr in the front and a Zipp disc in the back. Have recently acquired a Hed Jet RC9 and disc to race with this year.

The Zipp rear disc wheel is so fast that it could pull in front of your Orr front wheel and break your bike in the process.

Mild? Last October was considered *no* wind by Kona standards. There's no way anyone should use last year's conditions as a baseline for anything.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Thank you for sorting my i's and crossing my t's. I was there for two weeks before the race. I might not have seen it at its worst but I've seen a variety of conditions.
All of my comments and suggestions stay true regardless of the amount of wind. The road in Kona is very wide, very straight, the tarmac is good. The incline is never outside of -5 to +5%.

This is a really common refrain from people who have only been to Kona once or twice, and never in "full" conditions. Check back in with us when you've been there on a day when the wind coming down from Hawi is enough to lift your *road* bike off the tarmac and deposit you on the far side of the opposite lane.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

I'm sure conditions there can get pretty crazy. I have no doubt. I have no doubt I haven't seen the most extreme conditions and I don't claim I have.

If you actually have some value to add, please give us some tips on how you safely handled those extreme conditions, including which ones of my tips you disagree with and why.

The value add here is that maybe people shouldn't lend much credence to someone's experience riding in (probably) the best/fastest conditions in the history of the event.

Edit to add:

This might not seem like a "value add" to you, but I've spent more time than I care to admit helping panicked people sort out a set of wheels they can actually ride at Kona, after they flew over with something like your dual 808s due to various experts suggesting they "work quite well" at Kona. Which they do. Until they don't.

Some of those panicked people were actually getting paid to race the event, just fwiw.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

I'm sorry to say this but you need to be called out.
Your behaviour promotes a toxic environment that refrains people from helping each other.

I have just been trying to help. Somebody had a question and I've brought forward the tips I've been given by people who've been there a lot more than I have. The first rides on the islands were scary for me. Those tps that have helped me

If you disagree just say what you disagree with and why. No need to bash others.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

You've finally made your point on an edit to your third reply. Thank you. That creates a useful discussion. Your previous comments did not and were not adding any value to the conversation.
In fact, you've used multiple times the quoting feature of this forum to highlight part of my answers out of context and used them to express contempt and ridicule those that in your eyes are the less experienced ones - without any knowledge of myself or my experience level.

Your whole point is that an 808 at the front is too much for some people if the conditions are more difficult than what they were in October 2022. I accept that and agree with it.

In fact, I started my original comment precisely with a comment on how the front wheel needs to be something you're comfortable with. Better too shallow than too deep.

I also commented about a comparison with Lanzarote 70.3 in march 2023 which had pretty crazy wind. To elaborate on this: unlike Kona, the tarmac in Lanzarote isn't as good, the road isn't straight nor particularly wide, and the climbs and the descent included steeper gradients.
I'm aware that the challenge in Kona is the crosswind and the resulting effective wind speed. That's something that shouldn't be underestimated. Luckily there's other aspects of Kona that partially compensate this.

You could have quoted the part where I talk about using something people are comfortable with. You could have said that you agreed with it and that in fact the conditions on race day can be and have been a lot worse. You could have described how much worse conditions you've seen, indicated which years, and included your own tips. You chose to quote the part about "mild" and corrected it to "zero". That's it, that's all you've said.
I'll stand by my point that your reply didn't add any value to the conversation when it could have.