Disc Wheel Tests Part 1

Standard Wheel Weight 1.22kg

These are part of the wheel covers, I used them to make the "fast trike"

Final Weight of wheels is 1.41 kg, making the whole set of wheel covers weigh about (1.41-1.22)*2kg or 0.38kg

Made from foam mat and gaffer tape, both available from Bunnings, total cost is about $24.

The trike with the 2 sets of wheels, black taped wheels should be more aerodynamic. 

After a roll down test with visible-spoke-wheels. The small stick marks the "first spot", how far I got back up a hill after a controlled" roll down with the exposed spoke wheels.....

and this is the "second spot" result with the covered spoke wheels.

This was photographed from the first spot toward the second spot, distance is about 40m.

Room for Improvement 1, by learning how to operate my wireless speedo properly, I can capture the max. speed.

Room for Improvement 2, by using this gizmo the angle of the road can be calculated and a bit of stuff worked out.

Screen grab from this ride with gps file . Start point is circled right (50m elevation), and approximate stop points are circled at left.

Hi

For better or worse I've signed up to do the (200k or so) Round the Bay in a Day or Audax Buckley's ride on Sunday.  Temps are forecast to go up to 41 on Saturday but return to a more handleable 22 degrees on Sunday.  And I've trained for it a bit, doing about 50 hilly k's on each of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  The ride is mostly flat, so an aero bike will help.

So today I've been building some wheels with aero covers for my trike and at the end of the day did some testing. 

The covers are designed to be robust, and whereas previous wheel covers used gaffer tape or camping foam mat, the new designs use both.  Basically I want the design to be reliable and strong first, then light, and looking good comes somewhere down the bottom of the criteria.  I already had all the bits needed including some cut foam.  Cost is $24.00.

Anyway, results were quite good, and I will report more later.