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    I Designed and 3D Printed Aero Wheel Covers for My Road Bike – What Do You Think?


    The goal was to create a low-cost alternative to deep-section wheels while keeping the design lightweight and easy to install. After several design iterations, I printed the final version, mounted it on the bike, and took it out for a test ride.

    I'm curious what the cycling community thinks about this concept. Do you think 3D printed aero wheel covers could provide a measurable aerodynamic benefit, or would the added weight and potential crosswind effects outweigh the gains?

    I Designed and 3D Printed Aero Wheel Covers for My Road Bike – What Do You Think?
    byu/Peros3d inbicycling



    by Peros3d

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    32 Comments

    1. MasterDickey on

      Cool idea! I think for me the use case would be pretty ride dependent. I wouldn’t take them up a ride with tons of elevation, but I bet they make a noticeable improvement when ripping on the flats. Nice project.

    2. Crunchb0x on

      Gotta applaud you for the creativity and engineering involved in creating this. Did you notice any benefit? How sturdy are they? Do they make any noise, rattle, etc, on bumps turns?

    4. thatsamiam on

      Seems dangerous. I feel like it is too easy for them to come off while bike is going at high speed and if that happens it could cause a catastrophic failure and injury or death. What happens when bike hits a bump at high speed? Have such scenarios been properly tested?

      Best to pay for proper aero wheels if that is what you want. Why risk your life over a few dollars?

    6. Tango91 on

      Cool, are the halves glued together or magnetic?

      With magnetic ones you could cover shorter valve stems for aero but still easily access.

    8. Ramboninja69 on

      I think it’s great. You should give away or sell the design, for anybody that wants to print this too.

    9. Caspr510 on

      You basically just duplicated HED Jet wheels at home. The way you constructed and installed them makes me think you could suffer a catastrophic failure but I’m sure you’ll get some minor aero benefits while they hold.

    11. beardedbusdriver on

      Put some thought into connecting these without glue and sell the (or plans) on etsyy

    12. brekky_sandy on

      Looks like a product that’s already available from HED cycling but much less stable. How sure are you that they won’t come off at a critical moment? 

    13. advnoel on

      I think the additional weight vs the original drag coefficient would be a negligible difference in actual ride benefit.

    16. xraynorx on

      Oh wow, umm this is something… I wouldn’t call it good… more like Buzz’s girlfriend.

    19. JDCH on

      You’d get so much more aero benefit from wearing tight fitting clothes instead of street clothes…

    24. soggy_encampment on

      Did you get any power meter data from the test rides? That’s really the only way to know if you’re actually saving watts or just adding rotating mass that feels faster.

    27. dd113456 on

      I love it! Before purchasing I would want to see real evidence of gains.

      My suggestion would to really do a deep dive into tires, tire weights, TPI, rolling resistance etc…..aero gains are great but reducing rotating weight is better.

    31. bot_or_not_vote_now on

      Ride it down a hill from point a to point b without peddling while using a GPS tracker and you can compare with vs without accelerations and max speed

      My guess would be with the wheel covers you lose on acceleration but gain on max speed

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