aerodynamics man depending on who you
talkin to it could be the be-all and
end-all the most important factor
affecting your cycling I mean they pay
attention to it you're not even gonna be
able to finish that Gran Fondo you're
targeting on the same day that you
started let alone in a personal best
time now clearly it's not that important
but undeniably it does have a big effect
on how quickly and how easily you can
ride so we thought we'd see how much
difference it makes to your speed when
we change three common things on our
road bikes firstly and completely for
free what happens when you change your
body position and secondly and quite
inexpensively what happens to your speed
when you make your helmet and your
clothing more Aero yeah and then finally
with a bit more investment what about
your wheels what is the difference
between shallow and deep section wheels
well to find out we have come to the gcn
test track our very own private road for
the runway yeah and then we will ride to
three preset wattages controlled using
in my case a rotor twin Pat parameter
and in Matt's case a power to max and
then we'll simply compare the speeds and
do some science how'd you know what I
said
click on test ones glasses okay so quick
caveat anything that we do today will be
riddled with statistical errors because
we have no glasses let's click on anyway
yeah let's do some pseudo science your
body position first there now this is
something that biomechanics permitting
we can all do dropping our elbows
lowering our backs dropping a head and
tucking in our shoulders so how are we
going to test for that well we have a
stretch of road that is flat and long
enough to ride at a constant speed we're
going to ride at three different powers
200 Watts 300 watt 0 400 watts and once
we're at that constant speed we'll take
an average over a short stretch giving
us the exact speed that wattage will
give us
test number two is clothing now we've
gone for option number one which is the
full juice en pro kit with arrow helmet
option number two is a vented cask
helmet and let's face it a top that's
probably several sizes too big
now finally then wheels this is the
quick and easy way of making your bike
more Aero but it does take more
investment so what is your return well
to find out we are using a set of
Bontrager paradigm elite wheels really
nice lightweight to have alloy rims and
a pair of zips new at 4:04 NSW wheels
not the deepest they make but still
pretty rude I think you'll agree they
should be really good I'm really
interested to see how this goes
you're really scraping the
so the difference out on the road
well quite remarkably at 200 watts there
was a three kilometer an hour difference
between a non aerodynamic and an
aerodynamic position and at 300 some
foreign words that difference went up to
four kilometers per hour the difference
between it's simply swapping your Jersey
and your helmet then was a quite
remarkable one kilometer per hour nearly
at 200 watts and then at 300 some for
hundreds again the difference went up to
nearly 2 kilometers per hour which is
quite remarkable for such a small change
I think and then the results for the
wheels then well the difference at 200
was was naught point four kilometers per
hour a stranger watts
it was naught point six kilometers per
hour and then at 400 watts it was one
kilometer per hour so out on the open
road how do these three aerodynamic
changes actually stack up well
unsurprisingly or perhaps not
considering it's free it's actually your
body position that has the most effect
because believe it or not it accounts
but to sit between 70 and 80 percent of
the aerodynamic drag of you and your
bike as you cut through the air yeah so
you can make significant improvements no
matter what speed you're riding at the
first place simply by changing your body
position then the next biggest
improvement was clothing and helmet
followed by wheels which seems a bit
paradoxical really given the extra money
involved with getting a high-performance
set of wheels but it does actually tally
up when you think about it it's much
easier to make performance gains as you
go from beginner or leisure cyclists
through to a more performance oriented
Rider the further the pursuit of
aerodynamic gains more money it's going
to cost you for increasingly less
improvements so it's completely up to
you whether you think it's worth it or
not
yeah so something to think about there
now before we leave this video we do of
course realize the limitations of our
testing protocol but we've both been
taken aback I think it's fair to say by
how easy it's been to see the
differences out on the open road all we
needed was accurate parameters a little
bit Tom my hat's indeed
now for another video on
aerodynamics but this time the
difference is the air limits make whilst
climbing
how about clicking just up here yeah or
to see inside the winter nor where you
Det genuinely accurate aerodynamic data
and click just down there to see behind
scenes in Envy's top secret testing
indeed that is a good video and to
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