we're at the state-of-the-art ark wind
tunnel at the capital of speed
Indianapolis with Dave Mor who's the
advanced development engineer at zip and
he is going to give us his top
aerodynamics tips how to make your body
and not your bike more aerodynamic that
is right how to go faster for free right
and Dave hit it so the first freebie a
really easy one is going to be between
your hand position on the tops hoods or
on the drops surprisingly there's not
that big of a difference between the
tops and the hoods but you do get a
little bit uh lower on the hoods there
is quite a big difference between the
hoods and the drops that'll save you up
to 20 watts if you're depending on the
person if you get low enough um so in
race scenarios drops are always better
uh the second one will be elbows if uh
if your elbows tend to stick out a
little bit concentrate on bringing those
closer to your body in line with the
bars right that'll buy you a little bit
extra um and then the next biggest hit
after that is going to be your head and
shoulder position so you want to keep
that head kind of in line with your back
I know it's uncomfortable to keep it yep
to keep it tilted up but the the more
discomfort you can stand the faster
you're going to go and then try to shrug
these shoulders up towards your ears a
little higher about that there you go so
it looks a little uncomfortable it takes
a bit of practice but you're going to
see it uh in the numbers if you're ever
doing a a time trial or in a breakaway
on a road race these will make some big
differences and then keeping everything
tidy so your helmet straps any extra
bags or cables on your bike
that's also stuff you can get for free
um just attention to detail so so is my
position now like my body position is
that about as good as it can go I think
uh you know you're a pretty Arrow guy uh
there's not much sticking out there
that's the biggest compliment anyone's
ever paid me uh bottles in the back are
going to hurt you but if you have to
have the water you have to have it uh
maybe ditch it when you're done um but
overall I think that you're ready to
race yeah you know I was kind of hoping
you'd say that actually I was really un
dnamic and that the reason I didn't do
as well in races is cuz I could have got
my position sorted but anyway never mind
I got no excuse and then what about what
about the issue of ponytails so
obviously you know big one in the
women's pelaton but also now with petan
in the men's pelaton as well what do we
do that's actually a very good question
so we had the chance to uh test this
with one of our female pro athletes uh
she was concerned which uh hair position
was going to be fastest for her some are
more convenient than others um and
actually the ponytail surprisingly was
the fastest between ponytail U I'm I'm
sorry pigtails right uh was faster than
ponytails or a bun so Peter Sagan with
the stylish man bun uh you might want to
go to the hairdresser get some uh tight
pigtails and uh gain a little extra
speed that's going to be as well
Championship winning tip okay and then
the other thing like a big aerodynamic
Topic at the moment is descending so you
know Chris FR popularized a pretty
extreme style uh in the torto Francis
year but have you tested it how arrow is
that yeah so um it is it you know you
get down a little pod it is very fast
there are some uh tradeoffs obviously
you can't pedal very easily there um it
takes a few seconds to get into the
position so if you're on a really
technical descent that might um
compromise some safety getting out of
The Descent in an emergency um one that
is just as good though keeping your your
saddle or your your seat on the saddle
um get your nose and your your chin way
down there put your hands up top there
tuck them in close to your knees stop
pedaling for a second get those knees in
and you can look down that is just about
as good as anything you're going to get
really yep and it doesn't feel half as
sketchy Noe you can control the bike uh
just about as good as when you're
sitting up and you can most importantly
get out of that position in an emergency
yeah my brakes are just there cool good
stuff so there some pretty solid tips
there for most of us riding on the drops
is going to be faster keep your elbows
tucked in shrug that head and your
shoulders and then think about keeping
your bike and your body uncluttered so
nothing in your back pockets and
minimizing what's on your bike and then
finally remember pigtails are more
aerodynamic than buns so pizza again we
know what your world's haircut is going
to be right then for some more videos
about wind tunnels right here in fact in
the art wind tunnel where we test retro
versus modern zip Wheels why not click
just down there to watch that video or
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