Then vs Now: Wheels

Today I want to take a look at some of the evolution of wheels and tires in the sport of triathlon, what those trends have meant for the sport, and where we might be headed next.

One of the best places to start might actually be the 2004 Tour de France Team Time Trial event. This was during the Lance Armstrong years, and his U.S. Postal team would win that event. But what’s interesting is that equipment played an important role in that victory. Traditional wisdom was that narrow tires are faster, and most teams rode on slick 18-19mm wide rubber. But due to the rainy weather that day, the Postal team insisted on using the widest tires which would fit in their Trek Team Time Trial frames, yes that’s actually the name of this frame – the Trek Team Time Trial – and a version of this was my first tri bike. The frames were built really narrow, and can’t accommodate anything more than about 22mm-23mm wide, but that was enough of difference to help the Postal team avoid crashes on those slicker roads, and allow them to take corners at a slightly greater speed. (Well, the wider tires, and, you know, everything ELSE they did to go fast.)

Fast forward to today, and 23mm would be considered a pretty narrow tire today, even in flat windless TT events. That’s because most rims have now ballooned out to 25-30mm wide, and anything which doesn’t bulge out wider than the rim itself will usually tend to work well aerodynamically on the tire.

That increase to wider rims really started with Zipp, especially with the introduction of their Firecrest line circa 2011. Those started at about 25mm, and steadily increased in width to where we are today, often in the 28-31mm space. For a long time we kept hearing that widths would continue to increase, but we seem to have hit a relative ceiling at least in the triathlon and TT space, of just over 30mm or so.

But apart from the rim’s width, we’ve also seen the dramatic changes to disc braking and also tubeless tires. Good tubeless tires can introduce a little bit of a learning curve or logistical hurdles in terms of setup and inflation, but what they offer in return is potentially lower rolling resistance, and a potential reduction in flats. So if you want to go tubeless, you may be in for a bit of hassle, but potentially benefit from it. And fortunately, most tubeless tires are dual-purpose – they can be used both on tubeless rims without a tube, or in a traditional clincher rim with a tube. Tires like the Continental GP 5000 have become super popular for their excellent combination of low rolling resistance, good aerodynamic performance, decent flat resistance, and dual-purpose use. Personally, I rode on their predecessor the GP 4000s II for quite some time, and the GP5000 has proven to be a fantastic evolution in the lineup, with multiple widths available and that broad compatibility.

It used to be that for the ultimate performance, pros would turn to tubular tires, which have to be semi-permanently glued to the rim. But these have all but disappeared from the market with the successful evolution of good carbon clincher and carbon tubeless rims.  Instead of the mess and inconvenience of glue, now we have the mess and inconvenience of sealant. One goo traded for another. If you’re thinking of upgrading to a tubeless setup, just make sure you get a good education and some practice using them before you just go making a swap two days before your race.

Now zooming out, what about wheel construction generally? We’ve gone a bit wider, manufactured fast tires to match, but what about these wheels themselves? What’s new there? Right here I have a very interesting option from RON Wheels, known as the Ultron 2-spoke. Rather than using metal spokes, or a traditional carbon trispoke design, this wheel has a single beam going all the way across, and relies on some careful shaping to help slice through the wind as efficiently as possible. I don’t have any independent data on these wheels, but anecdotally we can say that these wheels were ridden to the fastest Ironman bike split in history, with Robert Kallin’s 3:54 split at Ironman Vitoria-Gasteiz. I haven’t done a lot of riding on them myself, but all the empty space here would suggest that they have lower side forces, potentially making them easier to handle than a trispoke or deeper front wheel like a Zipp 808. Personally I try to keep my front wheels relatively shallow, I don’t like anything deeper than about 45mm, and these do fit the bill.

In back this is the matching Ultron Disc wheel, discs are always going to be the fastest option and can be very nice to ride, but in a situation with a lot of intermittent gusts of wind they can make your life a little difficult. That’s why Ironman bans them for Kona – the winds on the North side of the island are similar to what you can find here in the foothills of Colorado, and nothing to sneeze at. But if you absolutely must have the fastest wheel on the planet, accept no substitutes. The Ron wheels are also nice in that they pre-tape the wheels for you, eliminating one of the steps of tubeless or clincher setup, making your life just that little bit easier.

What about you? What are you riding? Still on that 21mm wide tubular wheel glued to perfection? Have you made the jump to a tubeless disc brake setup? Are you riding an 808 front, disc rear, all day long? Or like me, do you need a shallower wheel up front to make sure the wind doesn’t blow you off course? Let me know in the video comments. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time.