A lot of teams used tri spoke front wheels today for the team time trial at the TDF. Do they know something we dont know?
Short TTT, low yaw conditions, and sponsors (Shimano sponsor 7 teams, including the best teams that get TV coverage, and you won’t see a lot of Zipp / Enve / HEDs).
Team dimension data (sponsored by Enve) was using 7/8 (not sure) up front and Katusha (sponsored by Zipp) using 858 up front, but they aren’t going to get much TV coverage.
For shimano sponsored, teams, it probably comes down to C60 vs. trispokes, and most teams chose trispokes. Among these teams, only Sunweb chose C60 over trispokes.
Non-Shimanor teams that could probably choose (or went off sponsor)
- AG2R went with Comete over trispokes
- EF-Education went with metron over trispokes
- Trek went with trispokes in favor of spoked options (Their sponsor, Trek / Bontrager doesn’t make trispokes), for what that’s worth.
The PRO (shimano) 3 spoke tubulars always get good use… $ talks.
I want those annoying decals on the Roval321…for my 321
Do they know something we dont know? //
Well I have been using them since the 1980’s, so maybe they are just catching up to what we know…
A lot of teams used tri spoke front wheels today for the team time trial at the TDF. Do they know something we dont know?
Since Lance days teams have been riding Specialized/Hed tri spokes when not sponsored or labelling them Prototype especially Sky who have the budget and test for the fastest products. Shimano now make a comparable fast wheel so they don’t have too.
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/pro-bike/pro-bike-bradley-wiggins-team-sky-pinarello-graal/
A lot of teams used tri spoke front wheels today for the team time trial at the TDF. Do they know something we dont know?
This is a pretty heavily discussed topic and I think the general consensus is that they aren’t really faster. The recent “fastest front wheel†thread has the AeroCoach testing of the H3+. It is pretty fast for a 60mm deep front wheel and a shade faster than the Jet 6+, but the Jet 9 and other 90mm wheels are a shade faster. Josh Portner also chimed in on Zipp’s testing of trispoke wheels. They found the wheels to be a touch faster on a wide-fork frame (E.g., Speed Concept), but the difference is maybe 1 watt.
Now if there was a 90mm deep front trispoke…
Shimano sponsorship played a role to be sure but, as Shambolic mentions, Sky used tri spokes extensively. Considering that Sky had both a substantial budget to test equipment and some latitude to chose said equipment, I’d be inclined to say a tri spoke is a good choice for a front wheel. In low-yaw conditions, a tri spoke with a narrow, fast-rolling tire is a very potent setup.
There is but it was only faster in a very limited yaw window. Lance won a Tour prologue which Hed developed for him but you can still buy them.
https://www.competitivecyclist.com/hed-h3-deep-fr-wheel-clincher
A lot of teams used tri spoke front wheels today for the team time trial at the TDF. Do they know something we dont know?
This is a pretty heavily discussed topic and I think the general consensus is that they aren’t really faster. The recent “fastest front wheel†thread has the AeroCoach testing of the H3+. It is pretty fast for a 60mm deep front wheel and a shade faster than the Jet 6+, but the Jet 9 and other 90mm wheels are a shade faster. Josh Portner also chimed in on Zipp’s testing of trispoke wheels. They found the wheels to be a touch faster on a wide-fork frame (E.g., Speed Concept), but the difference is maybe 1 watt.
Now if there was a 90mm deep front trispoke…
FWIW here’s our TITAN front wheel vs. a Pro 3 trispoke with a Conti Pro Ltd tubular (25mm - Shimano say you can’t use less than a 25mm):
EDIT - there’s a mistake in there as the quoted difference is just an aero penalty, not the combined CdA/Crr.
Well that sure doesn’t explain why the ProTour teams would use the Pro3, but it does look like the ultimate Kona wheel. Crazy that it would work so well at high yaw. Thanks for posting very interesting.
Okay, so what about the 2 spoke wheel. I recall someone on that thread saying that a team was running the 2 spoke wheel this year???
How does the 2 spoke wheel compare to the tri-spoke?
Well that sure doesn’t explain why the ProTour teams would use the Pro3, but it does look like the ultimate Kona wheel. Crazy that it would work so well at high yaw. Thanks for posting very interesting.
It’s a good wheel - there are lots of wheels getting used in the World Tour that are truly terrible! It’s also relatively light and the handling (which is what it was designed for as well as aerodynamics) is pretty good too.
They often are out of true however, and depending on the batch the hubs can be terrible - we’ve had some from separate world tour teams where the bearings are completely shot - which isn’t going to help. But aero wise they’re not bad.
Okay, so what about the 2 spoke wheel. I recall someone on that thread saying that a team was running the 2 spoke wheel this year???
How does the 2 spoke wheel compare to the tri-spoke?
In another thread I mention that we’ve been told previously from someone that’s tested it that it’s a good wheel but nothing special. I’ve since heard that it’s good in the tunnel, but they’re very rare here so we’ve not had the opportunity to put it through our fixed test protocol (nor do we currently plan to unless someone supplies us with one).
Also it’s really important to quantify “trispokeâ€. There are a huge number of different makes and models and the performance of them varies just like a deep section. The Pro3 and HED GT3/H3+ trispokes are the best of the bunch, but something like a FFWD trispoke is an absolute shocker. Corima are good at low yaw but terrible at high yaw, the fact that they all have a trispoke construction doesn’t make them equal.
but something like a FFWD trispoke is an absolute shocker.
Shockingly good or shockingly bad?
I’ve seen one of the Team Direct Energie riders on a 2-Spoke front rebadged as FFWD. There’s a pic on the Internet somewhere…
but something like a FFWD trispoke is an absolute shocker.
Shockingly good or shockingly bad?
Slow - not helped by the spokes being less than a 2:1 ratio at points!
25 measured or labeled?
A 25mm Conti probably measures close to 30mm on that wheel. A 23mm Corsa Speed is 23.
This is silly… you’re better than this.
A lot of teams used tri spoke front wheels today for the team time trial at the TDF. Do they know something we dont know?
This is a pretty heavily discussed topic and I think the general consensus is that they aren’t really faster. The recent “fastest front wheel†thread has the AeroCoach testing of the H3+. It is pretty fast for a 60mm deep front wheel and a shade faster than the Jet 6+, but the Jet 9 and other 90mm wheels are a shade faster. Josh Portner also chimed in on Zipp’s testing of trispoke wheels. They found the wheels to be a touch faster on a wide-fork frame (E.g., Speed Concept), but the difference is maybe 1 watt.
Now if there was a 90mm deep front trispoke…
FWIW here’s our TITAN front wheel vs. a Pro 3 trispoke with a Conti Pro Ltd tubular (25mm - Shimano say you can’t use less than a 25mm):
EDIT - there’s a mistake in there as the quoted difference is just an aero penalty, not the combined CdA/Crr.
Not the tubular version! That’s what we tested, the Conti Pro Ltd doesn’t come in clincher.
I’m almost sure the 23mm Conti will measure 25mm on the wheel.
Not the tubular version! That’s what we tested, the Conti Pro Ltd doesn’t come in clincher.
A lot of teams used tri spoke front wheels today for the team time trial at the TDF. Do they know something we dont know?
Since Lance days teams have been riding Specialized/Hed tri spokes when not sponsored or labelling them Prototype especially Sky who have the budget and test for the fastest products. Shimano now make a comparable fast wheel so they don’t have too.
https://www.bikeradar.com/...sky-pinarello-graal/
That article is dated 2010, ketchup!
.