I’m getting a HED front disc for my local flat, semi-windless TT course. Anyone ever tried a front disc on a TT (non-track) course? I’ve always heard that they are hard to manage, but, other than in photos, I have never actually seen anyone use one or heard any first hand accounts.
I read that Cobb tested them to be 60 seconds faster over 40k than a deep section rim. Thats pretty significant, if I can steer the beast.
Last guy I saw on one was Laurent Fignon, and he managed to lose 58 seconds on a 10-mile, downhill TT course with a tailwind.
I used one for Tuesday night TT night, we’d do 10 or 20 mi TTs and I would use them as a baseline for my fitness.
I always had the disc in the car and always felt it too windy except twice. Those two rides produced similar performances over the 10 mile distance, but did not improve my PR. Also comparing the week before and two weeks after the effort (MaxBPM, AveBPM) was not different, I was 11 seconds and 40 seconds slower than rides with a trispoke on different occasions.
That aside, riding a front disc is the coolest sounding thing you’ll ever hear on a bicycle.
-Dave
I remember Team Once tried running front discs with some punch sized holes in them. Not a true disc therefore but pretty close. Seems they only did it once or twice for TT’s so it was for whatever reason a short lived experiment.