"Aero" frames?

Just a random post but talking to folks this year got me thinking about some misconceptions that float around..

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If a bike has aero shaped tubesets it will save the rider watts vs. a round tubed bike

Maybe.

The bike accounts for 15% of drag, rider is 85%.

If a rider position isn't optimized then the drag reduction could be negated partially or even entirely.

Aero tubesets are just better then round

Sadly, in many cases this is not the case.

Girth of the tubesets on the downtube (along with girth of head tube) are key factors in how aero the frameset is.

There are multiple frames that simply test terribly relative to their competition and in some cases provide no advantage (Scott Plasma 1, some older C'dales, some Ceepos, Beyond Fab, Isaac Aerotic) because the headtube and downtubes are frickin' huge and fat relative to their less turbulent competition.

There are also cases of properly shaped tubesets with appropriate girth (or lack of it) set up with forks that create more turbulence than minimize it.

Exotically shaped tubes and hidden brakes are aerodynamic

The front brake mounted behind the fork creates more turbulence then on the headtube.

Many of the really pointy frames w/a gazillion different angles look cool, but it's a marketing feature and many smaller outfits simply don't test the bikes in the wind tunnel.

What to do?

Find a bike (that fits your morphology) that has actually been tested in a wind tunnel as part of the engineering process, not as an after thought to market it.

Generally larger manufacturers (Trek, Giant, Felt, Cervelo, etc.) will have budget to do this, smaller outfits many times have licensed rights to place their name on a frame that is generic (Planet X, Beyond, XLAB and so on).

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Net, I'm not really partial to any frame or manufacturer at all.. It's important to be real about what you're going to ride if being "aero" is important to you. Buying a frame that looks cool to you with aero as after thought is not the end of the world but it is willfully ignorant if you're a competitive athlete, e.g. place is important to you.

Ouch

Quick thoughts from yesterday's Lake Stevens experience, in no particular order.

I've done Lk Stevens, PacCrest & Wildflower (ok, just TT'd the bike in'06)

The run is tougher then WF & PacCrest by a long shot, and the bike is comparable..

Swim was bedlam w/the fog... I don't know about others but I got caught behind slower swimmers in my wave about half way out to the first buoy and then we got ran over by the previous wave's front pack guys.

It went to hell in a hand basket from there..

Needless to say I wasn't aiming for the splits I put together, but it is what it is.

Ideally, more like, low 30min swim, 2.30 bike (did do 1.17 on the first loop but I got trapped behind a traffic over the last 6/8 mi, who knows how much that added?)

I've run 1.26-29 off the bike in the last few races, and given how my run is this summer 1.33 was a serious bummer.. I started knowing my legs felt dead, it wasn't going to be "fun/fast" pace at all..

That's more like high 4.30's.. Whoops. :)

I think the hilly bike had something to do w/that for everybody.. As for me specifically, I was a little weary of taking in more food then just liquids since my stomach was so upset during the swim...

Only two bottles and 1 gel on the bike might have impacted me a bit on the run.

Also had the scary/bad hamstring cramps during the swim (surprisingly).. Needless to say, after doing a multitude of 2x1k swim repeats in right about 15min I was not happy w/39min but what are you gonna do?

Late Oct is SOMA Half..same course as IMAZ, I've done it before in '06.

I'm 90% sure I'm doing it, but may do Austin 70.3 instead.

What it takes..

Per Matty Reed: "8 x 400m(hard) on the track old Brett Sutton session. No slower than 64 no faster than 62..."

And he's been racing 70.3 this year.

Quick update

I'm avoiding the other social networking sites these days, huge time suck. And, after all, I have a busy corporate skeddy to attend to.

Since Seafair have been on top of the usual and ready now to sharpen things up over the next few days/over the weekend.

Lake Stevens should be fun but in no way a place to set a personal best based on the two recon rides I've over that course. The main focus should be to swim decently, ride strongly and have a good run.

Banged out some solidly fast 800's (low 2.30's) over at Nike campus a couple mornings ago, in line w/what I've done all summer. Alberto, Rupp, and the Oregon Project boys were just finishing up as was I knocking them out.

Post Lake Stevens I'll have a little down time, camp in the North Cascades National Forest and run a 30k over Labor Day weekend at altitude for "fun"...

September/October will be fun racing and then I'm looking at a late fall Half to round things out.