UT_Dude

FWIW, 8W is huge.

ratebeer

I wouldn't say super huge. I know TTers that were solidly beat by others putting out 30 less watts but yeah in the grand scheme of things, it's not something to ignore if you're very competitive.

Here's another fairly recent summary at Velonews.
https://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...s/12493.0.html

Sure more testing is in order but this stuff has definitely dampened my enthusiasm for tubulars.

patentcad

There you go. The road surface in Harriman blows. I wouldn't want to see an F1 race there.

UT_Dude

They're able to do that because of those 8W. You can actually achieve something like a 15W loss on tires over some. 15W in tires, 30W in wheels, 15W on a skinsuit, 15W on an aero helmet, 30W on an optimized aero position. It adds up -- fast. That's 105W right there. Granted, I was being a tad generous on the numbers, but still.

patentcad

Fudging TT watt #'s RULES.

ratebeer

I'm wholly in agreement. I support shoe covers and leg shaving. I was just mentioning that 8W in relation to 100W is smaller than 30W to 100, so not super huge but yeah, definitely worth looking at. I know my strength is coming slowly but little tweaks to my aero have gone a long way.

Aerodynamics was a big difference in the case I mentioned. Not only posture but the faster rider showed up with something like this without any base bar and simply parted the wind like he was coated in Astroglide. You can steer at low speed by grabbing onto the edges of the elbow rests.

UT_Dude

I refuse to lose the basebar, but yeah.

I'm really not fudging by that much, Pcad. That's why I can hang with riders in higher categories in TT's.

patentcad

This has gotten far too technical. I'm afraid it's time to shut up and ride your bike. Even if it's a way high tech/aero wheeled/skinsuited/aero helmeted/SRM equipped/wind-tunnel tested bike.

God this does get ridiculous. Why do I love it so much? I am a total mental case I must say.



But I am not alone.

UT_Dude

Haha, don't worry, I still ride my bike...more than most, I think.

patentcad

This is no longer a laughing matter.

UT_Dude

I'm recovering right now. Only 6 hours a week on the bike = lame. Next week I go back to 11.5. Back during base time, it was more like 13. Next year, all of those will go up.

ratebeer

Just learn to laugh like our friend Ed... Maybe Pat Sajak doesn't have a million friends?! It's difficult to say!

UT_Dude

Duh! He has 2 million, like me.

2manybikes

Good link. One of the best I've seen on that subject. I learned a few things from it.

Racer Ex 

Not really. Look at what the fastest guys are running, like the World Champion. Or the teams that have 10 million Euro budgets and can have anything made they want.

It's probably 20:1 tubulars vc. clinchers on TT bikes.

Good enough for me.

ratebeer

Let's see about next season. A lot of the hottest part of this debate started after this year's teams had all their equipment.

I imagine we'll see more testing and very probably some innovations made to gluing compounds, rim shapes and/or tires to address the issue. There's an engineering problem in here for certain and brains applying themselves in a positive direction are not going to let that stand. (There's probably a little money in there as incentive for good innovators.) You can probably bet that a couple bright people at Zipp have this high on their radar.