Josh is totally right. I'll elaborate on the frames of reference for each claim I made in the Bicycling article very soon, but just so everyone knows most of the quotes were meant to be referenced for general cases (how you'd actually ride the bike, component, etc.). Another thing I'd like to preface everything with is that frontal area and drag are not everything! Disc and aero wheels (at certain yaw angles) can actually contribute forward thrust to the bike due to side forces involved. I'm not trying to say wear an aero helmet and ditch the wheels -- rather I'm trying to mention what should be done if you're trying to get faster on a budget. Cycling and triathlon are expensive sports and the general public should know that they aren't at a loss if they don't have a $10,000 bike!

I'll get into more detail over the next few days, but just know that I didn't make up the things I said in that article and I knew I'd need to back up a lot of the details. Dr. Kim Blair and I are extremely meticulous when we test (and when we release data). I apologize for the lack of context for a lot of the aero notes, but it was Bicycling's choice to not publish the details I included. However, I think the article points to some interesting things that haven't really been written down anywhere.

Thanks for all of your comments. -- Mark Cote, MIT Center for Sports Innovation

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Mark Cote
MITAerobike
Specialized Bicycle Components

fair comment, thank you.

however as per joshatzipp's comment, and jens'/my results too, it still appears that the aero benefits from helmets in particular are highly individual, and no general conclusions can yet be drawn. I look forward to the details..

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"Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly." — Francis Bacon

Well now that's just not true. There are data and test results all over the place. If you want to ignore the data, then fine. But don't say it's not out there. Cobb just posted some good helmet test data on this very site recently, and wheelset data abounds all over the place. Jens and plenty of others have been to wind tunnels and done field testing.

It is true that, for some reason, not everyone gets the same benefits from helmets (especially from the Prologue). But the Rocket and similar helmets (Bell, Giro) seem to produce very consistent positive results. But again -- to claim that "no-one has published any data...it's mere hearsay..." - that's just not true.

[reply]Cobb just posted some good helmet test data on this very site recently, and wheelset data abounds all over the place..
It is true that, for some reason, not everyone gets the same benefits from helmets (especially from the Prologue). [/reply]

Certainly there is lots of data to show well-documented and consistent improvements from aero wheels. There is no such data showing the same effect for aero helmets, as you admit - "not everyone gets the same benefit from helmets". So, to argue that helmets give more benefit than aero wheels, for all athletes, is nonsense: and I have not found any data yet published to support this argument.

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview