Whats up guys and gals,
Well I made a trip down to A2 and came away faster, as is my experience from testing; however, had I run blind with what I had chosen that would still be the case. Nevertheless, knowing allows me to not worry about the aero aspect of my training and just sight in on the one remaining pillar to get as fast as I can this season, which is producing more watts. Also, we had some interesting quarks that i’ll touch on here, but dive deeper into during an upcoming YouTube live with DesertDude.
Onto the testing. I had a few threads leading up to this round of testing where I touched on some things I wanted to sort out. One was my position in macro. I had come up quite a bit in pad stack and learned to shrug my shoulders much better. If you would like the back story I covered that in this Thread. The second was whether to use gloves for Time Trial’ing or to go bare hands and that was covered in this Thread. The last and the one that had a lot of interest for folks was the benefit of high hands, which got a lot of views and conversation here. Anyhow, onto the good stuff.
Position
Final 2014 CdA(m2) 0.198 @0º
Initial 2019 CdA(m2) 0.197 @0º
So, what may look like on the surface as a slower position is actually working pretty well for me. Now, would I be more aero in the lower position? Maybe. Two caveats to that, though. My pads cannot be as narrow in the lowest stack position as they are now and I have a hell of a time making good power consistently when that low. I had raced a middle ground pad Y (Pretty close to my current position) the last couple of years, but that too has become untenable in terms of power production.
Slammed (most comparable to my 2014 tunnel position):
Middle Ground:
Yes I made some equipment changes, which makes this not a true apples to apples. But I came up more than 6cm from 2014. And if making equipment changes allows me to keep my CdA(m2) close while improving power production, then that is a win-win.
High Hands
While I had time left to test this out, two things were working against me: a winter storm that would make travel a mess and money. I chose not to worry about this, but I promise it will be a topic Brian and I cover if you so chose to listen/watch.
Gloves
Gloves proved to be slower at all angles tested (data posted below).
The other takeaways
These I hadn’t started a recent thread on: helmets are little to no difference maker for me (probably a few reasons for that, but this post is already long enough); Velotoez had a really remarkable difference at 2.5º, but nothing at 0º and 5º; Trip socks….yeah they’re better than socks (duh).
Data
If you would like to see any images from these runs just ask and I shall comply. ;)
Oh, and the link to the Live if you want to get some more direct interaction and or listen to DesertDude and I analyze the data and add in our conjecture:
Legend
BP3 – Castelli Body Paint 3
NP – NoPinz Trip Suit
SWTT – S-Works TT Helmet
Aerohead – Giro Aerohead
Selector – Giro Selector
WASP – Lazer WASP Long Tail
Gloves – AeroCoach Speed Attack Gloves
Trip Socks – NoPinz Trip Socks
Velotoez – Velotoez Shoe only covers
Testing Protocol
- Everything was tested at 0º, 2.5º, and 5º
- BP3 w/POC original baseline (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC new baseline (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- S-works w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- Aerohead w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- Selector w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- WASP w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC and Gloves (Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC and trip socks (no gloves, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC, Trip socks, and Shoe covers (no gloves)
My YouTubes
Well I made a trip down to A2 and came away faster, as is my experience from testing; however, had I run blind with what I had chosen that would still be the case. Nevertheless, knowing allows me to not worry about the aero aspect of my training and just sight in on the one remaining pillar to get as fast as I can this season, which is producing more watts. Also, we had some interesting quarks that i’ll touch on here, but dive deeper into during an upcoming YouTube live with DesertDude.
Onto the testing. I had a few threads leading up to this round of testing where I touched on some things I wanted to sort out. One was my position in macro. I had come up quite a bit in pad stack and learned to shrug my shoulders much better. If you would like the back story I covered that in this Thread. The second was whether to use gloves for Time Trial’ing or to go bare hands and that was covered in this Thread. The last and the one that had a lot of interest for folks was the benefit of high hands, which got a lot of views and conversation here. Anyhow, onto the good stuff.
Position
Final 2014 CdA(m2) 0.198 @0º
Initial 2019 CdA(m2) 0.197 @0º
So, what may look like on the surface as a slower position is actually working pretty well for me. Now, would I be more aero in the lower position? Maybe. Two caveats to that, though. My pads cannot be as narrow in the lowest stack position as they are now and I have a hell of a time making good power consistently when that low. I had raced a middle ground pad Y (Pretty close to my current position) the last couple of years, but that too has become untenable in terms of power production.
Slammed (most comparable to my 2014 tunnel position):
Middle Ground:
Yes I made some equipment changes, which makes this not a true apples to apples. But I came up more than 6cm from 2014. And if making equipment changes allows me to keep my CdA(m2) close while improving power production, then that is a win-win.
High Hands
While I had time left to test this out, two things were working against me: a winter storm that would make travel a mess and money. I chose not to worry about this, but I promise it will be a topic Brian and I cover if you so chose to listen/watch.
Gloves
Gloves proved to be slower at all angles tested (data posted below).
The other takeaways
These I hadn’t started a recent thread on: helmets are little to no difference maker for me (probably a few reasons for that, but this post is already long enough); Velotoez had a really remarkable difference at 2.5º, but nothing at 0º and 5º; Trip socks….yeah they’re better than socks (duh).
Data
If you would like to see any images from these runs just ask and I shall comply. ;)
Oh, and the link to the Live if you want to get some more direct interaction and or listen to DesertDude and I analyze the data and add in our conjecture:
Legend
BP3 – Castelli Body Paint 3
NP – NoPinz Trip Suit
SWTT – S-Works TT Helmet
Aerohead – Giro Aerohead
Selector – Giro Selector
WASP – Lazer WASP Long Tail
Gloves – AeroCoach Speed Attack Gloves
Trip Socks – NoPinz Trip Socks
Velotoez – Velotoez Shoe only covers
Testing Protocol
- Everything was tested at 0º, 2.5º, and 5º
- BP3 w/POC original baseline (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC new baseline (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- S-works w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- Aerohead w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- Selector w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- WASP w/NP (no gloves, Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC and Gloves (Merino socks, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC and trip socks (no gloves, no shoe covers)
- NP w/POC, Trip socks, and Shoe covers (no gloves)
My YouTubes