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A Wind Tunnel Killer? Body Rocket Launches First on-Bike Drag Sensor for Real-Time Aero Testing
(velo.outsideonline.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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This is true, and you'd need to do more tests to get to the same conclusion as when you used a wind tunnel.
However, this may still offer a significant advatage for teams, pro athletes, and even manufacturers of bike stuff.
For example, with all things being equal, you can very easily see if a certail wheel is creating more resistance over another. Same with certain clothing, or position on the bike.
It can still offer insights without needing to resort to a very expensive wind tunnel test (often out of budget for even researchers).
This is a very accessible piece of tech that will no doubt offer more studies to be fast tracked without needing to raise massive funds.
But this product cannot compute drag figures for the bike. Its theory of operation limits it to compute only the drag upon the rider. Also, to keep things simple in my original answer, I didn't touch upon the complex bike+rider aerodynamic interactions, such as when turbulent air off the bike is actually alleviated by the presence of the rider, but thus moves a net-smaller drag from the bike onto the rider. Optimizing for lowest rider drag could end up increasing the bike's drag, inadvertently increasing overall drag.
But I think the real issue is the "all else being equal" part. If a team is trying to test optimal rider positions, then the only sensible way to test that in-field is to do A/B testing and hope for similar conditions. If the conditions aren't similar enough, the only option is more runs. All to answer something which putting the rider+bike into a wind tunnel would have quickly answered. Guess-and-check is not a time-efficient solution for finding improvements.
Do I think all bike racing teams need a 24/7 wind tunnel? No, definitely not. For reference, the Wright Brothers built their own small wind tunnel to do small-scale testing, so it's not like racing teams are out of options between this product and a full-blown (pun intended) wind tunnel. And of course, in the 21st Century, we have a rich library of shared aerodynamic research on racing bikes to lean on, plus fluid modeling software.
But that's the catch. You can never get similar conditions in the field, so this device can give you numbers in real-time.
For a rider in a race, this can help them optimize their position as wind speed and direction, as well as drag or terrain changes.
I can personally see many advantages to having this gear available
Quickly, yes. But under controlled conditions, removed from external variables that could have an even greater relevance to the rider.
And all for much too much money for most.
This provides data much like a power meter or heart rate monitor.
Once riders and teams begin to add this extra metric to their training or real-time races, I think they'll have an advantage over riders and teams who don't.
This was my assumption as well. If this is allowed on bikes during races, it is a really valuable tool to allow riders to tune their position continuously for the most efficiency.