Anyone have any thoughts about the not that dissimilar Ekoi?
I will bring one to Desert Dudeās aero camp in March.
Iāll get feedback from the various people that try it.
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I trying not to inject my personal opinion of the Ekoi helmet. I know itās fast but I am not a good judge of heat/comfort. I personally find it warm but I think my brain letās off too much heat trying to process simple things like going from DI2 to SRAM shifting.
Yesterday Brian tested an athlete with it. The athlete is a multiple time Kona qualifier. He found it ok. He found it more vented than the POC cerebral that he also tested. He did Giro Ekoi POC.
He felt the air from the bottom of the helmet. Will try again today.
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Here are some results from the first 3 riders at AeroCamp and the last person I tested before this.
The last person before camp tested the Aerohead, Rudy Wing and Rudy Dream wing. There was a 9w difference between the aerohead ,which was the fastest, and the Dreamwing which was the slowest.
The first person we tested the Ekoi was 1.5w faster than the Aerohead at 200w
Today the Ekoi was 4w slower than the aerohead on the first person we tested w/ average power of 250w for these runs
Our second rider was Anna Strehlow, who is a female pro triathlete that I aero tested last year. She was 3rd at IMCHOO in 2024. This year she is a Factor sponsored rider riding the new Slick. I also had her in my fit studio a few weeks ago for bike fitting.
last year the Aerohead was not her fastest helmet. The POC Cerebral was. On her new bike the Poc was the 3rd fastest helmet, the EKoi was about 2-4w (I forgot the actual #) slower than the Aerohead.
The TLDR is that helmets are very individual. What is fastest for you may not work for me.
Stay tuned, we have 3-4 more riders to test over the next 2 days. If I was someone who placed a lot of bets, Iād ring up my bookie and place money on the Ekoi being the fastest for 1 person and the Aerohead being the fastest for 1 person.
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To add a lit more info
Again a rider said the Ekoi was not as warm as the Procen
Everyone says the visibility of the Ekoi is exceptional
Anna felt the Ekoi was lifting off her head
The Ekoi did not match well with her shoulders.
@MTM thanks for the info! Do you know much about the removable vent cover for the wing dream and how that tested at all?
(Found the reference on the Rudy Project AU site under āwhatās in the boxā - āRemovable Vent Coverā https://rudyproject.com.au/products/wingdream)
To my knowledge there exist no vent cover for the Wingdream. Iām guessing it might be a mistake on the site.
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Iāve tested or been involved in testing the Wing Dream on, IIRC, 7-9people this year
Iām going to look back, correlate the data, then Iāll do a synopsis post on the results. For now here is a reel I did of a test last weekend:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DG82LNMz2Og/
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Besides me, how many others tested the Dream and Wing together? I was .006 CdA faster in the Dream but was I the only one?
I know Iāve tested 1 other person and the Dream Wing was ~ 9w slower than the aerohead with the Wing falling in between them
So Iām the outlier. LOL!
For now. You were killing my average with your 9w gain. But after yesterdayās 40w drag reduction my average is back up!
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for someone like myself who doesnt have access to testing, is it a safe bet that the wingdream is still going to be a noticeable improvement if Iām coming from an s works evade 3?
I just bought a wingdream, even though i kind of dislike the storm trooper lookā¦ but who cares, as long as its faster! reading this thread Iām having second thoughts on a wing(cheaper) or aerohead(maybe faster?!?)
Im also a MOPār so a couple watts one way or the other isnt the end of the world.
I used to use the Aerohead. I am not very fussy, but I will say itās a very hot helmet and the visibility is crummy in comparison to both the Wing and Dream.
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Thatās a good question. Iāve not had time to sit and look through all the data. I did do one test where the DreamWing was slower than the Ekoi aero 16 road helmet (forgot name, but I think thatās it).
It is pretty rare to see an aero road helmet top an well thought out aero helmet. I can remember 3-4 tests in the hundreds of people Iāve tested where an aero road helmet was the best helmet. Even for this person the aero road helmet wasnāt the best helmet out of the 4 tested.
Specialized has done a really, really good job on the Evades. Those are consistently the fastest road aero helmet I test. Havenāt done any testing on them this year though.
I would suspect you will save a few watts with the Dream Wing.
One thing that MOP athletes need to realize. For the pros letās say they save 6w. It may only net them a :27 savings. For a MOP athlete who is on the course longer the time savings will be greater. Maybe itās 1:16 saved. Then you also need to think about the kJ saving. You actually will expend less kJ to ride faster.
I did an analysis for a pro triathlete who was switching bikes. After looking at all the available data we figured that the bike swap would save him approximately 100kJ over 90km or roughly 1 gel or roughly the energy cost of running 1 mile. For a lot of athletes, especially those on the course longer and longer that sort of savings can be meaningful.
Anyway hope that helps
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There was a female pro that tested the Evade 3, vs the Aerohead, Rudy and Ekoi. All 3 were faster than the Evade.
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There is something you have to watch out for. You are an outlier because you test more than once. That is a good thing. Let me explain.
Some people get into a good position using the AH (step1). They they test the WD (step 2) and then the Wing (step 3). The AH comes out āaheadā. But if you did step 1 with the Wing, would the order be different ?
Letās do it another way. 2 years ago one of the teams I worked with was on helmet A from a brand. They had been optimized to it the previous year. When we tried newer helmet B they were all slower. But when we tweaked their position to helmet B, they were faster than A was with the optimized A postion. They had no choice, they had to use the sponsor and the sponsor wanted them on the new helmet.
IMO this is part of the reason some people test faster with A over B, only to have the next person test faster with B over A.
Personally, I donāt like the idea of testing 4 helmets in a session. I would prefer fewer and to try to optimize each. But that is a VERY personal opinion. There is no right and wrong way.
This is where a professional that is watching you, coming up with ideas to optimize each is critical.
Visibility, comfort, heat, price (buying vs already owning) are important parts of the equation. You can spend time doing 3 more tests to optimize your current helmet rather than buy the new helmet.
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When you say bad vis, how do you mean? Is the visor line higher? Iāve been having fun āself fittingā (GoPro and tinkering) and Iām pretty happy with where Iāve gotten myself. That said, after a ride this weekend, I think I need to come up ever so slightly to see a bit more of the road at speed. Itās almost not a comfort thing vs a safety thing, but Iām sure it would lead to ābreakingā my position to see. Maybe in a race with closed roads Iād be less worried though.
I mean when Iām in aero, the rim of the helmet is so low I canāt see very far up the road. The Wing has the best forward visibility of the three.
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The Aerohead in general is a very claustrophobic helmet, especially compared to the Wing Dream. I must have high cheek bones, because the Aerohead visor rubs my cheeks. Putting on the Wing Dream felt more more open, and yes, MUCH better forward visibility.
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