Saturday, December 1, 2007

Watts your aerodynamic efficiency?

It amazes me the time (and money) that is spent by cyclists on their bikes by reducing the bike weight. Just look at all the cyclists these days that buy NEW state-of-the-art bikes that look cool and fast and are lightweight. Or look at the cyclist that is buying carbon fiber bottle cages to save a few grams...in order to reduce overall bike weight to go faster. Do these people realize that reducing aerodynamic drag is a BETTER way (and cheaper way) of going faster? So, it got me thinking: have these people been "properly fitted" to their new machine? When I say a "proper fit", I'm talking about a position on the bike which not only maximizes "comfort" and "power output" (or pedaling force), but that is also "aerodynamic". After all, what good is "comfort" and "power output" if the position is not "aerodynamically efficient"? I believe that the true goal of a "proper fit" SHOULD BE to not only maximize comfort and power output, but to maximze "aerodynamic efficiency" as well. In the next few months, I'll be developing a method to do just this- by calculating a riders Frontal Area (FA) and reducing it (thereby reducing air pressure drag), without compromising "power output" or "comfort". In the interim, check out this article which gives a good explanation of what I'm talking about: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/aerodynamics1.html Stay tuned for more...

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