What setup are you comparing the 3% savings to? Did the original setup have bottles in a different location, or is it just comparing a no-bottle setup to the overarm hydration setup?

What’s the drag reduction for a haircut?

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Are these aero bottles actually useful (as in they can hold water), or are they merely pretending to be a water bottle in lieu of a fairing?

I’m not surprised. I was doing some prosthetic development work for a para cyclist ahead of the Tokyo Paralympic Games and I had a design that had a similar profile. From what we could gather, filling that void helped air over the shoulder or helped manage the airflow around the torso. I say it might do either of these things as orientation of the leading edge is crucial to making this work.

For anyone considering doing the same as the skipper system, the bottle orientation is going to need to be tailored to the individual and if you get it wrong, it could make things hell of a lot worse. Test, test, test.

Baseline, no bottles anywhere.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Funny you should mention that, my friend. That will be a YouTube Short this week as we actually tested it during the same session. Hint: getting rid of the hair yielded a larger drop in drag. Okay, I guess that's not really a hint, but the answer.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

I have been wondering if this set up could be in violation of this Ironman rule?

3. No tandems, fixed-gear bikes, recumbents, fairings, or any addon
device designed exclusively to reduce resistance are allowed.
Any new, unusual, or prototype equipment will be subject to a
determination of legality by the event organizer and/or Head
Referee.

Well, they are Elite aero bottles, and I guess you could, or would really need to, put some form of liquid in them for them to be legal. Whether or not they'd be used is a different story.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Yeah, I absolutely agree. Something like this needs to be customized to each individual. It was a quick fun test, but I don't think we'll see wide adoption. Bottles down the front of the kit, on the other hand, that's going to be more and more of a thing.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

I think because they're useable water bottles, it's not afoul of the rules just yet. I could see it being outlawed for safety reasons more than anything else even though our athlete had no problem with sight or getting to his brakes quickly. Still, I could see that being used as the excuse.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

I don’t suppose you tested a water bladder as opposed to bottles? A bladder is actually very useful as you can have the bite valve tucked up above your Tri kit and it easy to drink off. Mine can carry 70oz when full, great for long course as you don’t need as many bottles on the frame and it’s surprisingly comfortable. It tested a bit faster for me.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, SpeedFil, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim

We did test a 3 liter Camelbak bladder on one athlete and we’ll mention it in the video. There was a decent gain but not as good as the bottles (28 oz and 1.5 liter). If I remember correctly, and I’m old so maybe not, it landed between the two…or it didn’t, I forget. But it was a gain, or drop…however you want to say it. Lol.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

A 1.5 liter bottle with a bite valve would work great as the drawback to the bladder is it reduces in size as you drink it. Look forward to seeing your next video!

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, SpeedFil, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim

Thank you!

It doesn’t seem like IM actually cares about this rule. There’s been plenty of setups over the last few years that IMO directly violate this rule, but nothing has happened.

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that seems to be the interpretation so far but really its rubbish. if the bottles don't contain water then it should be a DSQ. should at least have to take the weight penalty, really should have to actually be used but that is hard to enforce.

still, lower priority than drafting and IM still don't seem to be bothered about stopping that...

If you blow back in after taking a drink you can reinflate it each time.

Very excited for this, just bought a 100oz camelbak I plan on stuffing down my front for a 70.3 next month. Plus the benefit of not having to use aid stations will put my mind at ease.

Also like the below posters suggestion of blowing back into it to ensure I look like a pufferfish the whole time.

We’ll be conducting a real world 12 and 20 meter test to identify the drag savings. Also, what happens when motorcycles are around. Should be interesting. We did something similar on the Velodrome about a decade ago, but outdoors will be more relevant.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Everyone going on about how these are just fairings. They started life as water bottles, so long as they are not permanently mounted they are still water bottles.

I feel like the other pros are calling foul bc they didnt think of it first.

well to be fair they are fairings and if going by the spirit of the law they most certainly would not be allowed. however, the letter of the law is what matters here and joe has said he puts a bit of liquid in them so they are technically for fueling and thus are allowed. it's a load of BS as we all know, but i don't mind someone pushing the limits where they can.

Probably a bit too dangerous but if you wanted to see a potentially very intriguing result, change and reverse the system mount so that the bottle sits behind the triceps. The prosthetics device I did filled in that void and the gain was massive.

Wow that'll be cool. Behind the triceps sounds safer actually than the Skipper setup. Getting to the brakes isn't an issue but maybe your legs would hit the bottles as you get on and off the bike.

What about adding a small chin rest to the "bottle holder" when you are in aero position to provide some neck/shoulder relief?

With my project you found the shape you needed to create to fit between the triceps and torso was a triangle in most cases - just like this bottle by the way. We had to scan the paracyclist in and then run an animation of them cycling to ensure we had the right clearances to avoid leg strikes or fouling.