Specialized took to the wind tunnel to determine how much wind drag a baggy kit creates versus a lycra kit. The data is pretty interesting!
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Video: Lycra VS Baggies: Which kit is faster?
40k is a long mountain bike ride??
I LOL’d at that as well.
It is for me!
Some pretty important assumptions were not described.
What was the assumed topography of the course, and what speed was assumed?
Wind resistance when climbing at 3mi/hr is pretty minimal (and climbing is time consuming). Whereas it could be significant on a flat course at 15mi/hr (which is what I suspect they assumed).
I also would not expect the kit to matter much in a descent where speed is mostly limited by braking and handling skills.
A strava type topo/speed chart could explain this pretty clearly.
They said they considered the difference in friction when riding on dirt vs road. What are the assumptions here? Hard pack, with 0 technical challenges?
These things are way more important than how long you assumed the ride was. BOOO.
What % faster was 70 seconds?
Not sure, but if there middle is at all decent, in a race of about 7 miles(did I do that right) it’s more then a minute difference. I’d have to think the faster the course the worse it gets, especially pedal powered as supposed to gravity. What about that? DH is decided in hundredths. Well air matter there?
Bubblehead, I think you make a good point about aero making a difference in DH. This isn’t a new concept either–check out the skin suit in second photo from this post: (!)
http://www.singletracks.com/blog/uncategorized/cutting-edge-mountain-bike-photos-from-1995/
The guy who broke the MTB speed record in Chili several years back also wore an aero suit (for max speed of course). I hear what others are saying about cornering being the limiting factor but in any straightaway sections, aero matters and if it saves 1 second, that can be the difference between winning and losing.