Kiwami just released their Kona Wings Aero Jacket that Brad Williams raced with. It looks awesome and another option out there for speed tops. It’s similar to the Castelli T1 Stealth but has longer sleeves and no pockets.
How easy is this to put on a wet body in T1. I assume you take it off for the run. Is that correct? Thanks. And considering all of that, are the time savings there to justify this.
Having raced with a Castelli T1 Stealth many times, it’s really not that hard to put these types of tops on. The longer sleeves of the Kiwami top may be a bit harder though. Yes, you would take this off for the run.
One day try putting on the sleeves of a body paint skin suit. Long sleeves are extremely difficult, especially when wet. I am unsure of why this product was created.
We need Brad Williams to come in here and tell us about it. He raced with it in Kona. I’m sure it may be bit harder to put on, but I like the looks of it. I also ripped my Castelli T1 Stealth at B2B Half so I need something new now
As we all know, however, if it takes too long to get on you lose all of the time savings gained by wearing it
It would be great if you report back your findings. I would get in the water, get wet, time how long it takes to put it on wet body, time how long it takes to take it off and put it up against the time savings. I think that would be a fair comparison. It may give us a reason to go down that road. I love Kiwami stuff in general and have raced in their Amphibian. This should be a quality piece of clothing too.
At Kona, Craig, the founder of Kiwami told us that they found it was relatively easy to put on while wet by bunching up the sleeves into a bundle, then putting the arms into sleeves so you start at the wrist and pull it up. A full length zipper makes it quite easy to take on and off, with good speed. It seems the fabric is quite fast also, having been selected for garments for an Olympic cycling team.
How easy is this to put on a wet body in T1. I assume you take it off for the run. Is that correct? Thanks. And considering all of that, are the time savings there to justify this.
Not sure, but I know there is some concern for sun protection for Kona etc. as well as aero. As I said, they are working with some olympic cycling, so I’m sure the tech is pretty solid.
I love the sun protection aspect. It’s so much faster getting out of the water and putting something like this on instead of dealing with putting your own sunscreen on having the volunteers put some on you at Ironman events
Looks like he’s wearing the Kiwami Spyder skinsuit under that top. Would like to hear Brad confirm that he swam in it without another skin suit then put the aero top over it for the bike.
Brad would have put this on after the swim. These tops are not legal to wear at Kona or any non-wetsuit swim in Ironman. Also, who would want to swim in that!?!?!
True there is a break even point. I can venture from my previous testing where that might be for this top from the pic shown.
Above that break even point a ss option may be a better choice.
I also agree that the sun protection is a pretty awesome feature.
Brad would have put this on after the swim. These tops are not legal to wear at Kona or any non-wetsuit swim in Ironman. Also, who would want to swim in that!?!?!
Yep, I knew that, but apparently was not clear enough, so back to my question. Are those shorts only he’s wearing with that top or is it the Kiwami Spyder under that top. If the Spyder, then did he swim in it alone or with another skinsuit over the Spyder?
The advantage of the Spyder is that it is a skinsuit/trisuit. You should be able to swim with it by itself, then you don’t have to worry about wearing a long sleeve top and rolling it down under a skinsuit. I.e., which is better…long sleeve trisuit rolled down with skinsuit over it or regular trisuit that serves as skinsuit so only change at T1 is putting the aero top on?