To add to this, the aluminum rim, Bontrager Aura, is within 0.5-1w of its full carbon D3 counterpart and can be found for <500$.

Aluminum brake tracks for teh win.

How close are these aero road bikes getting to tri bikes time wise?

the frames alone are basically identical.

drop bars are a 20 to 60 second per 40k penalty though.

and then whether the road bike can support your ideal TT position and still handle well, is the main concern.

But if you can get in your ideal position on an S5, and put an aero cockpit on it, you are basically on a p5

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Hi! :-)

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

Big time...

---

http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

How close are these aero road bikes getting to tri bikes time wise?

They're pretty close if you set them up with TT parts.

Roadies have a strong preference for full carbon clinchers these days.

? Nobody I know unless they have money to burn. Full carbon *tubulars* for racing on the other hand...

If you're going to deal with crappy braking, they might as well be light?

---

/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

As a way of unwinding after racing tonight* I digitised a few curves
Note that the Giant and Felt have Di2 while the other two have mech.
I guess the consolation for Peter Sagan is that his new bike is much faster than the old one (as is the helmet)


Bit surprised at Cervelo not ruling the near zero yaw points, that's normally their domain.


*yes, numbers are relaxing for me

Interesting. Can you put the Canyon on there too?


Maybe that's the consequence of fattening up the head- and downtubes to increase stiffness.

curious to your input- what is the purpose of the semi-aero then? If you were choosing a roadie, depending on the geography where you ride, wouldnt you only choose an aero or light bike? is the semi-aero simply the 'first step' to the current generation aero bikes?

Ps- i have a foil and i love how that thing sprints!

So its not about the bike... its about the rider...

---

-- Aaron Davidson

Do you know what the delta was between the s2/3 and s5. I don't have the raw data. I know Damon said if they were set up identically he said it was around .005 CdA.

---

---

Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook

Swissside Hadrons being the aero equal to the Zipp 404s comes as no surprise to me. I used to own Zipp 404 FCs but made the switch to Hadrons last year when I was looking for an 11 speed compatible wheelset. I have been very happy with the Hadrons. Weight is only slightly higher than the 404s and I really like having aluminum brake tracks. The Zipps seem to be better built (they better be given they are 2.5x more expensive) and are quiet versus the loud rushing noise that the Hadrons make. If price were no object I would probably be back on ZIPPs, but this would be for vanity reasons rather than performance reasons - nothing wrong with that.

Well if you believe that you fully aero bikes aren't stiff enough or comfy enough, then a semi aero bike makes sense.

If you can't get a fully aero road bike down to the minimum weight limit, and you tend to make your move on big climbs, then a semi aero frame might make sense.

If you just like having a light bike for the fun of it, then an semi-aero bike makes sense.

If I had tour de france talent, and was racing a mountain stage, I might look and see whether the R5 would let me run deeper wheels at the weight limit and be overall faster than the S5 with shallow wheels.

semi aero bikes are usually cheaper than their full aero counterparts. An R3 is a lot cheaper than an s5

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

It is about both.
Probably 98% rider in a road race.
or 95% if you include tires. =)

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Or of having mechanical cables instead of di2?
Though I think difference would be minimal with that handlebar

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

If you're going to deal with crappy braking, they might as well be light?

Yep, and expensive brake pads that work by *melting*.

I really wanted ultra light carbon tubies for a couple NRC races last year.
#mountaintopfinish

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I really wanted ultra light carbon tubies for a couple NRC races last year.
#mountaintopfinish

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Except that if you had tour de france talent, when you are making a move in the mountains, you are going close to 20 mph, so maybe even being over the weight limit with a S5 with deep wheels is still faster. Which makes sense because they are all attacking in the big ring, or not when Shleck's chain fell off when he had to shift into it. TDF level talent is scary.

Yes, it would need to be a steep mountain.
Might also make sense in the mountains to run a shallow rear deep front, if there are no technical descents or low wind on the day.

I've seen that done in some domestic pro races.

These would all be very very fine hairs we would be splitting though

---

---

Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I will never forget the smell of melted brake pads on a set of carbon clinchers.

---

Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Ex-cyclist wrote:

Do you know what the delta was between the s2/3 and s5. I don't have the raw data. I know Damon said if they were set up identically he said it was around .005 CdA.

Unsurprisingly that was one of the first data sets I digitised



If I apply a symmetrical distribution, centred on 8deg and covering the full sweep it yields a weighted average difference of 0.0045. Obviously wheels are different but other bikes show them to be very close in performance.
It would appear that, unlike many in the industry, Damon doesn't just make numbers up. Also gives more credibility to this test.

According to Felt the mechanical cables add 7w@25mph on the AR. On the AR that's with the cables running into the downtube vs. behind the stem with electronic. The S5 runs the derailleur cables behind the stem which is more aero. But still, I'd bet di2 S5 saves at least 2-3w at 30mph. I believe Superdave said the drag of cable housing is proportional to the length of cable housing exposed to the wind.