Trispokes

[Auraomega]

Well I've just about had enough of my standard wheels, there's only so many times I can true them out from inner-city cycling and to top it off the hub appears to be damaged! I've been looking at getting some trispokes for a while for long distance stuff and just to make my bike look the sex, my question though is how durable are they realistically? I live in Leicester and the roads here are... well... dreadful! Out of all the cities I've cycled in here has to be one of the worst. I'd be looking to use them as my permanent wheels, but most of my cycling is in the countryside anyway so I only have to negotiate the potholes on my way to the outside.

I figure once they go, they've gone for good with no truing out, but if they stay truer for longer then I might just be able to swallow the costs; my time repairing wheels after all might be worth more than buying some HED3s.

Thoughts and advice?

 

[Jonny ///M]

What wheels do you currently have?

 

[One More Solo]

Who on earth uses trispokes for long distance riding? From what I've heard, the ride quality leaves a lot to be desired and they're a big handful in windy conditions.

If truing wheels is your problem then get some bombproof hubs and rims - I'd suggest the classic Hope Pro 3 hub/Mavic Open Pro rim combination with 32 spokes front and rear.

 

[touch]

Who on earth uses trispokes for long distance riding? From what I've heard, the ride quality leaves a lot to be desired and they're a big handful in windy conditions.

I thought aerospoke wheels were pretty good in the wind? More aero and less effected in a crosswind than normal spoked deep section rims.
Matt Stephens was talking about Spinergy wheels on one of the Tour Series shows last week. He said they were the best wheels he's ever ridden. Never used anything like that myself, so i cant comment tho.
Spinergy (and probably Hed3s also) are not UCI legal, so you dont see them around much anymore.

Although, if you can afford Hed3 trispokes you could probably buy a brand new set of entry-level wheels every week and still save yourself some money over a year or two

 

[[DOD]Asprilla]

They are used a reasonable amount in the LFGSS community so they must be pretty durable. Mind they use cheap Chinese ones as a rule.

Didn't Wiggo use one on the Olympic TT?

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Yeah all of the sky guys and a lot of the pro peleton tend to use a tri spoke or a five spoke on the front and a disc rear for max aero. I wouldn't fancy riding too far on them though, I don't beleive there is much comfort at all being completely solid. I'd just get a set of decent hand built wheels if you're bothered about them going out of true. Tri spokes on a road bike would be a bit wierd unless you're on a long TT

 

[Auraomega]

What wheels do you currently have?

Just the cheap and nasty stock wheels. Yes I know that's a massive factor in the amount of time I spend truing out, but if I'm going to replace the wheels I might as well go all the way huh?

Who on earth uses trispokes for long distance riding?
...
If truing wheels is your problem then get some bombproof hubs and rims

My thoughts were the aero factor might allow less effort for the same speed (thus going further before exhaustion). I had thought about getting some ridiculously sturdy wheels but as mentioned above, if I'm going to get new wheels why not go the whole hog?

I wouldn't fancy riding too far on them though, I don't beleive there is much comfort at all being completely solid.

Hadn't thought of that, might well be a deciding factor!

 

[grudas]

get a good set of wheels for 100-150 and it'll be good! jeez my shimano r501's have held up fairly well in london roads - and trust me i go hard on them and the roads really are quite bad in central.