That is not surprising

First TriSports and now this. It just seems like there isn't enough testing to keep a dedicated facility open. Sorry it didn't work out.

We as a collective group should buy this given the amount we bicker regarding aeroness. Will Dan and Monty step in on this one... It seems much more up Dan's realm than Trisports was.

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Cue up the crowdfunding page.

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"Let the hate and critical comments commence."


For a while, a number of people on ST made it virtually a crusade to criticize this tunnel. Clearly the seller has a lot of bitterness over this experience. The concerns were that the tunnel was too small and that when it was originally set up there were problems with the instrumentation. I have no direct experience with the tunnel but I recall being taken aback at how far some people went to attack the tunnel. Perhaps they were right; I don't know. More recently it seemed that the criticism had softened due to improvements in their instrumentation and software but still a bit of skepticism.

I guess I take a different approach. I went to a very small (both physically and in terms of general visibility) and not well known tunnel near me and found the experience somewhat disappointing. I got some value from my trip, but the number of runs in the allotted time and quality of experience were not what I expected. I've never publicly called out this tunnel but I've also certainly never recommended it either. I did PM someone looking for intel on this tunnel and privately expressed some concerns and gave advice to that person on how they could make better use of their time than I had done. Should I have warned people about this tunnel? Due to the almost complete lack of discussion and awareness of the tunnel on ST I didn't feel it was my place to undermine his business. So not directly comparable as there has been a lot of discussion of Faster on ST.

As for anyone considering buying this tunnel, I wish them luck with their venture. For all the awareness of the importance of aero, there are really very few people doing field testing and a surprising number of people ready and willing to have a one hour fit from some guy in a shop, get their coordinates, and call it one and done. And the general results of many triathletes are a testament to the flaws in this process. Based on that I think the actual market for aero services is smaller than what one would think. But there might be a good opportunity for someone to involve the ST community in the project on an ongoing basis the way the Flo people did, and if they show transparency and honesty, a great deal of goodwill could be built from that. I'd also think it would require some creative thinking about how to provide a distinctive service that will inspire people to fork over their dollars. Perhaps an emphasis on an integrated process incorporating both fitting services and wind tunnel services; but done right that's a very labor-intensive process and would be very expensive.

Why? All the big companies were using them and everyone trusted their data!

/pink

Ha ha

Problem is, after purchasing it, you have to put it somewhere, and build a facility around it. There simply isn't enough business to justify the costs. A dirty little secret about most tunnels open to the public is they're all struggling financially. Aerospace dollars are drying up quickly and there are no sports that funnel enough business to them to keep the doors open. Unless you can conduct $200 aero tests in a place like SoCal where there are a large number of potential clients within driving distance, it just isn't going to happen.

With several companies releasing "aerosticks" in the coming year at the cost of a power meter, that is the future of aero testing. The numbers from the prototypes are looking good with repeatable and accurate data. Some people will buy them for themselves, while others will offer it as an inexpensive service and make a profit off selling products that test fast for the client. Your only overhead is time. I know I already have two locations scouted out for a service like this (Hello Fiesta Island!).

You couldn't give that facility to me for free. I just doesn't make sense anymore. And for them, obviously, it never did.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

The decline in triathlon participation has also dried up the market for mid to high end boutique retailers and services. Faster definitely was a step into progressing the sport and has a unique backstory. Sad to see them go, first the retail side, now the tunnel.

In regards to the aerosticks, I've been eagerly following the technology since as you stated a user can test themselves or get tested by a coach.

Here's a link to DC Rainmakers article on aerosticks: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...mantis-acquired.html

Initially I thought we could crowd fund a Slowtwitch Mobile tunnel: similar to how blood banks and mobile pet groomers operate. Place the tunnel into a toy hauler trailer / RV for the next Slowtwitch roadshow! Get fit and aero tested.....

Do you have actual data to back this up or are you just speaking off the cuff?

The mobile mini tunnel has been tried. Last time I heard it was sitting at the Olympic training center, probably collecting dust.

The Faster tunnel was criticized for being too small, but it is still frigging giant. Probably 8-9 feet tall and a rectangle of 60x25ft would be my guess. A major criticism was that it was too short and needed a longer section behind the fixture for the wake to realistically form.

I was working on a project with several tunnels around North America and beyond last year which included speaking with them about current finances, projected future earnings, etc. It's not a growth industry. I know one prominent tunnel just cut it's staff in half.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

'Peak aero' has well and truly been.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Re mobile wind tunnels; was there more than one? I recall one showing up at St Anthony's one year and it was a local service for awhile. Then it disappeared.

I want my own tunnel, it is comming

http://notiokonect.com/

This makes me weep for the poor load cells that are supposed to measure the drag in this deal. Driving them on the road would do them no favor, and wind tunnel balances in general have traditionally been very high end & sensitive things in order to be accurate. So either this thing didn't have a prayer of being accurate, it was accurate when first build and soon fell out of calibration on it's first road trip, or the people designing this are way smarter than I give them credit for.

I think there was a thread here about accuracy, etc. when it first came out. But whether it was or wasn't; the most likely reason it didn't survive is that wind tunnel testing for triathletes is a minuscule market.

Might be here already.

http://cdacrr.blogspot.com/

Granted it probably won't have the polish of the commercial versions, but I think the physics of the application is pretty solid and the sensors aren't that different.