In Search of Free Speed!

Ever since my OCS time trial in May, I have been seeking free speed on the bike. I rode home from that race with my friend, Courtney. She played a Tri-Talk podcast about Wind Tunnel Testing. The show discussed testing of several athletes with varying bike setups in a wind tunnel. They measured velocity and wattage to determine what changes in their bike setup resulted a faster 40k time trial. Here are some bullet points that I remember:

• An aero helmet can save over a minute! They tested the Rudy Project helmet with and without the sideburns (extra pieces that cover the ears). Only the one with the sideburns saved significant time.
• A cycling race suit can save over a minute as compared to a tri-suit.
• Changes in aero position sometimes saves alot of time, sometimes just a little. In some cases, the time savings was only a few seconds, and the conclusion was that loss of power or greater discomfort was not worth the savings. In other cases, there was alot of time saved, with no loss of power, so it was worth it.

I ordered an aero helmet for just $119 at Category One Cycles. I picked this model because it covered the ears and got good reviews. It should arrive tomorrow!

And – I am going to wear my other tri top at my next race. It’s more skin tight than my favorite top.

I’ve also spent alot of time fiddling with my aero position. I wanted to get just a tad lower, and also get my forearms so they were completely horizontal. I lowered my handlebars by about 1/2″ by removing two spacers. I also fiddled with the location of the elbow pads on my aero bars, moving them closer to my seat. Then I went out for an easy paced 50 mile HILLY ride. By the end of the ride, my entire body was in pain: knees, feet, elbows, shoulders, and especially, my BUTT! And my long run the next day was truly awful! I had planned to move everything back the way it was, but…

Two days later, my body was feeling back to normal, and I thought “Hmmmm, I’m curious what my average speed was on that painful ride.” Checking my cateye computer showed an average speed of 16.6 mph. I ALWAYS get 15.4 mph on my easy paced rides. I double checked my heart rate records, and yes, at 138 average bmp, that was an easy ride. WOW – that’s 1.2 mph of FREE speed. I decided I would keep the new bike configuration, in hopes my body would adapt.

These are not great pictures (captured from video), as I didn’t think to mark the position of the camera with respect to the bike, so the angle of the shot is slightly different. Anyway, I think you can still see that I am just a tad lower, and my forearms are more horizontal.

In taking it even further, I experimented with moving my elbow pads inward toward each other, and sliding the aero bars forward and back to adjust where my hands rested. This took quite a lot of fiddling to get it to feel right. I’d adjust the pads and/or bars, ride for a while, stop alongside the road to fiddle some more, ride some more, etc. I think I finally have it right.

I have gone on three shorter bike rides (13-26 miles) since that first painful day in the new position, and have not had any pain…YEAH! I can’t wait to go out on that 50 mile ride again to see what my average speed is. Am I just imagining this FREE speed? But, that will have to wait until after my Over the Mountain race, which is only 6 days away!

I videotaped my initial efforts at adjusting my handlebars and cut it down to a 10 minute clip. You’ll find it interesting if you have no idea how to remove handlebars from a bike and want to learn:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yljRa25IU7c]