Briareos

I was watching a pursuit race on YouTube the other day, and one competitor had a Campagnolo Ghibli wheel in the back AND front. I was wondering why I don't see this very often, usually they have a regular wheel or "low profile" wheel in the front. I'm wondering because I think it looks badass, and I intend to do it as soon as possible . I'm so hopelessly obsessed with aesthetics, it'll be the death of me.

11.4

Even a slight wind will make your bike unmanageable. This is only usable in an indoor velodrome and even then, only in a few events (pursuit, team pursuit, kilo) that don't involve a lot of steering.

Briareos

That makes sense! I imagine they'd be ok for Velodrome use with all time-trials, not just kilo's?

LWaB

Try holding a small sheet of plywood in one hand. Stick hand outside window while driving at 50 kph. Notice how things are reasonably stable when the plywood is behind your hand. Now rotate your hand until the plywood is in front of your hand. Feel the plywood flip over, trying to remove your hand at the wrist.

The centre of pressure of a rotating wheel in a fork is in front of the steering axis (in any normal steering geometry). The fork is trying to flip through 180 degrees and it is generally quite an effort to keep in a straight line. The more area presented to a cross-wind (including normal steering corrections in windless conditions), the worse the effect.

oldsprinter

Front discs are actually more important aerodynamically than rear ones, but hard to use. I've seen a team pursuit rider swing up on an outdoor track and not be able to get back down the track again because a gust of wind caught him.

Keep in mind you can't use a front disc for bunch racing.

urbanknight

Front discs are most common on indoor velodromes in pursuits, but are sometimes used on outdoor tracks with little or no wind.