First, this is not a sneaky marketing ploy. I asked Dan for permission to post this and I'm honestly seeking some feedback from you fine folks. Okay, disclaimer out of the way.
A little primer to begin. Anyone who's done extensive aero testing knows one of the major time/money sucks is adjusting the client's bike. Moving aero bars up or down, in or out...it can take a lot of time, and therefore wastes a lot of money. For velodrome testing, this also has a secondary negative effect on the athlete because they stiffen up while waiting, and the results are impacted, sometimes significantly. What I've always wanted was to ditch the client's bike, and instead use a rolling fit bike for position, helmets, clothing, etc. Take the bike out of the equation, allow quick adjustments, and be more efficient and more accurate.
A little over a year ago, Nick Salazar from TriRig showed me the drawings for his Alpha One aero bar, and I immediately recognized he was giving me a solution for the above problem. That bar turned any bike it would fit into a semi-fit bike. Adjustments that might take 15-30 minutes before would now take seconds. It would save time, money, and be far more accurate. I envisioned conducting a fit on our fit bike in the studio, replicating the position on a bike with an Alpha One, and then heading down to the track to test different variations of the fit to find the athlete's most aero position. The athlete would be simultaneously testing the position for comfort and power, so he/she would know whether or not it would work for them. No longer would an aero test take 2-3 hours, we could now test several positions in 1 hour or less. Less time on the track means less cost, so the price of aero testing could be reduced, and certainly I knew once we had an aero stick we could trust, well, outside is a lot cheaper than a velodrome or wind tunnel. I now had a way to very quickly quantify position changes, and provide another level of bike fit not previously possible; at least not at a reasonable price point. And that, folks, is the idea behind our new "ERO Dynamic" service. As an add-on to your fit, or as a stand alone service, we use our own bike fleet, coupled with Alpha One aero bars, to quickly and efficiently test position either on the velodrome or in the wind tunnel. The question was, what bike should I use?
I actually had two "major" brands offering up bikes, and Nick had very generously offered to provide me with Alpha One's. The two bike brands were perfectly good bikes, and I (& you) would've been happy using either of them, but then Nick stepped in and asked why I didn't want to use his Omni bike? Honestly, I would never have had the courage to ask. Just the offer of the aero bars was more than I could ever expect. TriRig has obviously been successful, but it's still a small operation compared to the companies I was talking to, and I thought requesting the use of Omni's would be going way too far. Well, to keep this short, we now have a size run of Omni's with Alpha One's! The service is officially "ERO Dynamic Powered by TriRig" and I'm thrilled to be partnering with Nick on this.
That's the background, but now I need some feedback. The service will be exactly what I describe above, but it can also be used for quick testing of helmets and clothing. So, I have some questions. Some are regarding price, so be realistic for me. We can't give away our time.
Thank you all in advance for your answers. I'll try to respond as quickly as possible to any questions you may have.
Jim Manton / ERO Sports
A little primer to begin. Anyone who's done extensive aero testing knows one of the major time/money sucks is adjusting the client's bike. Moving aero bars up or down, in or out...it can take a lot of time, and therefore wastes a lot of money. For velodrome testing, this also has a secondary negative effect on the athlete because they stiffen up while waiting, and the results are impacted, sometimes significantly. What I've always wanted was to ditch the client's bike, and instead use a rolling fit bike for position, helmets, clothing, etc. Take the bike out of the equation, allow quick adjustments, and be more efficient and more accurate.
A little over a year ago, Nick Salazar from TriRig showed me the drawings for his Alpha One aero bar, and I immediately recognized he was giving me a solution for the above problem. That bar turned any bike it would fit into a semi-fit bike. Adjustments that might take 15-30 minutes before would now take seconds. It would save time, money, and be far more accurate. I envisioned conducting a fit on our fit bike in the studio, replicating the position on a bike with an Alpha One, and then heading down to the track to test different variations of the fit to find the athlete's most aero position. The athlete would be simultaneously testing the position for comfort and power, so he/she would know whether or not it would work for them. No longer would an aero test take 2-3 hours, we could now test several positions in 1 hour or less. Less time on the track means less cost, so the price of aero testing could be reduced, and certainly I knew once we had an aero stick we could trust, well, outside is a lot cheaper than a velodrome or wind tunnel. I now had a way to very quickly quantify position changes, and provide another level of bike fit not previously possible; at least not at a reasonable price point. And that, folks, is the idea behind our new "ERO Dynamic" service. As an add-on to your fit, or as a stand alone service, we use our own bike fleet, coupled with Alpha One aero bars, to quickly and efficiently test position either on the velodrome or in the wind tunnel. The question was, what bike should I use?
I actually had two "major" brands offering up bikes, and Nick had very generously offered to provide me with Alpha One's. The two bike brands were perfectly good bikes, and I (& you) would've been happy using either of them, but then Nick stepped in and asked why I didn't want to use his Omni bike? Honestly, I would never have had the courage to ask. Just the offer of the aero bars was more than I could ever expect. TriRig has obviously been successful, but it's still a small operation compared to the companies I was talking to, and I thought requesting the use of Omni's would be going way too far. Well, to keep this short, we now have a size run of Omni's with Alpha One's! The service is officially "ERO Dynamic Powered by TriRig" and I'm thrilled to be partnering with Nick on this.
That's the background, but now I need some feedback. The service will be exactly what I describe above, but it can also be used for quick testing of helmets and clothing. So, I have some questions. Some are regarding price, so be realistic for me. We can't give away our time.
- For position testing, which would last about an hour on the velodrome, or 20 minutes in a wind tunnel (I can explain how that would work later), what would you expect to pay? Current velodrome aero test price is $699 for 2 hours. One hour in the San Diego tunnel, which we'll be using, is ~$800, but you can't really reserve the tunnel for just one hour.
- If you wanted to test 1 helmet vs another, or one item of clothing vs another, what would you expect to pay? This could be accomplished very quickly with helmets, but let's say these would be 30 minute tests on the velodrome. Much quicker in the tunnel with proper planning depending on how many yaw sweeps you want.
- Would it be more attractive to you if part of the testing payment went towards the purchase of the chosen helmet or clothing delivered to your door a few days after your test?
- Do you think it would be better to have a set per item price for testing helmets or clothing? $100 per item. $50 per item? etc.
- We're considering touring the U.S. with this service. We would be conducting both fits and aero testing. Is this of interest to you? And, yes, I would be fitting.
- In relation to the above, would you simply be interested in test riding an Omni? Would you pay a small fee to do so? Would you expect that fee to be applied to the purchase of an Omni if you decided you wanted the bike?
- Do you think this is better as an add-on to a fit, or a standalone service where we replicate your current position, and test variations? As an add-on, we can identify the changes we want to try on the fit bike prior to testing.
- Do you think it should cost less as an add-on rather than a standalone service?
- What don't you like about this service?
Thank you all in advance for your answers. I'll try to respond as quickly as possible to any questions you may have.
Jim Manton / ERO Sports