Are you doing this for the track/velodrome strictly or also out on the roads as well?
If A you’re probably on the right track, for the roads you may bo on the slower road if the numerous wind tunnel tests we’ve done are an indication
Road, time trial, no track yet, but that’s next on the list (on another bike). Trying to modify my hand position upward a bit, influenced by Matt Bottrill’s positioning. Perhaps praying mantis is poor use of terminology on my part, as his hands aren’t extremely high, just higher than most. I’ve been experimenting every month, and when I’m stacking my hands and lowering my head, I can feel the airflow and turbulence dissipate from under my chin. I just need to bring my hands up a bit more than where they are now, so I can be a little more stable (with my hands stacked, I’m barely contacting the bar ends, just with pinky and thumb on one hand, not entirely comfortable with that).
I have 15-degree 3D-printed angled shims for my Trinity elbow cups, and can shave them down, to modify as needed. The next item is extensions which bring my hands up some. I’ll assemble it all and then tune position over the course of a month of testing while doing laps on the local course.
When you talk about WT testing, I would be interested to learn about it in detail if possible, are there published results posted which I could read? I’ve read several WT testing posts, reviewed photos and videos, and love learning about this.
The thing I’ve realized while tuning position with elbow cup height, fore-aft, and width position, and hand position, is that everything matters—it’s a multi-part puzzle to decode. When I lowered and then narrowed the position of my elbow cups, I then moved them forward as well to open up the chest more for easier breathing, and it additionally slacked the angle of my upper arms more which benefitted aero.
At this point, I’m tuning head and hand position, pretty comfortable with elbow height/width/fore-aft position. This photo below was from before I dropped another 20mm spacer out from under the elbow cups. Really comfortable with breathing, width, height in the front, fore-aft elbow position, and now experimenting with hands stacked (unlike in this photo where I have them side-by-side), I can feel there is some more hand work to do for a cohesive aero package. I stretch regularly, am flexible and can adjust to almost anything. So experimenting with positions has been really fun and educational, not painful. WT access would be great, I just don’t have it for now. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to experiment, test on a consistent course, and feeling what the airflow is doing while out on the bike.
One of the things I’m keeping in mind through all of this as well is, aero is very important, but it’s not the only thing. I have to be comfortable, breathe well, put out power well. Once I do some more aero tuning with hands on my own, I’m going to get tested in a controlled environment. Looking forward to that, but also enjoying learning without that benefit and using airflow I feel on the bike, speed, power and reasonable comfort (if you can call it that) to guide me. It’s been almost comical as well, realizing how important saddle height, fore-aft, angle and even saddle design plays into all of this. I’m on my 4th saddle since January. That alone has been a journey. I keep thinking this is fascinating, rather than frustrating. It’s fun problem solving to go faster.
