spiderbike
10-10-06, 07:18 PM
I know that your body position is most important for aero dynamics but how important is it that the seat tube have a cut out for the rear wheel and how wide would a effective cutout need to be...
Triathlon - seat tube cut out for rear wheel
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Sprocket Man
10-10-06, 07:57 PM
How important is it depends on what your goals are. If you are a pro or top age-grouper where seconds count, then a cutout might help.
I don't have any statistics, but if I were to throw out a wild guess, I'd say that for the sake of comparison, a Cervelo Soloist (no cutout) vs. a Cervelo P3C over a 25 mile course, the difference would be a little less than 1 minute. This time difference could mean the difference between 1st and 3rd in a tightly contested race. But if you're pack fodder (like myself), I don't think it really matters that much. There are probably a million other things I could do to make myself faster.
That said, seat-tube cutouts certainly won't hurt your performance. And they look sexy. So if you find a good deal on a frame that fits with a seat-tube cutout, buy it.
I don't have any statistics, but if I were to throw out a wild guess, I'd say that for the sake of comparison, a Cervelo Soloist (no cutout) vs. a Cervelo P3C over a 25 mile course, the difference would be a little less than 1 minute. This time difference could mean the difference between 1st and 3rd in a tightly contested race. But if you're pack fodder (like myself), I don't think it really matters that much. There are probably a million other things I could do to make myself faster.
That said, seat-tube cutouts certainly won't hurt your performance. And they look sexy. So if you find a good deal on a frame that fits with a seat-tube cutout, buy it.