Does anyone know what the story was with this wheel?
Was it ever actually sold?
Does anyone have a pic of one in action?
I thought they just made a few that were originally used by Postal/Discovery. I personally have seen them used by a couple pro triathletes as well…
It depends on which version you are talking about. There was a “deep” version made for Discovery Team riders and seen on bikes used by Lance and Ekimov. I never saw that wheel at retail.
There was a brief retail availability of a wheel HED called the “Kona” that was an ultra-deep three spoke that basically amounted a “vented disk” for lack of a better description. It was designed to subvert the Kona “no disk wheel” rule but was subsequently ruled to have too much surface area to not be considered a disk. I think production and availability of that wheel fizzled after the surface area ruling.
Interestingly, there is a photo of the wheel (the Kona wheel) in the thread about R&A cycles:
is that the one that looks like tri spoke but is solid like a disc?
Yup… that’s one…
It’s strange… I’ve seen that… the full disc Trispoke and the Hed 3 deep…
I wonder why no one liked the kona… i mean it looks just like a Disco / 200 or whatever those new Blackwell wheels are.
No, the disk one that is totally solid is the Hed3D…it’s pretty fast are there are quite a few out there. My wife used one for IM-AZ. The one in the picture that Tom mentioned is actually called the Kona Coast actually.
No, the disk one that is totally solid is the Hed3D…it’s pretty fast are there are quite a few out there. My wife used one for IM-AZ. The one in the picture that Tom mentioned is actually called the Kona Coast actually.
K, I’m stupid, I didn’t even see the pic. And when I did see the pic I thought it was two wheels, one stacked on top of another. Am I wrong in assuming that manufacturers stop selling wheels that aren’t as fast as their new ones? Or is it all marketing related? For example, I’ve read that Nike’s dimpled tri suits are the best but Nike doesn’t sell them anymore. Is it because they came out with better fabric or nobody bought them or they are saving the technology for pro athletes only? I’m rambling, I’ll shut up now.
The solid disc version was a called HED 3D Disc…I owned one and it was/is a very nice wheel…but apparently too difficult to produce…
I’ve been thinking about picking up a used Hed3D. It’s a fast wheel, but they are notoriously hard to stay true. I called Hed to ask them about the rumors that the Hed3d is the fastest wheel they ever made. They said that rumor stems from the fact that it was lighter than the Lenticular Superlite of the time, therefore being a little faster in certain conditions. Now that the Lenticular Superlite has lost some weight, the difference is negligible.
Very tough to produce and make them aesthetically satisfactory. They do test well and are very stiff, but because of the time consumption to make the wheel, the set would retail $2000-$2500, which makes for an exepnsive wheelset for most.