A lot of you have seen the information start trickle out from the AeroCamp that Brian Stover of Accelerate3 an I put on with the help of Jim Manton of ERO Sports and Andy Froncioni of Alpamantis. This was a first of it's kind camp and will help serve as a model for other such camps around the world using the Alphamantis system. For all of us I feel like it was really about bringing this technology and experiences to the masses. It is something that was proven to be very valuable for the age grouper and not just something that pros have access to.
First of all I want to thank the staff at the Stub Hub Velo Sports center for clearing the facility and making it possible to test most of the day on Saturday and all day on Sunday. Also a big thanks to Jim and Bryan from Ero Sports for going above and beyond the call of duty to help us pull this thing off.
The best thing I can do is to try to summarize over 140 runs by saying, you think know, but you really don't. We were constantly surprised by what worked for people. Often times what worked for one person would be much worse for others. We found a general trend in helmets and ones that tested consistently well across the board. However, the best helmet for me was not what worked best for Brian.
Some rules of thumb, position trumps all. Two of the camper lost nearly 45 and 67 watts of drag just due to position alone. Next would be helmets and then clothing. After personally seeing a nearly 18 watt drop I think that clothing is really the next frontier. Again it has to fit well, otherwise the needle moves in the opposite direction. Hydration was interesting as well. Some products work better on some frames than they do others. Big round straws are bad and a BTA bottle generally was neutral.
I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of stuff and those that attended will be able to chime in with their own data. Personally I'm happy to share mine and I'm sure Brian will be too.
My CdA went from .2643 down to .2267
The story on the front page is here:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/..._Aero_Camp_4145.html
Just a note to the aero geeks, I can speak in CdA but for most people watts seem to work better. I am all for getting people to think in CdA though.
Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook
First of all I want to thank the staff at the Stub Hub Velo Sports center for clearing the facility and making it possible to test most of the day on Saturday and all day on Sunday. Also a big thanks to Jim and Bryan from Ero Sports for going above and beyond the call of duty to help us pull this thing off.
The best thing I can do is to try to summarize over 140 runs by saying, you think know, but you really don't. We were constantly surprised by what worked for people. Often times what worked for one person would be much worse for others. We found a general trend in helmets and ones that tested consistently well across the board. However, the best helmet for me was not what worked best for Brian.
Some rules of thumb, position trumps all. Two of the camper lost nearly 45 and 67 watts of drag just due to position alone. Next would be helmets and then clothing. After personally seeing a nearly 18 watt drop I think that clothing is really the next frontier. Again it has to fit well, otherwise the needle moves in the opposite direction. Hydration was interesting as well. Some products work better on some frames than they do others. Big round straws are bad and a BTA bottle generally was neutral.
I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of stuff and those that attended will be able to chime in with their own data. Personally I'm happy to share mine and I'm sure Brian will be too.
My CdA went from .2643 down to .2267
The story on the front page is here:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/..._Aero_Camp_4145.html
Just a note to the aero geeks, I can speak in CdA but for most people watts seem to work better. I am all for getting people to think in CdA though.
Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook