Hello.

I will soon be in the market for a high end wheelset. I think I have narrowed my selection to the the HED 3 carbons or the Topolino carbons. I have never ridden 3 spoke wheels and would like some feedback from those who have.

I live on the coast of Florida. The land is flat and the winds can get pretty strong at times. I don't race but I like to ride hard. I do mostly club rides and solo rides. I am considering the HED 3 because I want an aero wheel. Since the land is flat aerodynamics will make more of a difference than weight.

The HED sight is pretty informative (hedcycling.com). They claim that over a 25 mile tt aero wheels will shave 1.5 minutes. This does not sound like a lot? Should I just stick with a conventional wheel? I figure that if the benefits of a 3 spoke wheel were significant more people would be riding them.

Thanks.

I accidently started this thread twice. This is my first thread. Sorry.

Look at the nimble crosswind wheels. They are a tri-spoke wheel also. They have lots of wind tunnel data on their site that shows their real performance. According to their site they are more aero than the HED wheel. They can also be found on ebay for less than a thousand a pair usually. The clincher for me was their customer service is awesome. Check them out at www.nimble.net

and I only use my Hed 3s for racing on my Time Trial bike. They are great for that, but otherwise are "relatively" heavy and with the Carbons, you are limited to Tubulars, which wouldn't be my first choice for everyday wheels. With our winds, a high profile rim, like a HED3 or a Cosmic Carbone can be a handful, especially in a crosswind which we have predominantly along the coast in any N to S runs.
Plenty of good lightweight wheels to choose from that will do what you need without spending what you will on a set of HED3 Carbons. Personally, I like my AC 350s and 420s and a set of Chris Kings with Velocity Aeroheads and Sapim C-Xray spokes I recently picked up.

They claim that over a 25 mile tt aero wheels will shave 1.5 minutes. This does not sound like a lot?


Actually, it's more like a minute than 1.5 minutes - the best aero wheels will give you 0.4 mph at 25 mph, and that's 1 minute per hour. For a time trialist, that's a huge improvement. The fact that it doesn't seem like much to you suggests you are not that focused on speed increments. Aero wheels are very important if you're a racer, but the 4 minutes you save over a 100 mile ride only apply if you are riding solo. You could easily gain that much time by learning to pee off the bike rather than stopping by the side of the road. Likewise, you could lose that much time standing in line to buy a Coke. For those aero advantages, you get a wheel set that is more sensitive to cross winds and tends to weigh more (until you get to the super-zoot wheels for tubular tires). Your choice.