Ok, this is a topic that’s been covered a bit. It seems a lot of people have given the advice “leave the disc at home and ride some .” Then you also have John Cobb claiming that not many courses out there are hilly enough to worry about the weight of a disc vs. the aerodynamic advantage; i.e., ride the disc.
What I’d like is to hear from someone who’s actually ridden their disc on this course. Would you do it again? Why or why not? What front wheel did you use, and why?
I just like to hear anecdotal evidence sometimes, I guess.
I was there last year and didnt see many disks. Hilly course! I was going get some H3’s for the race and but was strongly discouraged because of the extra weight. I saw alot of Zipps out there. Not alot of long flat straightaways, constant hills and turns, and two fastest downhills have tight turns.
I rode a Corima disc front and a Zipp 404 front. I would/will do it again. The hills are not very bad and there are definitely some long slight downhills to get some speed going. I think for smaller riders that a set of 404s may be better.
I rode a H3/Renn combo at IM WI last year. I didn’t have any problems and would recommend this set up because it’s fast.
No matter what wheelset you choose, there are two things that will make you fast: 1) stay on the aero bars the whole time, 2) make sure you have a 39/27 gear (for 700c wheels) and use it on both the first and second loop.
One other thing: the first mile of the bike course was littered with all kinds of crap that fell off of people’s bikes - water bottles, inner tubes, food packets, compressed air. So make sure all of your stuff is securely fastened to your bike.
I didn’t do IM Wisconsin, but I did spectate nearly the entire bike course from Verona last year. I can say that there were plenty of discs out there on the course.
With most good discs out there being of similar weight to your standard 32 spoke training wheel, I don’t know why you wouldn’t use a disc (assuming it was safe to do so and that it was allowed). With the aerodynamic advantages that a disc gives, it seems like a no brainer to me?
I rode 909’s at IMoo. No issues. I still dont think that the Moo bike is that hilly. Sure there are allot of little ones but PLEASE…it is not anywhere near as tough as IMLP - where I also prefer my 909’s. IMoo is a tough course only in the fact that it is technical (turns) and any time you are bunched up with a bunch of Tri Geeks on a turn things get ugly.
But, 909’s in the rain, on the Keene hill are a bit freaky with a 30-35mph cros wind.
I also rode a H3/Renn at Wisonsin last year and would definitely do it again. I weigh about 200 lbs, so I don’t worry about a little extra weight on my wheels.