All About Zwift’s New Tri Spoke // Disc Wheel

UPDATE: Zwift released a game update which significantly increased the performance of these wheels. The numbers below are not accurate for Zwift version 1.61+.

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The new Zwift Big Spin series has just kicked off, and many riders are joining the events in hopes of spinning and winning limited-time novelty unlocks. One of the most popular is the “Zwift Tri Spoke // Disc Wheel”. It’s an eye-catching wheelset and the first tri spoke in game, so many Zwifters are riding extra Big Spin events just for these wheels!

The new wheelset is rated 3 stars for aero and 1 for weight. But Zwift’s star ratings aren’t precise enough to communicate actual in-game performance in a useful way, so we ran the wheels through our battery of speed tests.

Here’s everything you need to know about the performance of the new Tri Spoke // Disc Wheel in Zwift.

Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance

Tri spoke + disc wheels are commonly seen on TT setups because they’re fast. So we expected Zwift’s new Tri Spoke to be pretty zippy on the flats.

But it’s not. Far from it, in fact.

The wheels turn in a test time of 53:43 on our test course, which is two laps of Tempus Fugit totaling 34.6km. That makes them over 2 minutes slower than the former slowest wheels in game (the “Zwift Classic”). and 3 minutes and 18 seconds slower than the fastest wheels in game (the DT Swiss ARC 62 Dicut Disc).

Or, to put it another way: the Zwift Aero frame with these wheels turns in almost the same time on our flat test as a gravel bike and wheels.

Climb Performance

Given the Tri Spoke’s 1-star weight rating and terrible flat performance, we didn’t expect great things on our Alpe test. We got what we expected.

The Tri Spoke // Disc Wheel turns in an Alpe climb time of 51:40.5, which is 2 minutes and 12.5 seconds slower than our baseline (the Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels) and 2:26.5 slower than the best climbing wheels (the Lightweight Meilenstein and Roval Alpinist CLX.)

Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Aero frame.

Conclusions

We didn’t expect the Tri Spoke to be the fastest wheelset in game (Zwift-branded garage items are never top performers), but given how aero tri spoke + disc combos are IRL, we thought it would hold at least its own against other wheelsets. But that’s not at all the case.

Guessing that the dismal performance of these wheels was due to a configuration error on Zwift’s side, we asked Zwift if that was the case. And they said yes! The rear wheel has the wrong Crr setting, and this will be updated in the next Zwift update (which should release next week, March 19th, if they stick to their current schedule).

Until then, we’ll be duly impressed by anyone who can win a race on these wheels. Comment below if you’re brave enough to try!

Questions or Comments?

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