Hi, I am a road cyclist who is a bit of a fan of aerodynamics. Unfortunately there haven’t been too many windtunnel studies on the aerodynamics of standard road helmets. I posted this same question on weightweenies and didn’t get much of a reply (probably wrong place to post, right?). So now I am over here asking the like minded aero freaks on slowtwitch.
I doubt there is any wind tunnel data for standard road helmets so I am asking you lot to…guess! what the aero road helmets would be. Hopefully they are Weight Weenie, comfortable, LOOK GOOD and provide good ventilation aswell. IMO the better ventilation would increase the drag of a helmet.
There is 1 wind tunnel test ive found on the net which was between the giro atmos and the Ironman pro helmet. Apparently the ironman pro won the aero test pretty dominantly, this does not surprise me when you look at the shape of the atmos.
There have been several threads on here about road and aero helmets. I posted one last year where I tested several road models and then covered them with packing tape. It looks to me that if you want good ventilation, you are going to be out of luck on the aero results. Helmet design or looks are controlled more by the need to pass crash test than by looks. There are a lot of areas that have to get protected during impact and it requires thicker shells, the designers can hide that some by putting in a lot of vents. There are some road helmets that are significantly better than others however. Some Euro brands have a bunch of oval shaped holes tilted toward the front, all being located toward the top front of the helmet, you would pay a high aero price with that. I suspect that it will go like wheels have in the peleton, it took a few years but now all the teams have figured out that you use a lot of energy by riding “box” rims. Road helmets designed for improved aero will start showing up more and hopefully they can figure out better ventilation.
and provide good ventilation aswell. IMO the better ventilation would increase the drag of a helmet.