Does anyone know why the decision to go visor-less...is it not considered (or wind tunnel tested) to be less aero than with a visor? Perhaps the cooling effects of no visor counters any aero advantage?

Visor tested slower for him.

Did he used to go by the name rappster on this very forum????

no.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

What about Rappstar?

Yes, I mentioned Rominger earlier after being reminded of the Indurain exception, which was achieved via brute force.

---

http://www.cyclecoach.com
http://www.aerocoach.com.au

well, that would finally grant you a qualified answer! but i must tell you that i'm in regular communication with several people, all of whom participate on this forum, all of whom are definitely or possibly taking a crack at this, in aguascalientes. to the point where i'm seriously considering renting the darned place for a week, bringing down my own DCOs and officials, and timers, and making a slowtwitch party of out it. as to who these folks are, i'll let them into themselves and their plans to you if and when there are plans to announce.

---

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Yes! That and buy the wind tunnel for unlimited wind tunnel testing!

---

Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

A good article on his tech here for all the aero and training geeks:
https://road.cc/...penaerts-hour-record

Fantastic article, thank you. His beard stubble that seems to be in all pictures wasn't mentioned. Everything else seems to be shaved. Is beard stubble good on a bike?

---

Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

In addition to the help from the doc these items are interesting:

On Sunday we were all back in Bordeaux to run tests of the new technical elements: longer crank arms (175 mm) and a harder ratio (60x14; 9.02 meters). Tony flew. On Wednesday, November 2nd he covered 25 km from a standing start at an average of 54.622 km/h, without really giving his ‘all’. His lactic acid at the end of the trial was 2.6 mM/l; his average pulse rate: 171 beats/minute.

This stuff is also interesting:

In fact, it was calculted (4;6) that Rominger’s corporal surface exposed to air drag was about 13% less than Indurain’s.

The difference in efficiency (aerodynamic and other) was far higher. At 53.04 km/h, Indurain developed 509.5 Watts, while at the same speed Rominger put out 413 Watts—a difference of 23%.

It is also important to note that the rider’s track speed is anything but constant, presenting continued accelerations and decelerations corresponding to curves and straight-aways (5). There is even a significant variation in average speed per lap (6).

A heavy rider pays dearly for these accelerations—far more than a light-weight.

Finally, at these speeds the one-hour record, with the 442 curves Tony had to negotiate, became a kind of a ride through a ‘centrifuge’. Carrying 15 kg in weight and 13 cm in height more than his rival, Indurain clearly suffered more from the centrifugal force in the curves. This would have been due to the increased rolling friction (which is directly proportional to weight, and through the curves at these speeds the combined weight of bike plus rider virtually doubles), as well as to a more difficult vein blood return from the legs to the heart due to Indurain’s greater height.