Aero Testing

That top position is so 2007! I can remember having those ‘s-bend’ bars on my PX that cranked my wrists like that; not comfortable!

https://drag2zero.co.uk/

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I can see why they said it would be better add more reach to the cockpit from that picture. Your elbows are barely on the pads. Matches one philosophy of long and low.

Found this one from IM Frankfurt last year.

Has to be at least 130km in (as my repair kit is gone)

@Jgav I’m hoping the new scoops will help with getting a bit further forward

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That looks more secure than the one above. Send us a photo of the bike with the new scoops on. I like the look of them and assume they’re comfy.

They’re only my “home made” ones, but I’ll try and get a side on pic/video tonight

Edited the OP to add a few links. Silverstone looking the best option as I want to try out a wind tunnel. Both for the data and because it’ll be a fun life experience (likely a one off…)

Looking at your upper arm angle, I’m not sure why you’d want to move further forward (extend reach). It will put a lot more strain on your muscular system (arms & shoulders) for 180km. Even if your elbows are ‘locked in’ you still have to support your upper body weight; and your upper body would rock more.

I’m only going on what they said when I was there :man_shrugging:

Would be nice to be able to do a follow up session now I have the kit/ability to change that part

I think they focus specifically on Aero & CdA, rather than having to maintain the position during an Ironman? That would be my guess. That said, the lower pic you posted holding the pretend ‘half mantis’ looks comfortable?

It was weird as it felt so natural to be in that position and now having my hands down feels “wrong”

@Jgav

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-f2iMjfoCJikwDWgmIjWPflzuinMBB_-/view?usp=drivesdk

A little bit of validation that aero works. Did my local 10 mile TT 3 times this year, on 3 different bike set-ups.

  1. Road/gravel bike on slick 28mm tubeless, but standard drop handlebars
  2. Full TT bike, deepish wheels (50mm) with latex tubes
  3. Trusty old road with clip-on bars and lightweight shallow clincher wheels

Kept the clothing the same, tri short and top combo, Spec Evade lid, rather than full aero. Summary, we are not wasting our money on TT bikes:

Bike Time Av Power NP Power Av HR Max HR
Full TT 23:46 272 W 281 W 144 bpm 162 bpm
Road with TT 24:05 290 W 294W 144 bpm 162 bpm
Road no TT 24:43 270 W 276 W 150 bpm 163 bpm

Was actually a bit disappointed with the Road-TT result last night, it was a quick night and I thought I might get close to my best time. But TT bike got within 3sec of my best time from 4 years ago, despite being over 20W less power.

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I did a road bike FTP test this week on the same outdoor loops I did some TT bike IM paced efforts last year. Extra 75W and I was still slower over 10km.

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Fastest Road Bike times on this course are around 23min. Dread to think what power those guys are putting out to achieve that.

Speaking of Chung testing for Fruity reminded me of a puzzle I had a few weeks ago. I’ve tried a little bit of testing this year on an outdoor velodrome, with golden cheetah giving a CDA estimate.

Tested with the start points at same point of velodrome etc, same number of laps, confident the button press would be within 1-2m each time.

Test 1: 10m23s, 305W
Test 2: 10m46s, 312W,
Test 3: 10m50s, 309W
Test 4: 10m20s 307W

Test sequence was ABBA, for clothing so wouldn’t affect power transfer. Looks really obvious that the B condition is far slower , but Golden Cheetah shows the CDA as a clear 0.1-0.15 lower, and the data looks clean.
Don’t understand how it could think that when it’s slower for same distance with more power.
A small gradual change in air temp was corrected for in GC, and wind was minimal

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I’ve always fancied a go at this and tried to find a suitable venue near home but couldn’t really come up with one.
The only other variable I can think of is rolling resistance, is there any way the CRR could have changed between your A&B set-ups, has GC defaulted to a different setting for example?

Yes I don’t know where I could do it without the velodrome, wind and traffic would be too much for anything reliable.

I’ve done around 6 testing days. Sometimes the data is noisy but usually good, and looks so in this case. And can’t see how Crr would revert back to match the reverse test sequence.
Shame as I really would have expected calf guards to be quicker than hairy legs, on quite wide calves, so want to believe the CDA numbers but hard to deny that time difference.

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