UV isn't that great for carbon. You need something to protect it.
Usually a lot of weight in paint (especially if white) so you can make your bike faster by taking off the thick Cervelo standard paint and doing something lighter.

Stripping the paint is ever so slightly going to reduce the A in CdA but I have had the same question as you for a long time.

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With regards to aerodynamics, so long as any surface inconsistencies are smaller than the boundary layer there will be no aerodynamic difference. In theory you'll reduce frontal area but not by enough to matter.

When I did carbon repair on my road race bike, the paint sanding is a lot of work to get to the carbon.

But, as soon as you hit carbon, you have little way of perfect paint removal without also sanding carbon. Since in a repair you are net adding carbon layers, it’s a wash.

Meaning if you’re not doing a repair, leave it be.

Also, things that strip paint ruin carbon epoxy.

The Trek project one custom offers a vapor coat option right? ... No clear coat, some kind of flash spray that could leave areas of exposed carbon... 1000 bucks and saves a net 45grams

The lamborghini element only has clear coat to save weight, but that's a lot bigger than a bike

I've been thinking of doing the same thing to my '12 S5.
I bought it used, so no warranty to worry about, and it's white paint, so it should be easy to sand only paint and not touch the carbon (much). Then a light spray of black over top and a light clearcoat should seal everything up nice and tight!

With a rider aboard you need more frontal area to deflect air flow around the rider's legs and torso.

So bigger is better. One of the reasons the P5X was designed the way it is and the German bikes have the big lunch box up front.

Without a rider - different deal of course.

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So you're saying that the 3T Exploro is more aero than the Speed Concept (with a rider onboard Ceteris Paribus)? The notion of deflecting air around the rider is... ambitious... given the dimensions of current bikes. You could accomplish it to a degree at the fork but certainly not at the head or down tube.

I've seen mixed reviews out there on this product..

http://www.paintlifting.com/


Anyone around here use this CarboLift stuff? Doubt it's as easy as the youtube video. But, I'm thinking of giving it a shot. And, if it doesn't get all of the paint off, I'll sand the remaining spots. And, if that's too tedious or above my pay grade, I gotta guy.


Any DIYers or Paint Gurus out there tried CarboLift?

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"Outwork your talent." Kevin McHale

Changing the surface finish will change the boundary layer profile; but as long as it's reasonably smooth, I doubt there'll be any measurable impact. I expect it would take relatively large surface features over significant portions of the frame cause any appreciable BL energisation by turbulation, or separation. You're not likely to see anything significant and certainly not something that could be usefully predicted here.

That's really extrapolating a specific idea into a general rule such that it no longer makes sense.

More bike frame volume may be beneficial aerodynamically, IF it acts as a fairing to reduce rider drag. However, I don't consider it valid to say all frame frontal area is beneficial. In fact speaking in terms of frontal area somewhat belies the misunderstanding IMO. If all frontal area were equal the bike would be no better than the rider. It's not. Therefore a bike, or a fairing, CAN be better, but is not automatically better. Since the characteristic area will not reduce (it will increase or remain static), you must improve the drag cooefficient to make any gain and that is not automatically achieved by increasing bike volume.

Hi Ai_1,

Correct. When I was at Cervelo we confirmed drag of the first final production bike after having already tested rapid prototypes and then unpainted mold splashes. When surface geometry was the same (no CAD revisions), we could measure no difference.

Cheers,
Damon

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Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager,
CSG Road Engineering Department
Cannondale & GT Bicycles
(ex-Cervelo, ex-Trek, ex-Velomax, ex-Kestrel)