What Aero Gains can we make for free here:Let’s first look at our road cyclist in the photo and break down what can be done to simply make you go faster or generate less effort for the same speed.
Before we start, thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback on this series, really appreciate it and love doing it.Do us a favour and please share these posts around to help reach other athletes around the country and beyond.This photo is a fairly standard road cyclist from the font on profile, clearly he’s not trying to be anything super aero or flash, so it’s a fairly easy target.
Lets go from head to toe, I’ll point out what I can see but comment below with other gains you can pick up as well.
Well worth doing some research here as some are far more than others, for example, specialized make some excellent models which have huge savings over 40km, upwards of 20-40 seconds. So imagine what that would do over a 160km bike race. There is always a cross over between the amount of vents in the helmet vs how aero it is. More vents on the cheaper helmets can actually be like putting a parachute up. We need vents to keep the cooling going but less well-placed vents can actually be more effective.Free tip, what ever helmet you have, keep it clean, and even go as far as spraying some silicone spray on it and buffing it shiny, shiny equals slippery, slippery equals aero!Pay attention to keeping your straps fitted, and even the tab under your chin. Cut of the excess, put a dot of a stitch in it to keep it from dangling around. And put your sunglasses over the straps, never under.. there is an aero gain here plus it looks more pro..
Clothing has come a long, long way thankfully, from woollen jerseys to lycra, to coolmax and now to some fantastic fabrics that not only keep you cool but also make you much more aero.Is this pic you can see the clothing wrinkles, that is a big cause of drag. Keeping the clothing smooth can save up to 15watts, pay attention to the shoulders and hip region in particular.Now I now most people like a relaxed fit short and there is a place for that. But if you are trying to go fast then keep it snug, and take the time to make it smooth. Pro teams even take a seamstress with them at times to make adjustments, the gains are that good.
This is an area where we can make real gains. Firstly, by dropping the forearms we basically eliminate 50% of the surface area of the arm, that is a big gain. Look at the bars that Velobike are making for the velodrome now, they keep the riders forearms dropped and sleek. Handlebar width is a big one to, not that long ago we used to measure shoulders and directly lay that to the width of the road bar needed. Some guys like myself ended up with a 44cm or even a 46cm wide bar. This was just what we did at the time, but if you look at the picture the wider the bars just simply creates a front on wind scoop!Also the angle of the break levers, turn them in a little and try that out, naturally relaxes your should, creates a stable internal rotation and reduces the frontal area.I’m experimenting with this now, as I am wide across the shoulders, and no amount of weight loss will fix that, so I have to be creative.I have gone to a 40cm bar, with my levers slightly turned in and so far I am very happy with it, just make sure you don’t go so narrow that you restrict breathing.Another tip is to minimize the amount of hand position changes you make in effort or in-race, as this an make a major difference, try and keep smooth and limit movement.
I had to re check the data on this when I read about this one, but a pencil length of outer cable can be as much as 20 sec loss over a 40km race, multiply that by four cables and various lengths and that is big.You may be limited here but how your cabling system is on your bike, so what you can do it keep them as short as mechanically practical. Then spend some time to tidy them all up, tuck them away and have a look at the front on picture as you do this.Shoes and socks:Again, big gains here to be made and what we used to do may not always be the right way. For example, everyone used to ride in lycra shoe covers for time trials, turns out some of them can actually make you slower.What does work though is a decent set of shoe covers such as the Castelli Aero overshoes. But definitely invest in Aero Socks, it sounds silly but they work and can save anything from 3-6 watts.Even the position of your heel and foot needs to be considered. For example, if you are pedalling with a high heel then that is more surface area grabbing wind. Plus it might be a sign you need a decent bike fit.If you are pedalling at 95 rpm for 4 hours that is 22,800 pedal strokes, why wouldn’t we look at smoothing that airflow out!In summary, there are plenty of gains to be made, and I am in no way saying that everyone needs to go the extremes. There is a time and place for it but its worth spending some time thinking about.
Next article, we will do the same with a Time Trial rider on a TT/Triathlon bike.
Take care,John
