*Tour Aero Bike Tests*

[Beaver]

The results are mainly because of the wheels. The SystemSix has 64mm high, 32mm wide rims with 23mm tires - all other wheelsets were lower, narrower and had 25mm tires. They only changed the wheels on some bikes for comparison.

And why I mentioned the Giant earlier: With Lambda Racing wheels (55/70mm high) and a Vision Metron 6D bar-stem combo it's the fastest with 201.9 watts...

But again: with a rider these watt numbers are twice as high, but the one digit differences stay the same - it's really not that much and not that noticable on the road.

And I still doubt that disc bikes can be as aero as a rim braked bike, it's just more surface and that can't be spirited away.

[hack]

Hoped to have seen the Aero Orca in the test.

[LeDuke]

And I still doubt that disc bikes can be as aero as a rim braked bike, it's just more surface and that can't be spirited away.

Only if you ignore the constraints that a rim brake places on fork design, and a disc brake eliminates...

[TobinHatesYou]

And I still doubt that disc bikes can be as aero as a rim braked bike, it's just more surface and that can't be spirited away.

Only if you ignore the constraints that a rim brake places on fork design, and a disc brake eliminates...

Aka, see the Shiv Tri bike’s fork as a hint of the future for road bike development as long as the UCI evolves away from its stingy rules.

[Karvalo]

Wonder why the CDale BB did so bad considering CDale said they hit their goal for it?

It did badly? Looks to be very stiff at 101Nm, bested by the S5 but with the stiffest Headtube and fairly competitive seatpost flex.

What? Aren't we suppose to look at tretlagersteifigkeit for bb stiffness? I think lenkkopfsteifigkeit is headtube stiffness.

So it's the opposite then, and the SystemSix has by a distance the stiffest BB of all the tested bikes?

[Monkeyfudger]

Maybe, maybe not, TT/Tri and road are very different due to the nature of their interactions with their environment, ie, we don’t ride in bunches (so much) on TT bikes.

An interesting bike to look at is the Avanti Track bikes, zero brakes so in theory anyway no restrictions on either bike, if there’s an advantage to a split fork(right term?) design they’d have surely gone with it on the sprint/bunch bikes as well right? Unless they were concerned about the implications during bunch racing?

[1llum4]

IIRC widely spaced fork work better with a front disc wheel. Since the Team Pursuit and Individual Pursuit are the only important TT on the track and can be raced with double disc wheel, wide leg fork make more sense for aero. Meanwhile, most of the sprint and bunch are done with a 5 spoke wheel(front disc is illegal for mass start race) which work better for aero with a narrow leg fork.

[RyanH]

For the umpteenth time, for those that aren't familiar with tour's methodology, they use half a mannequin (no upper body) to reduce the variability in setup. Add approximately 200w to all numbers to get close to real world numbers...

[Monkeyfudger]

IIRC widely spaced fork work better with a front disc wheel. Since the Team Pursuit and Individual Pursuit are the only important TT on the track and can be raced with double disc wheel, wide leg fork make more sense for aero. Meanwhile, most of the sprint and bunch are done with a 5 spoke wheel(front disc is illegal for mass start race) which work better for aero with a narrow leg fork.

It’s the other way around. A narrow fork leg creates a pressure wave when the spokes pass through, a wider fork alleviates that.

[Beaver]

And I still doubt that disc bikes can be as aero as a rim braked bike, it's just more surface and that can't be spirited away.

Only if you ignore the constraints that a rim brake places on fork design, and a disc brake eliminates...

But which design really looses more watts than the disc gains? And the Cannodale fork design with a sidewise 45° limit makes U-turns not easier.

A very good interview regarding this topic: https://translate.google.com/translate? ... -walser%2F

[morganb]

Did they not aero test the Allez Sprint?

It's in the german text of the Allez's review on 1st page:

"The Aero performance is not bad at 219 watts and beats any classic round tube frame, but remains behind the top racers."

That's pretty close to the SL6 with 50mm wheels if I remember the 2018 test correctly. That would put it level with the slower aero bikes with a handlebar and deeper wheel swap.

[Noctiluxx]

This kind of testing is really fun to read but has absolutely no real effect in real world use, with less than world class level riders. Having said that, I'm glad I bought the 2019 rim caliper Madone, cause its more aero

[Shrike]

Excellent, thanks for posting the results and translations

Like another poster said, I'm out too. Just nothing interesting happening this generation.

But I'll be back in a few years expecting for some proper advances. The word peak gets overused a lot, but we really are there with aero bikes and have been for a couple of gens now.

Nothing by way of material science is going to be ready for the cycling world by the next gen either so it'll have to be a rule change at the UCI end and lower disc brake component weights.

[AJS914]

I've actually been thinking of buying a used Madone 9. It's nice to know that with rim brakes it's faster or just as fast as the $12,000 disc super bikes. I moved to a pan flat area where we have a few 2-3% climbs so an aero bike fits the terrain. We also have rough roads so ISO speed and the ability to run 30mm tires ticks all the boxes. And a used Madone 9 in mint condition can be had for about half price of a new SLR.

Still, I keep talking myself out of it. I just got some new 50mm aero wheels for my C59 and I was able to fit 25mm GP4000s on it (27mm actual). I have one of the rare C59s that can take a wider tire but I am at the limit. Still, it's pretty comfortable now @ 65/70psi.

The other reason I talk myself out of it is that my weak spot right now is those 2-3% climbs. The fastest guys in our group do them in the big ring at a good speed but it's still a slow enough speed that an aero bike would not make a huge difference.

I am thinking about installing an aero road bar (-5 watts) on my C59 and buying an aero road helmet (-10 watts) and calling it a day.

[spdntrxi]

I've actually been thinking of buying a used Madone 9. It's nice to know that with rim brakes it's faster or just as fast as the $12,000 disc super bikes. I moved to a pan flat area where we have a few 2-3% climbs so an aero bike fits the terrain. We also have rough roads so ISO speed and the ability to run 30mm tires ticks all the boxes. And a used Madone 9 in mint condition can be had for about half price of a new SLR.

Still, I keep talking myself out of it. I just got some new 50mm aero wheels for my C59 and I was able to fit 25mm GP4000s on it (27mm actual). I have one of the rare C59s that can take a wider tire but I am at the limit. Still, it's pretty comfortable now @ 65/70psi.

The other reason I talk myself out of it is that my weak spot right now is those 2-3% climbs. The fastest guys in our group do them in the big ring at a good speed but it's still a slow enough speed that an aero bike would not make a huge difference.

I am thinking about installing an aero road bar (-5 watts) on my C59 and buying an aero road helmet (-10 watts) and calling it a day.

in fairness... if you would to get the madone though project 1.. pretty sure you can make the case a rim brake madone p1 would get pretty close to 12K as well (say last year before disc madone was avail)