Aerodynamics / Aerodynamic Cost / Aero parts

aero head has the advantage that if you do get fogged up you can put the visor out of the way without it ending in a bush, ive only fogged mine up twice, both on rainy days.

pretty sure that my wasp was faster but that spent most of its life with a pool of sweat collecting at the bottom of the visor, and had weird distorted optics

Speed gel anyone?

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/lotto-soudal-investigation-uci-using-special-aerodynamic-gel-criterium-du-dauphine-382396

I'm disappointed...

Can I ask for some opinions on rim width choice for use solely on indoor velodromes? Rims will probably be mid depth (55-65) open mould/Chinese rims from farsport/lightbicycle/etc.

My head says 23mm 'narrow' due to the low yaw angles experienced on the track and a couple of people I sought advice from have also said 23mm. However there is also the advice that rims should be wider (1.05x) than the tyre which will probably be a 23mm Pista Speed.

Lightbicycle cross sections attached:

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Has anyone done tribal scars /scar tissue yet? 2 lines/rows of dots down the front shin just before the air separation point.

Has to be legal for racing :)

You could just run a scalpel down your shin on each side to create a straight scar tissue bump. I don’t know whether it would create a sharp enough step to force separation though. You might have more success with micro-beads inserted close to the surface under the skin and some kind of localised traumatic dermabrasion to disrupt the boundary layer.

Its nice when Aerocoach makes new stuff, you get an idea of the standing of other classic wheels :)
This is from the new tubular front disc Aeox Prima Pista

I guess 3 spoke is Hed and 5 spoke is Mavic
4 spoke could be Corima or Pro?

Any forum best buys for aero handlebars (road drops, rather than tri-style aerobars)?

Looking at pro vibe as I've also got di2, just wondered what else people had good / bad experiences with

I really like the Zipp SL-70 aero bars, but they're not exactly brilliant in VFM terms.

Superzero bars are meant to be pretty comfy and easy to live with, but probably not as aero as specialized aerofly, sl70, aeronova and the like.

I have some open mould copies of the Spesh Aerofly bars, they're a good shape.

I have these really like the shape but routing the cables was a f"*er.

I have aerofly, and they have a nice shape and drops.
Difficult to get a bar end junction box in the end (my bike shop couldn’t do it).

Also not much space for garmin clamps with a wide stem (zipp sprint, pro vibe sprint etc)

Some interesting wind tunnel testing and transient analysis of wheels done here by Hambini and his aerospace engineering colleagues:

https://www.hambini.com/blog/post/bicycle-wheel-aerodynamics-which-one-is-fastest/

Also interesting that a 'Chinese 88mm 25mm U-Shaped' wheel did so well in this test - this presumably being the same open mould rim as the ones recommended by aerocoached riders in this very thread.

Hopefully someone could get some Aeox wheels to him for testing...

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Very interesting - thanks for posting

Verdict on these?

Look terrible but interesting idea. Terrible description though and no proper tests other than opinions and a coasting down a hill race.

Just replying to this a bit late, the results at 50kph do look a bit off given what we know about wheel aerodynamics in the real world. A Flo 60 just isn't nearly 30w slower than a Zipp 808 at 50kph. Yoleo 88mm isn't bad though, yes.

I think their yaw protocol in the tunnel is incorrect - it's different (in a good way, I like how they have sinusoidal yaw after a ramp up) but how they've measured yaw outside seems to have been done wrong, and therefore their protocol creates a higher emphasis on higher yaw angles that you don't see consistently.

When this guy (who got ripped on Slowtwitch) makes disparaging comments like "The FLO cycling and Hunt wheels performed badly, they appear to have been designed by individuals with a limited understanding of aerodynamics of rotating objects.", it's all very condescending. In fact both Hambini, his colleagues and also the Princeton Carbon guys have come across quite badly on Slowtwitch recently in their approaches and replies to people asking questions.

Hmm, he's saying the high yaw experienced is transient though not that ave steady state yaw is high.

Can you say what resolution you capture real world conditions at? Interesting why there might be a difference here or why you think it is wrong.

I guess you can read that slowtwitch thread in two ways... Lol

Even so, their protocol still has too much emphasis on high yaw.

We have various different bits of kit here, the Garmin Alphamantis system, NotioKonect etc and they all are running 100Hz and above (when needed). That data above some of it makes sense (ie matches up with the stuff we’ve found), but some of it - like the Flo data at 50kph - is so far out there that I can only see their protocol as source of the error, rather than the data collection itself. It’s hard though as everyone has their own methods so there’ll always be some discrepancy.

Agreed on the Slowtwitch thread, it can be a bit mob mentality especially when their favourite people get criticised!

Hard pass.

Princeton Carbon didn't get great review on Cycling Tips(I think) either. Their wheels seem like an expensive gamble.

I've got a question for y'all.

If there were no rules and you wanted to go as fast as physically possible on a bicycle, would it look like one of those crazy bubble style bikes you see in the USA a lot? Are they governed by any rules or are they allowed to do exactly what they like to qualify?

Yes

You mean the Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) they race at Battle Mountain? They are the fastest, non-drafting, non-downhill vehicles we have to pedal. They are governed by rules but those rules are more about how many runs they get, wind speed limits, different classes, no engines (duh) etc. rather than restrictions on what can be done to go faster.

http://ihpva.org/home/

Didn't realise they ratify land, air and sea as well as submersible HPV records. I'm building a submarine bike!