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  • P.s. Serious question, in the absence of wind tunnel data what is it about the two frames (Canyon speedmax-concept and Cervelo P2C) that makes you think the P2 would be faster? To my eyes the Canyon looks to be doing most things right whereas I would have said that (as much as I love it) the P2 is starting to look a bit out dated in the absence of nifty cable and brake integration?

    We're both guessing until they are tested together in the wind tunnel and on the road, but brake integration looks like a marketing gimmick rather than a real advance in aerodynamics. A fairly ordinary road brake does so little to increase the CdA over no brake that any compromises to the fork crown and it's flow into the down tube is quite likely to wipe out any advantage of not having a brake caliper in front of the fork crown.

    On the Canyon specifically, I'm very bothered by the mid-chord edge features on the down tube, seat tube, seat post and seat stays. It seems unlikely that airflow will remain attached downstream of that sharp transition. It looks as though the seat tube below the seat stay junction is quite narrow, leaving the junction itself out in the breeze, and failing to get the airflow in line all the way along the cut-out tends to make frames sensitive to wheel choice.

    All that is, as I say, just from looking at it in comparison with things which are known to work. Aerodynamics is not a science which lends itself to just looking, as anybody who has tried to work out what''s going on with all the air deflectors, spoilers, fins and flaps on a F1 car will know. Canyon might have tested it in the wind tunnel against examples of the competition and found radical new solutions which further raise the bar, but if it was my money, I'd need to see a lot of independent confirmation before deciding that Canyon had even exceeded the 2-generation old P2C, much less the P3, P4 and putative 2012 P5.

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