I am debating whether I should rent disc wheels for the upcoming year’s A-races or just buy a disc wheel cover. The wheels I have on my current bike (Orbea Ora) are Mavic Ksyrium Elites. Does a disc wheel cover offer an aero benefit comparable to that of a disc wheel?
Does a disc wheel cover offer an aero benefit comparable to that of a disc wheel?
Yes it does. If you want to see actual numbers, you get pay for them at http://www.biketechreview.com/
Do a search of this forum. You’ll find much to read. Consider a deep section front wheel.
Define comparable. A disk cover likely will give you very very close results to a disk. I even suspect that with the right rim, and a carefully applied cover (tape the cover to the rim) you can get better results than with some discs on some frames. Overall I think the best dedicated disc is the best wheel for virtually all triathlon conditions. However like everything else you pay big $$ to shave off those last few seconds from you IM bike time.
Styrrell
If you’re thinking of renting a disc and are on a budget, I’d just get the cover. I have a nice Hed disc and a wheelcover from Wheelbuilder.com (which I run on a Real Design carbon wheel) and believe it or not, in many cases, I prefer riding with the cover. I believe it’s just as fast, it rides nicer, and the cover/wheel combo is lighter than my disc. The only advantages with the disc are that you don’t have to take the time to put it together, it probably looks nicer, and it has that cool disc sound,
For what it’s worth, for my first wheelcover, I had Richard cut it to fit a Mavic Ksyrium and it worked great.
I’ve owned two wheelcovers and have never had any problems. My only issues are that they can be a little rattley on bumps and those little plastic screws that hold them together are easy to strip out.
By the way, there was a thread almost just like this a couple days ago and it’s a topic that comes up a lot so if you do a search you’ll find a ton of info.