-
In my head I think about a simple practical demo... grab a small diameter wood dowel (4mm?) say, 60cm in length and swing it through the air - you'll notice definite drag and you'll hear a swooshing noise - now grab an equivalent wooden strip - like a wooden ruler with a blunt edge and swing that through the air, thin edge leading and you will feel less drag - even with no shaping to the edge. It's just frontal area.
All that's showing is that if you reduce the frontal area you reduce drag, and I don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise. Making a Thing have a pointy front does not reduce the Thing's frontal area. It has no effect on the frontal area if the size of the Thing (such as a headtube) to which you're giving a pointy front stays the same.
You are reading a single comment by @Brommers and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
Brommers
Since everyones throwing about aerodynamic theories... Surely at bicycle speeds a thinner leading edge is more important (as tester has said multiple times). In my head I think about a simple practical demo... grab a small diameter wood dowel (4mm?) say, 60cm in length and swing it through the air - you'll notice definite drag and you'll hear a swooshing noise - now grab an equivalent wooden strip - like a wooden ruler with a blunt edge and swing that through the air, thin edge leading and you will feel less drag - even with no shaping to the edge. It's just frontal area.
Paint wise - paint in any colour, flouro as a preference then chuck the thing in a high speed wind tunnel and put abrasive sand in the airstream so you get sandblasted polished sections where the airflow hits first. It'll seem like you've been riding accross the Bonneville salt flats at 500mph.