The wait is over, after 5 years of development Scope launches its Time Trial (TT) and Triathlon platform with the all new Race series– Disc and R8.T wheels, a new benchmark in aerodynamics, developed in partnership with the Scope development partners.

Based on knowledge from the World Tour peloton, we developed the fastest wheelset for real-world conditions, using an integrated approach by taking into account the complete system including wheels, tires, bike, and rider. The intense partnership and development process resulted in a wheelset bringing up to 8% reduction in drag and 3.5-watt reduction in rolling resistance. Applied to a Grand Tour time trial of 30 km this results in a half a minute time win. For a full triathlon (180km) this will add up to a saving of almost three minutes.

As a baseline for the development of the Scope Time Trial and Triathlon platform we made use of the “TT Real World Data”. The data of this research was conducted over 25 valuable time trials from the World Tour at the Grand Tours and World Tour races. From this study we were able to conclude, among other things, what the most common wind speeds and incoming wind agles are at which the wheel must therefore perform best.

Derived from the study, the following conclusions have been our main development parameters.

·         The importance of aerodynamics in relation to rolling resistance.

·         The most common wind speed.

·         The Distribution of the incoming wind angles.

As a next step, together with our development partner Schwalbe we investigated the effect of wider tubeless tires versus aerodynamics. It was concluded that a 28 mm tubeless tire provided a significant reduction in rolling resistance compared to a 25 mm tire and allowed it to ride at a lower tire pressure providing additional comfort and grip.

However, since the aerodynamic penalty increases exponential when the speed increases, and at the same time, the front wheel encounters non-disturbed wind flows whereas the rear wheel is already disturbed by front wheel, bike and rider, our studies concluded that for the front wheel a 25 mm, and for the rear wheel a 28 mm tubeless tire provides the optimal set up.

Once the optimal tire width has been defined we started with the development of the rim profile making use of the Scope Algorithm Enhanced Aerodynamics (AEA). Instead of approaching the optimal rim-profile by making use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, our algorithm exactly calculates the optimum rim-profile making use of the pre-set real world data settings, guaranteeing the best aerodynamic performance.

The AEA algorithm resulted in a curved solid depth 28 mm width tubeless rear wheel (Race– Disc), and a 88 mm high 26 mm width front wheel (R8.T).

The first prototypes have been tested in the windtunnel to verify the design and further study the interaction of the wheels with tires, bike, and rider. Furthermore a benchmark study has been performed of which can be concluded that the Race – Disc provides up to 8% of reduction in drag, and the R8.T up to 4% reduction in drag. This makes the Race– Disc in combination with the R8.T the fastest TT / Triathlon wheelset available.

Based on UCI World Tour riders input, besides the optimization in aerodynamics and rolling resistance, as well we have been focusing on overall efficiency of the wheels, and preventing them from being too harsh and unforgiving like most current TT wheels.

With the wide range of material knowledge and application of various high tech engineering companies, we have found great support in the development of the Scope Race – Disc. We look forward to continuing these partnerships enabling us to keep challenging ourselves and stay up to date with the newest materials and technologies for our future products.

Scope development partners

Development never stops. Even though we do have some further ideas to improve the performance of the Race– Disc and R8.T we have decided to launch the MK1 as per direct. By making it available for the professional and competitive cyclist we follow our mission to improve the riding experience and contribute to the ongoing battle for marginal gains.

For the time being all Scope Race– Disc and R8.T wheels are hand-built by our engineers in the Scope Cycling Research Lab in The Netherlands. For that reason, availability is limited. In parallel, our engineers will continue their ambitions to further improve the set-up and make it available in serial production by early 2025.

The Race– Disc is available as per direct for a price of 1.998 EUR, and the R8.T for 998 EUR.

To place your order, get in touch with our sales team via mail: [email protected] or via phone: +31 (0) 40 298 66 04.