Reach out to desertdude or excyclist here on the forums. They run "Aerocamp" and, as I understand it, Heath (excyclist) will sometimes make trips to A2 for individuals or small groups. He oversaw my test along with the tunnel tech/owner Geoff. Overall, I was very pleased with my trip to A2 which you can read about here. I'd already done a lot of "homework" by field testing so there wasn't a lot of low-hanging fruit for me. IIRC, I only found ~7 watts. Some people find 20 watts +.

I don't recall seeing any Speed Concept parts on the wall at A2. They have a whole assortment of wheels (I recall Zipp and Mavic), various aerobar extensions, tons of helmets, and plenty of hydration options. IMO, I'd have your fit pretty dialed in prior to going to the tunnel. Your best return on investment in the tunnel testing helmets, kit (sleeved vs sleeveless and different brands), hydration, and extensions/arm position. If you have the 2014+ Speed Concept (which uses the monospacer for stack adjustment) the front end actually adjusts pretty quickly. IMO, no need to fiddle with base bar stack/reach so no reason to fiddle with the stem (that does take a lot of time).

How much do the A2 guys use their combined experience to help drive what you are testing? Or do they have the attitude of just test what you want?

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

I might not be the best guy to answer that question. I went in there with a very specific ordinal list of things to test.

I would suggest backing up a step and thinking about where you are at and what you want to achieve. If your position is pretty well dialed in and you wouldn't be comfortable changing it, then you probably want to test equipment. Helmet, skin suit, gloves, hydration and optimize other equipment choices. Also consider the yaw angles you will encounter. If you do Oly distance stuff with higher speeds and calmer morning conditions, then you don't need to test At more than 0 and maybe 5 degrees. Kona is lower speeds and pretty windy, so maybe you care more about 0-10 degrees. If you haven't worked on position, then the fit for the different positions you might try is just as important as the tunnel.

If you just wanted to test equipment then San Diego, A2, Seattle, Faster, and maybe Texas A&M are all options. San Diego has the reputation as the most accurate/repeatable, but I think anyone of them will work for what you would probably do because you will probably spend most of your time on stuff where the drag difference is 2-5 watts. Bang for the buck is probably A2 and Faster (people bitch about Faster because of size and other issues, but I didn't see anything that raised red flags when I went with a number of other people and we compared spreadsheets).

If you are interested in fit/position and you aren't worried about high -yaw results, then I would certainly consider ERO. Jim is well known as an excellent fitter and you can probably do the fits and have the necessary equipment figured out and lined up the day before you start testing. The worst result you can get out of a tunnel session is a position you have to modify because you can't ride it once you get home. If you can ride it on the track there is a really good chance you won't have fit problems later.

We do test what you want but we use our knowledge to make sure that the testing decisions are smart and make sense. No need to test B before A. Sometimes after testing A there is no reason to test B at all.

It's pretty rare when someone sends us a set run list prior to testing that we don't make modifications to it. I mean we're there to make sure you have the best testing session you can have.

fwiw we're booking in October post IMH, if you're interested. PM me.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I'm a big proponent of just doing your own Aerolab/Chung style testing.

What's missing is expertise in some cases, e.g. smart people who can quickly guide you to places where you're likely to get benefit. E.g. D-Dude or Jim.

And also accuracy.

But I've found my own aero testing to be highly repeatable and able to reliably detect pretty small differences. And I can just do an hour or so every Sunday morning and develop a pretty good personal database of what I see.

So wind tunnels/expertise are great if you just want to spend some money and a day and be done with it.

Self-testing is good if you want to immerse yourself in the craft.

the SC riser stem issue is interesting. I would suggest looking at the SlowTwitch article on fitting the SC and the table of stem /spacer combinations in the Trek white paper. your current bike Pad X and Y can probably be achieved using a combination of different stems and spacers. I think most of the SC come with the medium rise stem. I would check what you have in terms of spacer and stem. You can use this info and pictures of your current position to work with fitter/tunnel people. These guys/gals have a pretty good sense of what changes you should try. If you probably need to go lower then make sure you go in with a spacer setup that will allow you to drop the necessary distance without touching the stem.

Then look and see where you would be in terms of fit using the low rise stem. I think the fastest setup will be the low stem and whatever pedestal it takes to hit your position. This is the combination that minimizes frontal area and has the least truncation of the airfoil. This is a guess, but I was looking at the TTT pictures from Trek/Segafedo and everyone is on the low stem. Too bad Carl doesn't work for Trek anymore and regular check the SC thread.

The other trick is to get the mono-extension thing that allows you to use your own extensions. In another thread Jim Manton was talking about how changing had position saved Amber Nieben 6 watts, which is pretty huge for someone who has already won TT Worlds.

Finally, if you test in the tunnel pull the cables out and use the set screws in the derailleur. Or better yet just get ETap. You don't even need to put the BlipBox or buttons on the bike. They can shift gears for you from the control room if needed and it is one less thing to worry about.

Wind tunnel? Sounds expensive -- you must be a Dentist.

This is all really good advice, especially that first sentence. A lot of people wind tunnel test who really don't need to be in the tunnel yet.