Hmmm. Confessions thread time, given @Poet has called me out on it before, but I didn’t shave for IMNZ 
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Oh, FFS 
There’s no helping you 
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I am in indeed, as a pair with a female ultra runner from my gym. Doing TCR 4 times is good going!
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I went to the night before, then decided I’d already given up on the marginal gains mentality and I’d be better just relaxing and eating for an hour instead.
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Wind tunnel proven! If he is saving 5 Watts with the measly amount of hair on his legs There has to be at least double that saving for my forests!
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It’s funny, although I do keep mine trimmed, I just use a beard trimmer, not actually shaved - I do always wear calf guards on race day I swear it makes getting a wetsuit off easier though (the guards that is)
No, it’s wrong 
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I love my annual leg shave for my A race! I was totally won over by the smoothness when i did it for the first time in 2021! 
Need to find a better method though this year. Maybe some Veet. Cos i butchered my shins both times trying to get them nice and smooth!
My wife hates it, so that’s probably a factor in why i like doing it, just to wind her up! 
I think there have been a few similar tests on the shaving. Din’t Spesh and Jesse Thomas do one a few years back as well?
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I think this is the first winter I haven’t shaved my legs. I can’t remember a time they weren’t smooth. Sometimes in the periods between operations when I couldn’t walk but generally they’ve been smooth for as long as I can remember.
I had them waxed in Oz because your legs are bare for most of the year and of course, things look weird in boardie season because when you sit on your board, the shorts ride up any.
Hydrodynamics innit. 
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Mrs A feels the opposite. I mean my legs smooth, not yours
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Cycling News published an article recently on how to get aero gains. They actually mix aero, mechanical and crr gains - but I guess aero sounds better.
The starting point is a new Specialized Allez Sprint - which is not a shabby bike, and costs £2500. The article does not state what speed you need to go to get the aero gain - normal protocol would be 45kph.
As a bit of fun, I added up all the gains that they reported… so if you buy a nice Allez Sprint, shove a load of cash on aero, tyres and ceramic, you can gain 140W… I call bullshit
I can ride my 1983 steel bike at 45kph @ around 320w, so if the article is correct, I can ride a modern aero bike, with aero helmet and skin suit and all bells and whistles @ 45kph and 180W
| Modification | Watts Gain |
|---|---|
| latex tubes | 10 |
| bars | 5 |
| socks | 5 |
| shoe covers | 8 |
| skin suit | 25 |
| helmet | 8 |
| Going 1x | 4 |
| faster tyres | 4 |
| wax chain & ceramic bearings | 13 |
| deep section wheels | 15 |
| oversize pulley wheels | 3 |
| new frame | 40 |
| Total | 140 |
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I’d guess each of those separate gains could be proven under laboratory conditions.
But that’s not how the world works.
The “system” as a whole, with the interaction between all those parts clearly will perform differently.
The frame numbers are a great example. They usually include the rider in a better position accounting for a majority of the gains. ( you get that when comparing road to TT frames)
As you correctly say, it’s bullshit.
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Sad thing is that i have done most of those things - I have played around with 1x setup on TT bike, but really don’t like it, I prefer a pretty tight cassette 11-25 for a flat course, and large 2x chainset (55/42), I know I lose some aero.
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Just shows how much of it is road surface, when I can’t ride my race set-up at that speed here 
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Yes yes and yes.
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I occasionally take it out on the club ITT, Best I have done is 39.8kph average on a 30km TT, Compares with 45kph I can manage on my TT bike
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I am amazed at the gains of latex tubes ?…. Really.
Most of the items are being impacted by wind resistance or part of the drivetrain efficiency. Will I go faster if I wear latex undergarments?
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only if you wear on the outside of your tri suit
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I definitely found they felt faster the first time I raced with them. I flew. They also felt to have more “give”. My fairly rigid TT bike felt a lot more of a comfortable ride
it’s club duathlon on Tuesday evening. 2km/20km/2km on the OCT, the fancy cyclepath with lights.
I bought my bike here mainly for commuting, it’s a good sturdy commuter but not really built for racing.
picked up some clip on aero bars from Decathlon back in the summer & fitted them today
I’m quite impressed by the bars themselves, they seem decent for thirty quid. But the bike position is a little sit up and beg
saddle is as far forward as it will go. Could take out some spacers on the headset and drop the front end by about 3cm but I can’t really be bothered. Plus quite like the relaxed position for commuting.
Went for a short test ride this evening, at first I was flying and thought wow these bars make a huge difference. But then reached the halfway point and turned round into a massive headwind and the speed dropped to 20kmh . So it was just a big tailwind. Ah well. See how they go on Tuesday. But I do reckon they’ll give me about +2kmh, up from about 34 to 36 kmh maybe, although it won’t be enough to keep up with the local monsters on their superbikes.
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