Hey ST Forum,
Just got done with my first Oly tri for the season (thanks to #kineticmultisports for putting on a great race, podiumed in my age group which was nice!) and it was 51 degrees cloudy with intermittent showers!!! Already have a long sleeve wetsuit that helped with warmth for a bit before the start. But during the bike, my hands/fingers and grip started to freeze up which made it challenging to grasp my BTS bottle and take nutrition (I’m prone to get Raynaud’s in prolonged cold temps). Uncomfortable bike to say the least.
My quick search reveals 3 types of sleeves: sun protection vs compression vs warmth, each category with various claims of aero benefits.
My question(s):
Do sleeves work? Do they help maintain blood flow and comfort (not restricting movement too much or cutting of circulation) without taking a ding on your aerodynamics?
Do cold weather (sleeves for warmth) automatically harm your aerodynamics because they are thicker? Or is the ‘hit’ to your aero profile negligible?
Any recommendations for brands that work the best for combination warmth and aero (okay with trying compression but I have 40+ years of running without things on my arms, worried I would find them annoying by the end of a race)
I don’t have an answer for the question, but glad you did the race. I had debated about signing up for Oly but didn’t. Glad I hadn’t, as I’m down with a chest cold. Would have been a terrible race for me with this weather.
Also, glad the rains toned down too. It was a hard rain last night and I felt bad for Kinetic folks. Hope it’s a good race tomorrow, gonna be cold.
I wear arm cooler sleeves on all of my IM’s, primarily to stop sun burn. They are lycra type material so I doubt if they have any significant impact on being aero. I use Desoto.
I wear warm arm coolers for training in winter. One pair has a lycra/cotton type covering of the fleece, so I doubt that it impacts being aero much.
The lightly insulated ones definitely work for warmth and comfort. You will never be able to measure the drag since its moot. In fact it has just as much chance as being more aero than your bare arms, as it does not being more drag. Buy for comfort and warmth. Specialized has their own wind tunnel so that might be the brand to read up on. I’ve had their warmers in the past and liked them.
Sun Sleeves in general, are often advertised as being more aero but, again you will never be able to measure it. As far as having any cooling effect, it’s pretty moot too - inho - unless you keep them wet or damp with the water bottle while riding. Then they may offer a bit more cooling due to the evaporation. Obviously they also offer more sun protection. I’ve had several brands in sun sleeves, and probably liked the DeSoto the best.
I was a late convert to them, but now use them a lot. I like the castelli ones, and I cannot imagine that there would be any significant aero impact.
In fact I used to have some merino ones, and they possibly did have some mild aero impact, but were great for IMNZ where the first hour on the bike is cold, but then the sun comes out and you roast, the merino ones kept you warm then cool.
The only slight I will say is that you don’t ‘stick’ in place on the arm cups quite as well, you get a tiny bit more movement that takes a tiny bit of getting used to.