I can't recall how many I've tested or the # of people I've tested them on.

Textured fabric is typically faster and Suit A on person 1 can be as much as 10-15w different compared to Suit A on person B

vs traditional 2 piece tri kit you can bank on about 10w savings, may be a touch more may be a touch less.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I just ordered a Castelli All Out Speed Suit, to replace my 2 piece kit with castelli stealth top and acillary shorts, so I hope i will win at least 5 w, maybe more.
How does this Suit generally perform amongst other tris suits?

Texture makes a difference for sure.




This is for one arm. Source;
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=6805894#p6805894

Another random reference is the epic thread discussing the Win Tunnel leg hair video. Note Chris Yu's anecdote about the tennis ball. Ok, a massive exaggeration compared to skinsuit texture, but it makes the point that texture can matter a great deal. Chris' post is in response to incredulity that such a drag difference can be seen without a corresponding difference in frontal area or shape.
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=5151060#p5151060

And then finally, most relevant is a post from the man himself on ST before he got fed up and left.

Chris Boardman wrote:

I'll give you one example though. In 2004 we wind tunnel tested 2 skinsuits on the same athlete, both were lycra, very simple in construction and fundamentally the same ot the naked eye. One skinsuit dropped the total drag, that's the rider and bike package, by 10% over the other. We couldn't believe this and so went back and tested again and again over a fairly broad speed range. It took us 3 years to un-pick most of why one garment was so much better than another, that suit (nicknamed the pixi suit) became the bases of a lot of the aero knowledge the GB team went on to gain.

Source;
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=4600517#p4600517

All of which doesn't necessarily answer your specific question, but it is certainly interesting.

Cheers,
Rich.

Given all the talk of textured surfaces, you've got to wonder whether fine stubble isn't actually the fastest skin surface on the arms & legs!

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29 years and counting

 
When Castelli PR will be available (few weeks probably), this one integrating boundary layer management (such as the Huub Anemoi, BioRacer, Endura D2Z, ...) we might have some more comparisons available.

Boundary layer management (texture or small vortex generators bringing "drag crisis" in reach at reasonable speed) is used in sports clothes for more than 20 years (much more for the golf balls), but being difficult to tune it is still not very frequent.

UCI recent restriction (limiting to 1mm the dots / lines / V shapes /...) will not help.

But Triathlon does not limit that, and many pros uses that :
Lange (Fusion custom, not available to the public)
Wurf (Castelli PR)
McNamee (Huub Anemoi)
Costes (look at his calves)
Tim Don (Endura with V shape on his sleeves)
...

Kipshoge was using that massively for the sub 2 attempt.

Problem : the slower you are, the most difficult to bring the drag crisis in action :-)

I've actually wondered about this. It wouldn't be hard to test out in the wind tunnel - maybe another video for the Specialized aero guys to test out. I know Cam Piper, so maybe I should suggest it.

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