Aero/Gains Thread

Soldato
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Some big power that though! Got my first quick race week Saturday on the A3! hopefully the weather warms up by then to make it a quick day!
 
Soldato
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haha we joked about this before the start!
The guy who beat me by 3 seconds made a point of taking his off. Might have had him with those out ;)

I also thought there was some credence to the fact that the bottle helped the air around the messy bits of down tubes etc?

Downtube bottle costs you over 5w at 10 mile TT pace according to Aerocoach’s testing.

5w = 0.5s per km, give or take. :(
 
Soldato
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Definitely. I have one of those Fabric cageless bottles for my TT bike so I can take a bottle to the start or for riding to a club event. Means you can just take it off and no aero penalty from the bottle/empty cage.
 
Soldato
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Definitely. I have one of those Fabric cageless bottles for my TT bike so I can take a bottle to the start or for riding to a club event. Means you can just take it off and no aero penalty from the bottle/empty cage.
I had those but lost the 3 bottles i bought so just carry in pocket/stuffed in skinsuit now.
 
Soldato
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The bottle fitted on a Girant Trinity is supposed to be the bst at minimising the losses

Yeah, that or the Elite bottle seem pretty good in the test. I reckon for some people if you can fit a bottle just above your arms to fill the gap between chest and chin then it might actually be faster. Likewise with rear mounted bottles if there’s no gap between saddle and bottles so the air stays attached.

I’ve got the Profile Aeria front mounted bottle and in the little bit of testing I’ve done it seems to be drag neutral which is handy.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, that or the Elite bottle seem pretty good in the test. I reckon for some people if you can fit a bottle just above your arms to fill the gap between chest and chin then it might actually be faster. Likewise with rear mounted bottles if there’s no gap between saddle and bottles so the air stays attached.

I’ve got the Profile Aeria front mounted bottle and in the little bit of testing I’ve done it seems to be drag neutral which is handy.

I has the bottle mounted between my arms way back in 2014 after reading Aero tests all the way back then and it definitely helped, always think about putting it back but it just looks stupid! And I'd probably hit my face on it now!
 
Soldato
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So I've had some Aerolab arm rests for about 4 months but never got round to fitting them, finally got my bum in gear now we're TTing again and got them fitted, had to drill out some rounded bolts to get the old ones off and then had to order some new bolts.

Not tried them yet as only got the bolts today, but they feel so much better in the arm, should massively help keep tucked in and rigid from initial feel. Also took the time to heatshrink over some cable ties holding my Garmin in place in an effort to clean up the front end.

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Soldato
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My bike looks mega aero on the wall.... of the first 5 weeks I’ve ridden the first 2 only. Week 3 rain, week 4 rain, week 5 cancelled due to you guessed it rain. Next week I have my covid vaccine so may not race! I think we only have 18-20 events all year so over a quarter gone now!

I’m not spending all evening standing around unsure if going to race, getting wet and cold and it then being increasingly dodgy with spray, bad drivers and slippy roads!
 
Soldato
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So about 10 seconds off my 10 mile PB on saturday on a windy, cold and wet day, gonna make some minor adjustments to get me a bit further forward and lower now, certainly felt quick and got a PB for the first half of the course. Hopefully eek out some more watts as the summer goes on and I get more time in the position.
 
Soldato
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I did a 21:45 approx tonight. Still got a minute to find on my PB!

I know no push off and I did miss my pedal first time tonight, but that’s 10-15 seconds max.

What else can I blame. High air pressure 1020mb tonight. Maybe a little cold only 15c perhaps so if it was warmer I’d go quicker too! Clutching at straws.

I have a better position on the bike and all the equipment is the same. I’ve changed cranks and gone to more aero skewers… my power meter is calibrated & compared against my turbo which I’ve done with all my power meters.

No traffic on the road and ran good power all through, not downloaded yet but >300w. Bit of a headwind out but not massive, went out pretty good and paced it OK.

Benefit of Strava, I’ve done 20:49 and 20:52 from 313 and 308w respectively in August 2019. Air temperatures 21 and 22c.
 
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Soldato
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Windiest TT of the year by a long way and I did a 21:40 for 302w… maybe I used that power better and didn’t blow up and drop off right at the end.

Kinda cross head wind which meant it was changeable through the ride, disc wheel felt like I was getting a boost from it sometimes and not too hard to hold onto. It’s also great blasting along at 50kmh when you do have a tail!
 
Soldato
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Trimmed 6 seconds off that this week…. 21:34.

Yet to look at the data on the computer but Garmin had 315w NP (including 1 minute standing at the start).

Headwind out so went out at 330-340w, then easier back to part way at about 290w with a nice tailwind, then U turn and back to the final turn around as hard as I could reasonably go 340-370w (as it’s only 2-3 mins effort), then take the final turn pickup the tailwind and push as hard as possible to the line.

Quite how I can take 40 seconds off this time to be in line with my PB I really don’t know!!

Also worth mentioning, if you have SRAM TT brake levers, check the bolts on the pivot point, mine were working loose leading to play in the levers. I needed a 3mm either side to tighten them up.
 
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