Cycling is all about the pursuit of marginal gains, but sometimes those gains come with risks—especially when it comes to using double disc wheels for outdoor time trials. Even professionals rarely take on this setup due to safety concerns.
But what happens when Alex and Ollie decide to test it for themselves? They attempt to find out if the speed advantages are worth the potential risks. Are double disc wheels the ultimate performance hack, or do they compromise rider safety? 🚴♂️💨
00:00 Are double disc wheels faster?
00:24 Why front disc wheels are rare
02:24 Riding double disc wheels on a TT bike
05:06 Riding double disc wheels on a road bike
07:03 Alex and Ollie’s personal thoughts
08:39 Results
10:53 What a double disc can do – efficacy vs effectiveness
12:52 Would Ollie and Alex use a double disc wheel in a race?
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33 Comments
What are your thoughts on front disc wheels? 🛞
Looks brilliant but not sure I’d chance it 😊
MOMDO KOOOOOL
Would have liked to see Ollie do a third run on his regular road bike and wheelset. This would have been good data to include since discussion on the time trial bike ban.
Looks cool tho
This is called jumping the shark.
2.01 The forward thinking Aussies were ahead of their time with left side drive bikes. Pictured in the process of setting the world clockwise pursuit record.
UCI HAS NO JURISDICTION HERE!
That's nuts!! On my daily commute I have a nice straight downhill towards the path along the river and in the summer I hit a cool 65k riding down there… In the winter I can hit 45 on the studded if it's not snowy on the road surface…
but some days I chicken out at 20 if it's icy with a crosswind!! I'm pretty sure it'd end with a proper side-flip if I had these wheels fitted!!
Missed thumbnail opportunity with Why Watt? instead of why not?
You could get that diggity diggity noise with a playing card and a clothes pin 😉
Don’t know which came first, my request or this video’s production but I’m all here for it! Bit of crazy makes for a fun video. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity with the road bike bit
Did he say Moreno Moser? WTF is that?
Super cool and bring back the Tioga Disc Drive,as used by the great John Tomac 👊🏻
I have used dual discs on my Cruzbike V20 on windy and on calm days, and can mirror exactly what was said here. On calm days dual discs are an absolute hoot to ride. They became more and more of a handful as the wind speeds increased, but were surprisingly more controllable than I was lead to believe. The bling factor added a few watts, but what I really liked was the sail effect when the wind direction was perfect. As for using dual discs in a race, if they were allowed then Monokoting your wheels prior to the race but having the option to remove the Monokote if the wind speeds were too high would be 1 way to negate having to bring 2 sets of wheels. For all intents and purposes now though 80mm or 90mm deep wheels are every bit as fast as disc wheels on all but the calmest of days considering how often you would have to sit up and stop pedaling to get back control of your bike in gusts.
I would use it if the wind condition alows it😉
Mad. Uncool. But that’s just us cyclists in general… Great video. I’ll pass on the wheel though.
GCN. this is sloppy. the least you can do when you conduct a test is to fix the variables. why use a diff tire for each wheel?!?!?
Which is why they are only UCI accepted in TT and velodrome, because in the velodrome there is no wind, and TT it is one at a time, or in TTT one team at a time 2 minute gaps in between
If Hotblack Desiato owned a bike, it would be Ollie's DD TT…
"It’s the wild colour scheme that freaks me,” said Zaphod whose love affair with this bike had lasted almost three minutes into the ride, “Every time you try to operate on of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you’ve done it. What is this? Some kind of galactic hyperhearse?"
Why would you test this on a crit circuit with 2 hairpins and 6 corners in 1km
I never thought to see the day DR O B turned down 15 seconds!
Shame that the Road Bike standard tyres/wheels were not the same as the fron disc.
Good teating is all about the preparation to eliminate all but the intended change.
Thanks, still interesting.
Make men manly again; the fact is, a experienced and skilled rider will benefit with a double disk setup in most outdoor conditions barring any excessive winds or grades. So, for a competitive cyclist looking for every second of benefit who has the front disk, there’s only one choice. Now, with the plethora of fear based “men” these days who simply are not as mentally and emotionally tough as cyclists as the last couple of generations, they worry about “safety” far too much. Safety is one consideration, yes, not the only consideration.
You’d be ok with it on the road…..
Except when a car but especially a bus or lorry passes. It would be dangerous
Ok now put them on a gravel bike
The two of you are crazy. Doesn't seem practical. Thank you for answering the crazy questions that pop into all of our heads.🤣
Who chose the sound track for this video, its amazing 😂 seriously
Odd Down circuit getting good use 🙂
I've always wondered this, thank you so much! If it were up to me, I'd do double disc wheels on most TTs with little wind; one or no discs with crosswinds.
Speaking of which, how much crosswind would you need for it to be an advantage to use no discs in a TT? Indurain won the '92 Tour Prologue with no discs (not even an aero front wheel) while most riders used a disc. Was he onto something that day in San Sebastián?
It you have a front end geometry designed for a disk, they're quiet stable. Bikes like the Hooker Elite, back in the 80's – back in the days of 24" front wheels – were designed with double disk in mind and designed to be ridden outdoors without killing the rider. Apparently the 24" was not just chosen because of marginal aero gains but also because of the required geometry, weight distribution and the smaller wheel being less of a PITA to deal with.
Didn't Van Aert run double disks at the Paris Olympics with a small canoe on his head masquerading as a helmet?
Is the chainring on the TT bike suposed to be round? 3:43 suggests that it was designed in an old engineering shop in Blythe and the guys went "it'll be 'bout reet""