I hear on the triathlon bikes which blow by me. The fast guys and gals on the expensive bikes, you can hear a low, grinding, sound, like a deep, repetitive clicking. It’s a hard sound to paint with words.
It’s not just the tires rubbing on the road, it’s a machine sound. And it’s not because something is wrong, grinding, it’s because that’s the way its supposed to sound, I’m guessing because they are going about 35 miles an hour or so.
I don’t have time to figure out where the sound is coming from but noticed maybe it was on people who had HED wheels or Zipp wheels. Maybe?
I asked someone after a race yesterday, and he said, “it was their disks.” He laughed and said the sounds were “demoralizing” to him.
That’s weird. If the bike is correctly tuned it shold be very quiet. The disk will make some noise and that is a grinding noise- I’m with you on that, I like that noise.
Other than that, a grinding noise probably is grinding and that is not necessarily good. Interesting.
The freehub body of some disks produces a growling, grumbling noise.
But I’m guessing a disc wheel is one of the aerodynamic wheels without the traditional road bike spoke setup, it’s aerodynamically disc’ed, or coned, like the HED or Zipp wheels.
yeah, probably the disk wheels. It’s really cool when you ride next to a concrete wall or something and the disk noise just bounces off the wall and gets really loud:) Or climbing standing and you can just tell the guys in front of you can hear you coming. Hell, I still don’t know if I believe riding a disk is faster but it’s definetely intimidating. I used to be intimidated when I didn’t ride one and now that I do, all my friends know when I’m coming to pass…
My favorite ride combo is the Renn disc in back and the Spinergy Rev-X up front. The roar of the disc sounds like a jet engine and the Spinergy at high speed (for me, read: downhill) generates a subtle whup-whup-whup reminiscent of a Blackhawk helicopter. I sound like a goddamn air strike.
That sound can be purchased for $400. Renn Multisport has put out the abolute best deal on the best disc for the money on the entire planet. You can have that sound very cheaply.
The whump whump sound should be alot less pronounced IMHO.
Disc’s (all carbon wheels as far as I’ve heard) make a distinctive noise. The sound, (whump whump) may be indicative of too low pedalling RPM or simply mashing the pedals rather than pedalling in those damned coveted “circles” that everyone talks about.
The disc wheels resonate as they roll along the road. As the speed varies (slightly) through mashing the pedals, the pitch of the resonance rises and falls. I bet if you pay attention to someone on a disc, particularly a slow masher like Bjorn, you will see what I mean. Maaaaan, I could hear that guy coming a mile away at IMNZ. He was going sooooo fast, I was surprised I didn’t hear a whistling sound from the air screaming through his helmet, or a sonic boom as he went by.