The Win Tunnel is an ongoing webseries on Youtube that is produced by Specialized. On the show, the engineers field questions on facebook, twitter, etc… using the hashtag #Aeroiseverything.
During this last episode they tested how aerodynamic the Portland look is, and the answer may surprise you…
mindless,
not caring what the answers are to questions one might have…
isnt curiosity enough of a reason?
i wonder if it would make a difference if he was in a low race position, or on a tt bike. he’s sitting up so high, in a casual riding position, that any air wanting to go past the face is going to run into the neck and chest anyway. in a tt position, air is intended to flow horizontally past the shoulders, along the chest, and turn down n out around the legs. there, the beard may interfere.
Exactly, greg. Curiosity is enough of a reason to find an answer. That’s the basis of science and the scientific method: observe something and then wonder what explains the observation. What a boring world it would be if no one asked questions, even if some questions seem silly.
I am disappointed that they didn’t test a ZZ Top type of beard.
Greg,
You’re correct about the positioning. We determined the beard being there or not wouldn’t affect the frontal impact area. Maybe if it was a bit longer and we tested on a TT bike the result would have been different. It was all in good fun though. Specialized asked what some people would like to see in the win tunnel, I responded with a smart ass remark, and I happened to be out there anyways so we figured what the heck, let’s have some fun. Hopefully we were able to provide at least some good entertainment for you all!
Well it made me smile! And kudos to Joe for sacrificing a fairly impressive beard (I don’t live in Booklyn or Portland, so for me that’s pretty hirsute) in the interests of science.
Presumably the time-gain is due to disruption of laminar flow-separation around the jaw-line and consequent reduction in drag under the chin – or something like that (can you tell I don’t really know what I’m talking about…?
We tested 6 lengths of beards in the mb low speed tunnel and with our telemetry equipment on the velodrome and road 1cm to 16cm all increased drag never mind they look even more stupid on a biker than tattoos which slowly poison the athlete.
Front wheel testing showed discs best then 6 spoke the 4 then 3 then the deep spoked though oval spokes the best not the cheap flattened round ones.
Long tail aero helmets that compliment the athlete all better than the short kash efforts etc.
The pros seem out of sync or maybe paid to use…
