I had some fun in the wind tunnel this weekend (see pictures a few posts below)
Here are a few of the highlights:
The Nike Swift Spin (US Postal) skinsuit actually tested slightly worse than another suit (a brand which I won’t divulge until I get one or two more)
Downtube bottle added measurable drag. Even the vaunted Biodinamica bottle added drag.
I needed my elbows wider than I ever would have guessed before (Christopher from PKRacing.com deserves credit for this revelation)
I highly recommend this experience to anyone who really wants to improve their bike/TT times. I started with some pretty good numbers, but we managed to knock about 10% more off the drag. That’s big.
Looks like that site collapsed under the load. Let’s see if this works:
Warming up. Note the display projected on the floor in front of me. The Nike swift spin postal suit actually performed worse than another skinsuit (not shown).
Here’s what’s on the display. This was from the baseline (first) run. We managed to improve the numbers by about 10% with some changes.
Control Room View. The technicians control the windspeed and the amount of resistance to the rear wheel.
The LG Rocket Helmet. This worked very well for me – even with the furschlugginer strap hanging down.
Kraig Willett (biketechreview.com) carefully marking positions with a dry-erase marker. This is critical for doing static comparisons of equipment to make sure you keep your position exactly the same.
I went through multisports.com. I think it was $750. To put that in perspective, it saved me more than a disk wheel in performance.
I should also add that my original fitter (pkracing.com) got me almost all the way there. A good part of my improvement came from implementing one of Christopher’s recommendations, which I had foolishly chosen not to implement before.
Great data! Super position. What was the “Christopher’s recommendation” that you speak of? Wider elbows? I’m sure you did, but did you test very narrow elbows as well? What is you max watt output in that position. And what was your optimized drag coefficient?
Great data! Super position. What was the “Christopher’s recommendation” that you speak of? Wider elbows? I’m sure you did, but did you test very narrow elbows as well? What is you max watt output in that position. And what was your optimized drag coefficient?
~Alan~
I didn’t test very narrow elbows. I don’t know about max watts in that position - I think I got over 600 at one point yesterday. Maybe you mean threshold watts? I held about ~313 for 35 minutes testing the position yesterday.
Final CDA was .2172. I’ll leave the more detailed data to the biketechreview forum.
One lesson I got from this was that most, if not all, changes are very individual. Behind the seat bottles will work for one person but not another. Same with aero helmets. The only way to know for certain is to test.
How did you find the LG Rocket? Comfort, heat etc. The other LG looked really small in comparison.
What is your drop from seat to pads and elbow width.
Thanks.
The Rocket is hot, especially with the visor.
Drop is about 15cm, elbow width is only a little bit less than that. Remember though, this stuff is highly individual. I’m a former powerlifter, so I have pretty wide shoulders for my size and my legs go pretty wide when I power up. I also have unusually short femurs…and so on. Someone else could try to copy this set-up and it would probably be a disaster for them (unless they matched my peculiar morphology).
“I needed my elbows wider than I ever would have guessed before (Christopher from PKRacing.com deserves credit for this revelation)”
What specifically do you mean by this statement… either I read it wrong or you meant that a wider elbow resulted in less drag… which seems counter intuitive to the idea that less frontal area results in less drag… wouldn’t wider elbows result in more drag. Or, are you referencing more power gained from having wider elbows.
I hope Josh is listening.