Position I came in with had pretty good aerodynamics.
Moving back to ski bend extensions will reduce my drag.
The Giro Selector tested better than the LG P-09 for me
Biggest savings came from the Pearl Izumi Octane tri suit (compared to my sleeveless Champion System one piece tri suit)
People have been really cool about sharing all their wind tunnel data on ST, so I’m putting mine out here as well. If you just want to see the data it is here: https://drive.google.com/...MTQ/edit?usp=sharing
Position I came in with had pretty good aerodynamics.
Moving back to ski bend extensions will reduce my drag.
The Giro Selector tested better than the LG P-09 for me
Biggest savings came from the Pearl Izumi Octane tri suit (compared to my sleeveless Champion System one piece tri suit)
Thanks for sharing.
On run # 14 did you do a 10 degree test? The Bambino typically tests a bit worse at 0 but better across all yaw angles WITH the visor. (to use an example of a helmet with a visor)
On run # 4 how do you determine that you are running “as much drop as possible.” Your cda at the end still seems pretty high, so I’m guessing you’re missing out on some improvements by going steeper and lower (and not “fake” going lower like just removing your arm pad cradles).
Hi James! I came across one of your wind tunnel reports somewhere, didn’t I?
We did test the Bambino at 10 degrees and it was ok. 171 aero watts, but not even close to the Selector at 165 aero watts.
When I said I went as low as possible I meant that I had physically tapped out what I can do on my ML Illicito frame. I have a very steep drop stem sitting right on top of the headset cone. Only way to get lower would be to get a medium frame or different set of aero bars. You’re right there could be more savings there, but on the flip side this amount of drop was determined through my DFU fitting and I have no problems riding it for 112 miles.
My point was not to ask whether or not you tested the Bambino, my point was to suggest that testing without the visor yielding better results may have been due to not doing a yaw sweep WITH the visor. On your LG. Regardless, the Selector tested best and you can’t remove the visor on that one so the point is moot.
Again, insofar as drop is concerned, you are leaving some pretty big gains on the table I think. For example, I am 5’10" and my tested Cda in a 2pc kit was something like …222-.225 or thereabouts at 0. If you want more aero, I am sure you can find more aero.
Regardless, the Selector tested best and you can’t remove the visor on that one so the point is moot.
Really? I thought the Selector was “modular”, in the sense that the visor and even the ear-covers were removable. The Raelert brothers race with a visor-less Selector, and one of the German girls used to race in an Erdinger blue Selector with no ear-flaps.
General question, not specifically aimed at the OP: do you generally bring any helmets you want to test, or do you rely on whatever the tunnel has on hand? If the latter, is there any concern that helmet sizing will affect results (e.g. if I generally wear a S or M but test with a L)?
Also: is there a recommended order of testing (e.g. body position > forearm width > hand height)?
I have the same bike but in a small; you can get lower if you get one of the Cobb dust caps as opposed to the cone cap thats on there. I will be doing this along with ski bends in the offseason. It would have been interesting to see if there was less drag if you removed those two bottle at the back.
Good lead on the Cobb cap! I need the rear carrier for long course, so I left it on during testing. It only has a single bolt for removal, so I take it off for all short course stuff.
I see the “Best position / equipment” picture has you with stacked hands on S bends, but your Clif Notes findings recommend you move back to ski bends. So did you find the ski bends superior to stacked hands, and the pic just indicates the extensions you had on hand at the time?
My bike was still all cabled up so we didn’t physically change out extensions. Instead they actually had me hold chunks of extensions in the ski-bend position and then later mimic that position with the stacked hands. I didn’t really mind S-bends, but kind of happy to be going back to ski bends!
