Originally Posted by sers
i actually sent carbonsports an email a while back,
the reason that the lightweight track wheels haven't been made available yet is that they're trying to develop a more durable spoke, given the greater likelyhood of crashes on the track than the road. on the low spoked lightweight wheels, if you shear or damage a single spoke, the whole wheel is toast and completely unrepairable. they also don't sponsor or give out freebies.
fwiw, they beleive that their disc wheel is going to offer unparalelled performance benefits. generally speaking, disc wheels tend to be heavier, less radially stiff, less laterally stiff, and than a 36h spoked wheel. they also have less efficient power transfer from the hub to the rim. of course this is offset by aerodynamic resistance magnitudes lower than spoked wheels. apparently they have the data to prove that their disc wheel is radially & laterally stiffer, more efficent at power transfer, far more aerodynamic, and about the same weight as a 36h 3x lightweight tubular.
time will tell, but when lance, jan ulrich, and ivan basso were using their climbing wheels, it was on the d.l.
I was under the impression that disc wheels have
adequate lateral stiffness. I have heard, also, that disc wheels (lenticular, and on the track, at least) can be
too radially stiff, sort of forcing you to keep a line. I have no data to back this up, though.
I think their low overall weight is probably a huge advantage to road riders who are usually giving up stiffness for weight. On the track, MOI is the name of the game, and if they can start producing significant numbers in that arena, coupled with significant stiffness increases, we might start seeing sprinters with discs.
As an aside, if discs became suitable for match sprints, do you guys (or gals?) think tactics would change a lot in an event like that since drafting would become less important?