king-tony

Ah aerobars. Now we're talking. This was one of the items that I really spent a lot of time researching during this build. If I could have gone to Interbike and only looked at a single component it would have been the aerobar offering. The local shops carry a very limited selection so it is difficult to compare these things through pictures. I wanted three things. First, a really adjustable bar. Second, as aero as possible. Third, sweet looking.

There are a lot of high-end bars out there and I doubt this is the best place to spend money. Alloy bars work just as well as the carbon bars since weight is not that big of a factor. I was amazed at the integrated bars on the market. I just don't get why you would want to be stuck with one stem length and angle. Maybe if you are Levi and have been to the tunnel 10 times and have your position dialed in you might consider this route. But, if you are injured, gain or lose weight, or you flexibilty changes you are stuck. Also, I don' get the fixed bars like the Easton Attacks. Very limited adjustability. Anyway, I wanted to be able to adjust the elbow pads in both axis. In fact, I would really like to find pads that are independent of the extensions and would allow me to run flat pads and tilted bars. As I stated earlier, carbon was not a big deal to me. However, almost every alloy bar out there has horns that are angled up. I don't understand why you would design a bar that exposes more frontal area than necessary. Yeah, you might be able to argue that you could get more leverage this way, but you might need that for 30 seconds in the average 40k. I picked up this bar used on Peloton East. I'm glad I did as the owner changed the brackets and used a Bontrager version. I've got tons of adjustability on this on and it looks sweet. The bar currently has Cobra T2 carbon extensions, but I don't really care for S-bends because I have my hands high and hate tilted pads. I'll probably pick up some Carbon Strykes. Levers are SRAM. I like the feel better than the Vision levers I had and look much more aero than the alloy Tektros on my old bike.

The stems are Oval Concepts alloy R700's . I like these because the face plate bolts are on the back of the stem instead of the normal front location. This makes accessing them with extensions much less painful. Also they are 4-bolt which is a must.

king-tony

That's right, real Tektro R530 calipers. Yes these things are off the charts expensive and super exotic, but it costs to be aero. There is nothing on this bike that I spent more time debating than this. Ridiculous, really. There just aren't that many aero options on the market. I thought about going with the Oval Concepts/Tektro behind the fork mounted brakes. I may still go with this version for the rear. However, there is some debate over the trade-off of this versus the extra exposed cable for routing behind the front fork. Also, the brake's clearance with certain forks is an issue. I've looked at a gazillion photos of professional riders TT rigs and almost all of them run a standard front caliper. Even the new P4 is setup this way. I decided to go with a Shimano Dura Ax or Campagnolo Delta front. The problem is that they are hard to find and these dorks that restore old bikes and hang them in their garage walls pay ridiculous amounts for them. I mean seriously, $300 for 1980's brakes that barely work. Anyway, these things are placeholders or maybe they are not. I'll use them once per TT in most cases and the rest of the time they will just hang there and be wattage suckers.

wanders

I'm partial to "TVA" - Tony's Velo Acquisition.

Nice build. Can't wait to see it complete.

king-tony

Interesting idea. TVA is supposed to get a big chunk of the stimulus money. I can think of no better use than more wind tunnel time. That big sludge spill will just have to wait.

king-tony

Wheels. There are many things to consider when choosing race wheels, but for a TT bike we are primarily concerned with aerodynamics. Unfortunately, getting reliable data on this subject is difficult. Tunnel time is not cheap and when a manufacturer tests other company's equipment the data can often be misleading. To this end, we at the King-Tony institute for advanced Time Trial Studies or KTiFATT, have developed our own tunnel and testing protocol. There is some pretty heavy science here involving yawn angles and laminated air flow, but I think I can adequately simplify the concepts.
First you have to come up with a source for moving air across the test object. After extensive research the KTiFATT staff procured this gem:

The Vornado. Capable of producing wind speeds in excess of 16mph. As my ftp has now reached triple digits I feel confident I can come close to this speed in a real race. Chief scientist Kung Fu Panda demonstrates the protocol in this photo.

Basically a mounting device was fabricated to hold the test object and then the Vornado is turned on. To see how air passes over the object we developed a special textile filament. As you can see in the above photo we are testing the Fulcrum Racing 7 front wheel in 700c size. The airflow is perfectly guided around the wheel and no turbulence is detected. We were very surprised at the results as the Fulcrum was intended to be a training wheel with at best, marginal aerodynamics.
Then we tested some well known race wheels:

The team was shocked at how poorly a highly regarded TT wheel performed in the tunnel. You can see in the photo that this wheel actually repulsed the air and sent our test filament to the bottom of the facility. This would be similar to pushing water with your hand. There is significant resistance and we believe this could cause increased drag of up to 750 watts. We will not name the wheel manufacturer in this photo, but if you send me $29.99 I will send you the tunnel data. This is very troubling as it is generally accepted that this wheel is one of the fastest available and is seen on many Pro Tour bikes. I sent an e-mail to the manufacturer with the test data, but they had not responded by the time I finished this post.
At this point we have not tested every wheel on the market, but of the two we have tested it is obvious that the Fulcrum Racing 7 is the fastest wheel currently being manufactured.

ridethecliche

LMAO, nice!

kudude

awesome

patentcad

The degree to which you have been carried away by this is impressive KT. Carry on.

wanders

I'll bet you could charge $75/hour for people to come and test their TT positions while sitting on you couch in front of the Vornada and connected to the KF Panda.

irish pat

This is the funniest thread EVAR!!

dmotoguy

i was chilling on my tt bike a few nights ago and my mind was wondering..

I should have my friend bring his bong over and blow the smoke into the back of my fan while i'm riding the trainer..

..that is all.

king-tony

While this might sound like a good idea, there are some things you are not considering. Temperature and relative humidity significantly impact aerodynamics. To get reliable data you have to have constant environmental conditions. The problem with using a bong is two fold. First you are introducing significant water vapor into your testing environment from both the bong and the user's lungs. It is a well known fact that water levels within bongs are extremely variable and the moisture introduced from the lungs will decline as the series of hits increases screwing with your test chamber's humidity. The second problem is that you are looking at testing the complete bike/rider system here. Second hand bong smoke is not as potent as first hand, but after a few runs I would imagine that it would be difficult to repeat your position. You are introducing way too many variables into the equation. While I really like your creativity and enthusiasm, this is complex stuff and is best left to the experts.

wfrogge

You have 6 weeks to get everything ready!

king-tony

Hmmm, guess I may want to reconsider the rolling resistance lab I have been working on......

Dubbayoo

How much for the 14" Zipp 808?

ridethecliche

Best Thread EVAR!

king-tony

That is actually a 700c 1080. The 1100c Fulcrum just makes it look smaller.

king-tony

Welcome to day 2,342 of the Manhattan Project. Today we are talking tires and skewers. Good times.
I’m sure by this point you have taken a peak at the photo and observed Bontrager tires on my lab table. Believe me, this ranks right up there with watching American Idol to me. I do my best to be 180 degrees from popular culture, but at the end of the day it is about going fast and a Sharpie will help conceal how low I have gone on this one. First, let’s talk about why I bought clinchers. The obvious answer would be because I have a clincher wheelset, but I have learned through this process that you actually decide what kind of tires you want to run first and then you determine which wheelset to run. For me, I only care about speed with my tire choice so there are two factors to consider – aerodynamics and rolling resistance. Aerodynamics I will address in the wheel post as rim width has a lot to do with this number. It is commonly believed that tubular tires have a lower rolling resistance than clinchers. It is also commonly believed that Bruce Springsteen is a great songwriter and singer, both beliefs are absolutely incorrect. Yes, there are a few tubulars out there that may perform better, but getting consistent results is something that I really question. I use this data https://www.biketechreview.com/tires/...sting_rev8.pdf to help me make my tire decisions. On the plus side this is an independent test. A big negative is that as far as I know these tests could be performed on an apparatus that is also used as part of a meth lab. I really don’t know, but this is what I have to go on. The reason I did not go with tubular tires is that I doubt that I could duplicate the tester’s “properly glued” technique. I have no Idea what the relative humidity is there, exactly how long do I let the glue dry, how much glue, what brand etc. etc. I think I can come pretty close to duplicating the clincher installation. The one down side is that I have to run latex tubes. I have not purchased anything made of latex since I have gotten married and that was a long, long time ago. Back then, it was really awkward going to the pharmacy and asking for a box. The looks from the pharmacist…. the embarrassment. Actually, it was kind of like that buying latex tubes. The bike shop guy gave me a very similar look and honestly I think he believes that I must be a Fred or something for wanting these flat-prone, pressure leaking tubes. Well, at least I did not get confused and ask him for the ribbed version.

Skewers. These are track skewers and I bought them because I thought they would be much more aero than regular skewers and they are also a few grams lighter than my Zipp Ti skewers. I know what you are thinking – we saw these things on DrWJODonnell’s bike a long time ago and you are talking like this was your idea. Well, I would like to remind you of a couple of things. First, this project has been going on for 2,342 days so you really can’t be sure when I thought of it. Secondly, I live in TN. There are certain terms that mean very little to us like Intellectual Property or Copyright Infringement….. Dental Hygiene, Regular Vehicle Maintenance, and Grilled Entrée are a few others that come to mind. The only real downside to the track skewers would be if I flatted while warming up or going to the line, but that Is a chance I will have to take.

wfrogge

Tennessee quick release skewer

king-tony

This is my saddle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my saddle is useless. Without my saddle, I am sitting on a post. I must sit on my saddle true. I must sit truer than the enemy who is trying to crush my soul. I must crush his soul before he crushes mine. I will. My saddle and I know that what counts in battle is not our paper ftp, the cadence of our legs, or the make of our bike. We know that it is the suffering that counts. We will suffer......

The ISM Adamo racing saddle. It is not comfortable. It is only tolerable. I can stand it for 55 minutes. Not one second longer. I have tried many other saddles, on my TT bike, they all suck. This one sucks less for me than the others I have tried.

king-tony

Mmmmmm. Yummy. Probably the least cost effective upgrade one can make - race wheels. But they are shiney. I was showing these to a teammate and he looked really confused when he saw a Hed and Zipp wheel being prepped for installation on the Manhattan Project. He thought something really bad would happen like when they fired up that giant particle accelerator in Europe. He said something about a rift in space and time and was getting a little upset until I explained to him that it was very common for people to do this and that these were Zed Tech wheels (you might have to think about this for a second).



So why this combination? I'm glad you asked. As you know, our project managers do not guess. If they don't know, they find out. So the Vornado was fired up and the Sub 9 and Jet C2 Disc were compared. We knew that the 1080 would smoke the H3 and C2 90 so the focus was on the rear. Since the last test, project leader Kung Fu Panda wrote some new analysis software to help us better interpret the data. I'm still learning both panda and Chinese, but I'm pretty sure that this shows the Hed Jet Disc to be much faster.



At this point my only concern is with tire choice. Running the 23mm Bontrager PXL is pretty much a no-brainer for the rear. However, the front is another story. Zipp was fairly adamant that a 21 mm tire would be faster aerodynamically, but looking at the Crr data it was evident that (for available tires) 23mm clinchers would be faster. So which is more important, rolling resistance or drag? I'm not sure on this one, but I feel confident that we will figure it out.

rankin116

Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead.

king-tony

Conundrum.....

CrimsonKarter21

Both

KyleOndy

You can never have to many hand positions.