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Before it exploded, did the Navigator actually feel any better than a Hed3? To me, it doesn't seem like it would be an improvement in a cross wind.

It's funny - the H3 is much more twitchy on my geared TT bike than the FGTT bike, I think it's much more a geometry thing than a size of the rider thing for a H3. In the past it's been fine on the GTT bike but I changed aero position this year and it's more unstable. I probably could have got away with it fine but bailed because the Navigator is rock solid in the wind. We had 5 RST Sport/Aero-Coach riders at the event, two had front trispokes on, two had 45mms and one guy a Zipp 202 (<67kg rider) and everyone was fine.

Xav

Thanks - it was the 16 spoke one. Next time I'll just man up and use a trispoke ;)

Xav

It was a Navigator 45mm, I took the trispoke off because of the wind. Started losing spokes and then the rim Pringled itself into the forks, looks like I was on for a 2:01-2:02 which I would have been pretty happy with given the conditions

Xav

The problem is they chose the Q Ring orientation using a Computrainer SpinScan, which is what Rotor themselves use but is absolute crap as it guesses the location of the pedal 99.7% of the time.

There's no guarantee that the setting they put the rings in (and it's not mentioned) was right for each individual athlete. Best thing to do would be a high speed video analysis and match the period of peak speed of the pedal with the highest gearing of the ring, as that's what you're trying to do really, inverting the pedal speed profile. This is a graph of pedal speed for an Osymetric vs. round ring where you can see what the Osymetric is trying to do compared with a normal ring:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgT4hc0CAAAUKak.png

Charlotteville 50 ended dramatically as my front wheel disintegrated doing 30mph down a hill. Was pretty windy, gear wasn't too bad, glad I didn't die.

Xav

I did 117rpm for the last 4 minutes of the H10/8 back in December off 102", and that was half as windy. I'll probably just unclip or something. Doesn't look like too much rain though

Charlotteville 50 tomorrow if anyone else is doing it, going to be a right barrel of laughs in this wind. 104" for me

Xav

Him and Froome both shaved their arms for London. Champion System long sleeved speed suit is one of the fastest ones I've tested

Xav

It's a full open but people flount the rules a bit, in the past we've had bikes with only one brake, aerobars too low (as per CTT regs), traffic counts over the limits, a guy in just bibs*, someone riding with earphones & aero helmet and then to top it all, the year I won two riders did a two up for 12 miles and got on the podium because the organiser didn't fill in one of the DQ notification forms and get it in the post in time. Still good fun though ;)

Xav

*yes that's right, just bibs nothing else

You can wear the Uni skinsuit in everything, the only issue is whether your current club mind that much or not. We have ex Birmingham Uni riders racing for RST who missed the club kit order so are still in Uni skinsuits for the time being.

Incidentally for BUCS you don't technically need to have a cycling club at the Uni to represent them - when I was doing an MSc at Portsmouth they didn't have a cycling club but for the day of each BUCS event there's a stipulation somewhere from the CTT that says you can race under the name of your Uni rather than your regular racing club.

Xav

For 2000-2800m you're looking at around 12-18% decline in Vo2 max and sustainable power output (ie anything aerobic). The longer you stay there the less decline, but it's only a few % even after being there for a couple of weeks. Untrained people (ie. really untrained) see much less of a decline in power output at altitude than trained athletes too.

I did a Vo2 max test at ~1600m in a climate chamber some years ago, not much fun and I lost well over 50w for maximal aerobic power (500w -> 450w)

Xav

cough indoor velodrome cough how much? cough

Would probably add another £150-200 on to the price :/ we are this close to opening up bookings though, I have another day at the track on Friday and it should be a matter of days after that

Xav

If you want to go faster you might as well work on improving your power as well as your aerodynamics!

Chasing peak power is fun but doesn't always result in you going faster during a road sprint, you end up doing efforts with >50kph entry speeds at the bottom of hills with a perfect gear to get MegaWattage rather than replicating what might happen in a race. I've hit ~1600w with the above tactic in training but only 1350-1400w for track/road sprints. Personally I was best when able to do 1100w for 30sec and 1450w peak than when I could peak at 1600w.

Xav

http://www.aero-coach.com/how-it-works/4570401194

in b4 xav :-)

Beat me to it. I would be doing some more testing/bookings if it wasn't bloody raining and gusting at 40mph all the time.

I've actually got one of the wireless iBike iAeros (that give you real time CdA when paired with an ANT+ power meter), except that it doesn't. Not a patch on the AeroStick

They don't have a fixed gear category any more unfortunately. I've done it on the pursuit bike and bunch track bike in the past, don't think it slowed me down too much

Xav

Back in 2009 I'm pretty sure I did a run at Maindy with just a beanie on when no-one was looking, would have to dig it out though!

Other athletes are less sensitive to helmet choice, depends heavily on the body position and to a lesser extent clothing. One aero test with a rider showed up no significant differences between a Bell Meteor, Uvex FP2 and a Kask Bambino, but the Bambino was more comfy so a better choice.

On someone else a McLaren helmet was quicker than a Bambino, on another a Selector was quicker than a Bambino, etc., there are some general rules and avenues to take with helmet testing but it is individual.

Xav

Actually I think I have some data on a Bell Solar which puts it about 15-17sec slower than the Casco

It wasn't tested for that rider so I can't give a definitive answer.

The aero helmets would be more aero

I did some work for the Beijing Olympics on aero helmets for the triathletes and how it would affect temperature - even in Beijing heat the convective cooling was enough to mitigate static temperature increases, so you should always wear an aero helmet unless you're going to be climbing for >8min at a time at low speed during your event. They all wore the road helmets anyway ....

Helmets are very individual, here is some data to show the potential differences for one rider:

Xav

I bought a Planet X "20" but they just copied and pasted the text on their website, all they have are 22s and it's going back to them tomorrow :(

The Conti supersonic should be better overall (ie. Crr and drag) than a VF Record clincher, the VF tubs are ever so slightly different (and you can silicon seal the edges too). The old Bontrager Aerowing 19mm TT clinchers were sweet (and bombproof) but a bit of a lottery as to whether you'd get a low Crr or high Crr one

Xav

The 20mm versions, all the new tubulars with the big Veloflex logo are 22mm. Clinchers still 20mm but there are better 20mm tyres for a clincher trispoke like GP Supersonics

Xav

It's stilly really isn't it - all they've done is make a trispoke version of the Stinger 7 with the same stall angles etc. I doubt it would be easier to handle than a Stinger too. No wheel/tyre combo I've ever tested at typical yaws has beaten out my H3 with a narrow VF Record and treated bearings, but you can't find the old VF Records now so a clincher is a better bet.

Xav

I normally recommend (and use) a flat 6mg/kg for everyone. For ease of use the cheap glucose/dextrose/caffeine pills you can get from Sainsbury's/Boots are fine, don't use Pro Plus as they have sorbitol coating and are way too expensive.

Caffeinated gum doesn't have enough in it to reach the 6mg/kg for most people so you have to have too much for it to be practical, unless you're doing a long event that needs a dripfeed (long TT, RR, Audax etc.) or an intermittent exercise event like a track omnium or sprint tournament

Xav

If you're a third or fourth cat you could do the Omnium afterwards as well

Fixed gear crits are epic