See:

http://www.yellowjersey.org/wheel.html

Pretty interesting. I don't know how it will work.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC

the Tioga "string" disc John Tomac used back in the mid 90's... That concept faded pretty fast, although I'm not entirely sure why. Anyone?

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johnny tomac used to rage around on his drop bar yeti mt bike with one of these bad boys. the biggest downside was the fact that unlike a conventional disc the thing still could come out of true !! now, take a look at that webof kevlar string and tell me - how you gonna retrue that wobble ?? dunno, you say ? don't feel too bad, nobody else had any idea either - probably not even the japanese dude that invented the thing. so, unless you are restoring a aqua and yellow t-bone stemmed drop bar replica mt bike i would advise continued shopping vis a vis this particular ebay gem. carumba !

This reminds me of disk covers... they were quite popular some 5-6 yrs. or so ago...back when Disk wheels were consider very expensive. Don't know about this particular wheel/cover.

I don't remember much about covers...never owned one, but if my memory is correct they weren't very durable...and, they had adjustment problems. Whether not Sugino solved the problems with it's approach, I'm not sure.

However, I do remember a very similar design made by a biker I knew some 20 yrs. plus years ago. This was literally made in a garage. He took an extremely light spoked wheelset and glued a clear plastic (simular to seran (sp?)/cling wrap) over the spokes. This home built disk wheel worked fine...but work only for one TT race. Pretty radical for it's time - pre-cheap titatium and pre-lower cost & lighter disk wheels.

FWIW Joe Moya

the sugino nightmare was not a cover - it was a conventional rim with no spokes, but a web of kevlar string. the cover was a shrink-wrapped type protective coating. as the script says supposedly you could replace the rim....only thing was no earth based lifeform actually knew how to go about this. and, it was not that light - even for the time. as for aero-ness who knows? but all those bumps and all do not look too aero to me. it was incredibly loud, too. they say it rode sort of nicely, tho.

He claims it can be trued. (I emailed him) He didn't say it would be easy!!! Bwuahahaha!!

Thanks for the replies! Very interesting bit of history.

-Robert

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