Aerodynamics / Aerodynamic Cost / Aero parts

Pinarello's levels of bribery to the UCI must be immense if the scrutineers managed to persuade themselves that a slightly elongated but fully necessary and structural hub axle spacer was a fairing but this wasn't

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I got some 36cm from Sigmasport, who seemed like the only UK place to buy them.

They seem to do exactly what they say, long and narrow, aero profile.

101mm reach with 130mm -12 stem is pretty stretchy!

The first revision we did for the UCI was more exciting than that (and I was convinced they'd be fine with it! But they weren't.). But yes trips above and below, you can't see amazingly in those photos but we'll get some better ones soon.

If you applied their rules they'd all be on Eddy Merckx Hour bikes. They're full of shit.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271466750991?hash=item3f34ade40f:g:bnsAAOxyBotTXrqD

I'm not sure how I stumbled across this but wow!

Supplied by Quasimodo Intl plc?

I’ve seen people wearing them in their bib shorts too, questionable aero benefit

This is quite interesting:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mathieu-van-der-poel-i-knew-i-had-the-watts-somewhere-it-was-just-a-matter-of-position/

For example

The team bought a pair of Princeton Carbonworks wheels, employing someone to drive 900km north from Andorra to hand-deliver them to the team. Then he ultimately chose to forgo using the Wake 6560 front wheel and his sponsor-correct Canyon Speedmax CFR was fitted with an Aerocoach Aeox Titan front wheel, which was paired with the Blur 633 from Princeton Carbonworks.

Xav's new chainring will be on the Christmas wish list for people using 144mm PCD cranks, claims 0.1% speed gain (25cm per 250m)
I paid considerably less for my Vuma Chronos, for which Zipp claimed a 0.25% speed gain (9s per 40km).

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I paid considerably less for my Vuma Chronos

Yeah, but these are GOLD!!

We had a ton of different versions of these before we settled on the final one, some required individual carbon moulds for every size which would have made the price even higher (yes I know it’s high already but machining a dinner plate out of a block of very very high quality non stressed Ti is difficult, and also pretty much wrecks a cutting tool on every chainring so they’re replaced constantly).

We’ll definitely have a couple in the Olympics but have another first batch which may make it in too, will be tight though.

Yeah, the price is what it is once you've committed to Ti, and while I think one of the hardenable stainless steels would be better, they're neither cheaper nor easier to machine. At least with Ti you don't have all the extra problems associated with heat treating a piece which has had 3/4 of it's stock volume milled away 😐

Could anyone guesstimate what a 55 minute 25 ridden on a steel lo pro and 28 spoke shallow rim wheels (pre tri bars) would equate to now? Assuming modern kit and wind tunnel testing, plus aero socks and modern skins it.

If you add up all the marketing claims for time saved over 40km for teh various components, you would finish before you had started.

Must be that pesky climate change causing stronger winds in both directions.

Trying to lay claim to greatness in the face of everyone doing sub 50 these days?

You might as well pick a number out of the air, there are so many unknowns, and 5 minutes is not outside the bounds of possibility assuming you could make the same power in a modern position that you did on a lo pro, although I suspect that for anybody fairly well sorted in 1990, the true figure is less than half that.

That is why I asked the benchmark experts, you the Internet!

I do have a steel lo pro and a plastic spaceship, I suppose I could always test them back to back. I did do Look 464 with beater wheels vs. spaceship a couple of weeks ago and it was 71s in 10 miles.

Nope, merely curious, I have no pretensions of ever being much good as a tester. My comparative times to the winners in 80s opens proves that!

Yes! Do it! I shall extrapolate the figure to 25 miles, then deduct a further 'x' minutes for vanity reasons.

Not really my forte I'm afraid.
My first 25mi TT in 2008 was 1:01:29 with no aerobars (I assume that means I did it on a road bike because I don't remember having a TT bike without aerobars).
It took 3 years before I went under the hour - bear in mind I was only racing local H courses.
The year after (2012) I'd taken another 4min off but by this stage was focused on 24hrs so didn't do many short races except maybe the club one.
2016 I'd stopped racing 24hr events, rode a Shiv with extras instead of the PX and also had a car so could get to fast courses and got the club record with a 50:02 on E2 course (would've been sub-50 if not for car on RAB).
2018 After a few goes on the Welsh course and with even more go faster bits I finally went sub-50.

So what's the modern day equivalent to a 100 ridden in trainers? Can any of the benchmarking experts help there?

Not sure but I took >20min off my time when I rode in my cycling shoes and didn't do an extra 6 miles. So actually, the shoes didn't make a huge difference :)

3.42.00 ? :)

Always amazes me how much those bikes weigh