I was given some suggestions for aerodynamic fairings... and I implemented them. And they work. I don't have enough readings to prove this, but I saved 30s over 20km from the helmet alone on the first try.
Now, you will have nightmares if you see the following pictures, so I will put a spoiler-free image on the homepage.
My lunch. Ribeye steak is really good for burgers, by the way.
I cut up a cereal box and used pieces of cardboard to cover up the vents on a regular helmet. Then I sealed those in place with duct tape. I was told to use tape alone, but I didn't like the idea of my hair getting ripped out by duct tape... o_O;
Duct tape: $2. Honey roasted cereals: $4.
A helmet with no style points: priceless.
Then I decided to mess around a little more. As you know, the upper stanchions are a very favorable position for your hands on a typical MTB geometry. This is easy to picture. With a good Q-factor, your arms line up directly in front of your thighs, and at some points in the pedal stroke, your knees, and partially, your shins. In this position, you also get to lean down your back comfortably, thus it works very similarly to aerobars. There's one bad thing though, the pump caps on a suspension fork are very uncomfortable for the hands, even if you're gloved. Why not tape some padding there? Now it feels really comfortable to cup your hands around (hence the name), and it works like aerobars... (It saves about 90s over 20km on a mountain bike.)
Aeroboobs. Sorry if you're disappointed with the picture in more ways than one.
I'm thinking... how about a pair of diffusers on the seatstays to slow down the people who are drafting behind me?
No comments:
Post a Comment