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Tioga Disk Drive Rear Wheel
Circa 1990
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On display in Bikeman's Museum is a brand new, never ridding, Tioga Disk Drive Geodesic Webbing rear wheel. This is possibly one of the trickest rear mountain bike wheels to date. The webbing is not a cover over spokes it is
the support structure of the wheel. This wheel uses a 32 Hole Deore XT rear hub laced to a Mavic 231 rim. The webbing has rings that clip onto small hooks coming through the spoke holes in the rim. The hooks are threaded and can be tighteded to true the wheel. This interface is shown in the
pictures below.
Beyond looking cool, the wheel sounded cool as well. It produced a hollow sounding hum as you cruised down the trail. As cool as it was and as nice as it rode there were several downers to overcome. The major downfall was that the hooks holding the webbing
in place where prone to snapping. The wheel came with a pile of extra hooks and you will need them. The other problem was inflating the tire. The webbing didn't provide much space to get your pump head on the Presta valve. This problem was engineered by placing a small hole in the webbing a couple
of inches above the valve hole. You where then provided with a flexible valve extender that fit in through the hole and threaded onto your valve. Not ideal for a quick fill on race day but it did the trick. The last noticable problem came when you had to retrue or tension the wheel. all asjustments
where made from the inside of the rim under the rim strip. So to true the wheel you had to take the tire, tube and rimstrip out and tension the hooks.
An excellent find from Bikeman's Museum!
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click to enlarge
Classic look, great spec, and smooth ride, everything you look for in a cross bike.
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