Tom A. wrote:
Travis R wrote:
Tom A. wrote:
What's getting lost in all if this discussion is how well the "mixed material" Hed Jets did, not only aerodynamically, but also in regards to mass. They're within 26g of the Enve wheelset, which are considered to be relatively lightweight, and weigh LESS than the all-carbon TUBULAR Mavics. Also, did you catch the part about the wet braking performance of the HED Turbine brake tracks making them "reconsider the need for disc brakes on road bikes"? Where have we heard THAT before? ;-)
I haven't watched the video yet, but thought it was interesting that they compared the Jet 6/9 combo rather than a 9/9 combo, which I would think would be on more equal ground with the ENVE and Zipp wheelsets, aerodynamically. The 9/9 wheelset is 1795 grams (per HED), putting it equal to the Zipps, weight-wise.
According to the results, they already ARE on "equal ground" with the 6/9 combo...basically tied with the Enves and faster than the Zipps (using their "combined drag" figures...which I honestly can't say I'm completely in agreement with, however ;-)
Tom,
I immediately thought of your work when I saw that once again the HEDs were looking good in the tunnel.
Still, can you address the overall results of this "test"? I also thought of your work immediately when I started looking at the details of how this worked.
I'm not asking you to slam them, but can you address in whatever gentle, helpful manner you can come up with, about what should have been done differently here?
This test really, really troubles me, especially coming on top of their tire test results which felt similarly unreliable.
I had read older rolling resistance tests... and we have an engineer locally who does his own, and between those sources, bike tire rolling resistance, the Silca blog, November's stuff and especially your stuff, I think a careful reader than synthesize a fairly informed understanding of how drag, tire shape, wheel shape, surface texture, tire pressure and rolling resistance generally work... but this test seems to be something that would have been done 20 years ago before the careful thinking started.