- The aggregation of marginal gains.
Yep, the methodology made famous by Sir Dave Brailsford,
in his pursuit, to turn British cycling,
and then later Team Sky into winning organizations.
The thinking being that if you can improve everything
you do by just one percent, then these small improvements,
added up over a long period of time, become significant.
(intro music)
In this video, we're going to talk about
the most marginal, marginal gains, that you can make
to your bikes or equipment.
Things that may only save you one or two watts.
Things that, in some cases,
might be a little bit ridiculous,
but they can still be effective.
And whether or not you choose to embrace them,
well, that's up to you.
Now, before we do, be sure to subscribe,
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(smooth music)
First up is inner tubes.
Now inner tubes have big implications,
for the rolling resistance of you,
with marginal implications, for the rolling resistance,
of your wheels and tires.
And our friends, at Aero Coach, recently performed
a comprehensive study looking at the effects
of different kinds of inner tubes.
Now if you switch from,
a standard butyl black rubber inner tube, like this,
to a lighter, well super light, butyl inner tube then,
well you can expect to save four watts,
at 45 kilometers an hour.
Yes, a whopping four watts
and they're 50 grams lighter too.
A word of caution though, the instructions,
that come with these super light inner tubes,
does say that they're not ideal for riding down mountains
and braking heavily at the same time.
But, still again, you can get even more
of a early resistance gain too,
if you switch to latex tubes, according to Aero Coach.
With those, you're looking at, seven to eight watts,
over a standard butyl tube.
I mean, that's not a marginal gain,
that's just a, that's just a gain.
Anyhow, you're probably wondering what seven or eight watts
actually means, in the real world.
Well, again according to Aero Coach,
that's 12 seconds saved over 16 kilometers or 10 miles.
I mean that's either going to sound like loads or not much,
depending on your point of view.
(smooth music)
Wrapping your number, in a fancy way.
Now, if you do a big event or a sportive,
Gran Fondo, something like that,
you're often presented with a race number
that you have to stick to the front of your bike.
Now, doing this, in the normal way,
can result in a big drag penalty.
We tested it at the Wind Tunnel, earlier in the year,
and found it was, as much as, eight watts
at 30 kilometers an hour, which is loads.
However, we found that by wrapping the number
around your head tube in a crafty way, like this,
resulted in little or no aero drag penalty.
(smooth music)
Skewers, now what self-respecting aero nerd
isn't going to do this?
Orientate your skewers, in a way that
optimizes them, aerodynamically.
Traditionalists will tell you to point the lever,
of the front skewer,
in line with the front fork
and to point the rear one in line with the chain stay.
Well, you're probably chucking away almost one watt,
by doing that.
(smooth music)
But, if you want to take skewers to the next level
then you need Aero Skewers.
Yep, Aero Skewers.
John Archibald actually had these,
on his Ribble TT bike,
at the World Championships in Harrogate,
you can see it on his front wheel.
And instead of the normal quick-release skewer with a lever,
it's been replaced by one that isn't quick-release,
that doesn't have a lever.
How do you open and close it?
Well, you use a Allen Key or a Pex wrench,
if you're American.
And by removing the lever, you've actually managed
to remove a little bit of frontal area
off the front of the bike.
How much does this save?
Well, typically, sort of a solitary watt at 40 km/h.
it's not much but, I mean, well I'd take it.
(smooth music)
Modern aerodynamic fabrics and textiles exhibit
lower drag than skin.
And this has resulted in all manner of aerodynamic
clothing items being developed, including socks.
Now during this season and in particular,
at the World Championships in Harrogate,
it was hard to spot a pro-rider not wearing aero socks.
And this has resulted in the UCI enforcing
a strict sock height rule.
The UCI even has, an extremely high tech,
sock measuring device, which they salvaged off
the windscreen of a 1987 Austin Montego.
I mean, people love to joke about this device,
but without it then the pro peloton would probably
start to look like extras from the video
for Britney Spears "Hit Me Baby One More Time".
( lively music)
Bar tape, I mean, who actually needs bar tape anyway?
Removing it will save weight, I mean,
you're looking at about 150 grams
and it will reduce your frontal area too, marginally.
I mean yes, your handle bars will be less comfortable.
And yes, they'll be a bit more slippery when wet.
But, I mean, just think of the savings,
if you have an aero bike,
well, with an aero bar then it'll save even more.
I mean, there's a compromise, you could just wrap
just past the shifter and leave the tops bare
and doing so will probably save you one to two watts.
I've done both these things.
(lively music)
Exposed nipples, stop sniggering at the back,.
Look, a few years ago, I visited the Wind Tunnel,
with Swiss Side,
and there the head engineer, JP Ballard,
spoke a lot about nipples - spoke nipples.
He reckoned that the nipples, inside a wheel,
account for about half a watt to one watt of rotational drag
when the wheel is spinning.
And this is the reason why some brands now hide the nipples
inside the wheel rim, on their designs.
It's a very marginal gain, but intriguing nonetheless.
(light percussive music)
Buying a brand new bling set of wheels, with hidden nipples,
is likely to be expensive.
So a, much more cost effective, marginal gain
would be to wrap your helmet in cling film.
I'm just going to reach down and grab my helmet.
Now yes, it's covered in vents that help cool you down,
but these create drag, the cyclists' number one enemy.
Now wrapping it is likely to reduce that drag.
Yes, it's not going to cool you down effectively
and it's going to kind of turn your helmet into
a mini poly tunnel greenhouse,
but just think of the aero gains.
And, think of the glory when you win
your local time trial.
(jazzy music)
Chopping your drops off.
Now this marginal, marginal modification gain,
can be traced back to the British hill climb scene,
in the 1950s and 60s,
and was done to try and save weight on your bike.
It also 'tentially saves a little bit of aero drag as well
by reducing some frontal area, from the handlebars,
although it's covered up by the brake levers.
Now I actually did this myself, a few years ago, on a rather
expensive pair of carbon fiber Fizik handlebars.
It saved save all of about 25 grams.
Would I do it again?
Probably not, especially when you instinctively grab
for the drops, while descending at 60km an hour,
and they're not there.
(lively music)
What about you shoes then?
Well, if they're like this beautiful pair, the Fiziks,
then they've got some Boa dials on them.
Now ratchets and dials they're good, they're functional,
but they also create drag.
Now friend of the channel, Rob Hales, he told us about
a hack that he did, when he was competing,
and that was actually to take off the dials.
How do you tighten your shoe
once you've taken off the dials?
Well, you put the shoe on and you tie it and wrap it tight,
with some tape,
and then you put your overshoe over the top,
all in a bid to reduce drag.
Apparently, it works.
You can try that one yourselves,
I'm going to keep the dials on my shoes.
(rock music)
Marginal, marginal gains, you can take them or leave them,
it's up to you.
But it's important to pay attention
to the maximal gains first, it wouldn't be right
if I didn't say that.
So ask yourself, are you getting enough sleep?
Are you eating healthily?
And, are you doing good quality training?
Now, while faster, some of these gains are a bit ridiculous
and can open you up to ridicule, from your friends.
I mean, I should know, I've tried eight of them.
So, just make sure if you do, do them, that you win
and then your friends can't laugh at you.
Now if you've enjoyed this video,
then please give it a thumbs up
and share it with your friends.
And please suggest, any that we've missed,
in the comments section down below.
And if you'd like to watch a video on aero hacks
in the Wind Tunnel, I did with Opie, click down here.