- Morning Trainiacs.
This is good.
We have ourselves a big,
juicy,
fun, day.
That's right, we do.
'Cause today is actually a super nice day.
And that means that we're going to take the
Canyon Speedmax SLF, their top of the line, trial bike out.
This is the maiden voyage, this is it.
But, I can't go out riding like this.
I got some work to do.
Roll the intro.
That's good.
(upbeat music)
You ever find yourself,
looking at the photos of pro triathletes online,
seeing them just like so,
tucked in low and aero,
and wondering how they do that.
And maybe you've been told that,
you have to get more flexible,
like maybe a bike fitter or a physiotherapist has said,
"Oh, you need to go and like stretch your hamstrings,
or your lower back."
Or, "You're never gonna be able to get into that position."
So I was once actually told that very same thing.
And I basically just relegated myself to having this big,
upright position that would never actually be very...
I have to concentrate.
Would never actually be very aerodynamic.
Like you can take a look at,
photo here.
And I actually used to get comments on,
my aero position from people saying,
"My God, you are pushing a lot of watts,
really just to get through the air.
And that's right.
80 to 85% of the power that we put out,
is getting our body through the air, not the bike,
like the bike can be all aerodynamic as you want,
but if you can't get into that position,
you're not gonna be very fast.
So here I am being told that,
I'm not flexible enough to get aerodynamic,
or if I want to get flexible enough,
I have to spend, hours every single week stretching.
I don't have that.
I'm kind of like you like,
it's a lot of work to be a moderately successful YouTuber.
But then I went and ended up getting a bike fit for
Mat Steinmetz, who,
he is the founder and owner of 51 Speed Shop.
He does bike fits for a lot of Tour de France riders,
a lot of professional triathletes in the Boulder area.
He was one of the first guys that ended up creating the
Retul bike fit system.
And, he knows the stuff,
like the guy knows exactly what he's doing.
And I got a bike fit from him, setting up my cockpit here.
And here's the great thing,
he gave me the example of, I think it was Rohan Dennis,
who is...
Like, if you were to look at him in the time trial position,
you go like, wow, he must spend tons of time stretching.
And he gave me the example of not even just a bench like
this, but a low bench, like the height of a toolbox.
And he said that somebody like that,
I think it was Rohan Dennis.
He could barely get his leg up on the top of that,
actual toolbox or bench or whatever it was.
And here I was like,
"Oh, you know what, I can actually do that.
I'm quite flexible."
So why was I not able to get into that aero position,
and he was?
Oh that's where Mat then explained to me how important,
the setup of the front end is.
And I haven't really touched this at all.
So we're gonna go out and see, just how this feels,
how aero can I get?
That, seems a little lower than I'm capable of.
We'll find out.
(upbeat music)
All right.
I wave the white flag.
It's like 40, 50 K gusts of wind and,
that's not time you wanna be in cross winds,
when you're just starting to dial in the front end.
So,
nope,
another day we'll come out here and give this a first try.
I give wind, I give.
(wind blows)
I know, I know.
I shouldn't be using the race wheels while training.
It just looks so nice.
(door creeks)
Well that, is a perfect example of what I'm getting.
So what I'm getting at here is,
the best thing that I've ever done for my bike speed,
is because the aerodynamics,
and staying in the aero position is so critical
to going fast and not being taxed when you get off the bike,
and being fresh for the run,
the best thing that I ever did for my bike's speed,
and combine bike and run speed,
is to get my cockpit dialed in perfectly.
Now there was a few things about that,
that I think are just,
they're getting definitely better understood,
but might be a little misunderstood.
One of those things is that lower is not necessarily
always better.
In this case I just set the bike up as stock as possible.
I just want to put it together to get it functioning.
It is definitely, I would say,
probably two inches lower than what I would have
been comfortable with.
And of course you can adapt to it and you can spend more
time in the aero position.
And that is actually the key that Mat Steinmetz said to me,
is that, it's not necessarily about having a perfect
position, that's going to make you a good time trial
or a triathlon cyclist.
It's about having a good position that's close,
and then spending a lot of time in there,
and gradually adapting your body
and getting more comfortable in that.
But in my case,
I was putting out less power,
because I wasn't necessarily comfortable in it.
And what's actually been found is that for a lot of people,
lower is actually less aerodynamic.
Jan Frodeno, when he switched over to Canyon bikes,
my understanding is that they brought up his positioning.
He became more aerodynamic.
One of the potential reasons for that,
is that if you just look at this, position here,
where you're super, super low, first off,
not a lot of people have the upper back and lower back
flexibility to be able to get really low,
and close this hole here.
So what happens is,
you could probably tell from when I was riding,
is that I'm up here,
and this hole from the top of your hands,
to the bottom of the chin,
that's just scooping in a bunch of air.
So, here are the,
here are the tweaks that I plan on making,
that could possibly help you.
If I'm able to, I'm going to actually change out,
the arm cups here to the 51 Speed Shop or,
to another arm cup manufacturer.
So, here's a bit of a just scale for you about how,
small these current arm cups are,
kind of like the width,
just barely the width of a water bottle.
That's not a lot of meat, and not a lot of adjustability,
to end up moving this arm pad here.
You want this arm pad,
to be right directly underneath your elbow.
Something like this here,
where, you're getting your elbow right smack in the middle.
And what that's going to allow you to do is,
because you feel really well supported.
And you've got a lot of leeway when the bike is moving like
this, or as your hands are moving like that.
In my experience,
it gave me the comfort,
just to put all my weight into the elbow and just relax,
just relax and get low, closing,
that gap in between the top of my hands and my chin.
So, 51 Speed Shop arm cups are probably, I would guess,
compared to this, double the size.
So I'm gonna try to switch those out.
The next thing I'm gonna try to switch out,
is switch out these extensions here.
I wanna have extensions that angle up and angle in.
And that again, is going to make me more aerodynamic
because it's bringing my hands closer up to my chin,
and it's closing that gap.
So instead of this position here, be more like that,
and that,
is narrowing up the amount of frontal area that you've got,
that narrowed amount of frontal drag,
because your hands, are taking up some of the frontal area,
and your nose and chin are tucked in behind it,
or in some cases, some people are getting even lower.
So it's that combination, of being able to sink in,
and just lower your upper body a little bit,
without putting a whole lot of extra additional stress
on your lower back, by having knees way lower,
and bringing your hands up,
that allowed me to get really, really comfortable,
and spend that extra time in the aero position.
And that, really helped.
If I remember correctly,
there was half Ironman quarter lane,
where I went 234,
for the half Ironman bike.
And then I went and got the bike fitting.
And then I wanna say later that year,
I went 220,
and then the next year,
like 218 and 214,
and my power numbers, were almost the same.
They were very, very similar.
So what you wanna do is, sure get stronger on the bike,
but if you can get aero, like right there,
if you're comfortable in that position,
you can stay in that position by training in that position,
in the three months leading up to your race,
you can get, hella fast.
So I've got some work to do,
but, that's part of getting new bikes, totally worth it.
So Trainiacs that's my experience with what the best
thing was that I've done that had like the biggest
difference on my bike speed.
I'm curious, I'd like to hear some ideas.
What were the things that you have found,
whether it's training, whether it's gear, helmets, wheels,
whatever it is, speed suit, shaving your legs.
What were the things that helped you,
be faster on the bike that you know
is the most significant improvement in?
Give me in the comments below.
And if you aren't already subscribed,
hit the subscribe button below,
lots more triathlon content coming up.
I got a big year training and racing, that,
I just wanna...
Like I just wanna longingly stare at the bike.
Later Trainiacs.