The Comprehensive Aero Helmet Test - Wind Tunnel
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มี.ค. 2024
- This is it! The Final Test in the Wind Tunnel Series. The fastest helmet and more importantly how they all compare. Thanks for watching and indulging me in this project. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, appreciate all the comments and interactions, some valuable information that I'll take next time into my next testing foray.
Just a note to say this test was conducted before Giro and Rudy released their new helmets, sod's law I believe it's called! And I wished I'd got hold of a Lazer Volante also as I think it would've stacked up well.
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Im sure wind tunnel rental is not cheap at all. So THANK YOU and everyone involved in all these tests. It’s been a real eye opener. Feeling sorry for my Bont Zeros though! LOL
forget the data, we’re only interested in Mr Smiley ‘big gains’ man. Star of the show 👍🏻🤣
This has been a great series, I enjoyed the way you presented it all, I think it's been a fun format.
Comprehensive test. Thanks for sharing.
My 19-year old son 183 cm tall, 73-74 kg was tested on the velodrome with a help of Notio Konect by a qualified aero expert, who is an hour amateur world record holder in his category (Piotr Klin) and is also testing on Sliverstone velodrome and wind tunnel.
Helmet results:
1. POC Tempor
2. Giro Aeroheah Ultimate, Kask Bambino Pro Evo. We had no access to newest aero Visor. 0.001 CdA Slower
3. Specialized S-Works TT, 0.003 CdA Slower
4. Specialized S-Works TT5 with sock, 0.004 CdA Slower
BTW his CdA on the road is close to 0.185 on his 2014 S-Works Shiv TT and Velotex PRO8 skinsuit. On the track 0.165 on Cervelo T4 (4:20 in 4 km IP)
Would love to see overshoes! And the latest huge helmets that have just come out. Also an independent test / comparison of the under skinsuit 'ribbed shoulders' at different speeds ❤
Alex - fantastic content, great blips of humor and cynicism. Cheers to you, Sir.
- Russ in NC, USA
Alex thankyou for this series. It’s been. Very enlightening for myself and my coaching clients. It’s very rare that someone would put this amount of data out.
Thanks for this, great series!
Fantastic work, as always!
Great Series and summary! Many Thanks
the series was great, thank you
Thanks for the series! Great information. I'd love to see more tests.
Enjoyed this series. Interesting too. Thanks 🙏
Thanks so much Alex, very interesting series, keep up the great work!
Thank you! Great series with many new and important insights
Thanks a lot Alex for the serie it was really cool and interrsting !
Awesome Video!
Congrats on a great series. I hope it's been as much of a success for you as it has been enjoyable for us.
It must be your decades long experience in pro cycling, but basically every helmet looks extremely fast and well suited to your position 🤯
Fantastic series love the deep dives that you don’t see much of on TH-cam!
I´ve liked your test vids. Good stories too. Informative and entertaining stuff. Keep them big gains coming for you 😃👍💪
Really enjoyed this very informative series of videos. Thank you for taking the financial leap to make these videos and provide us huge amounts of information.
Thanks a lot for the comprehensive review! Just received my HJC and I’m very happy with it :)
Thanks so much for a great series. Still riding TTs at 77 and this series is really helpful since, as the FTP goes down with age, aero is everything! Hope you have a chance to test aero socks.
Awesome and insightfull series ! thx for this great content. Would love to see some similar series of road bike aero windtunnel tests in the future.
I learnt so much in this series. Thank you so much! Shoes were real eye openers. Also some old TT helmets really made me think.
Thanks for all of this info, it's been utterly fascinating! Also the opposite of a heyday would be a nadir
Appreciate the effort and knowledge that went into this . I too loved being aero with my daughter on the school run. She's 20 now.
A fantastic series, thank you for your efforts in putting this together. I enjoyed every single episode and definitely learned something in each viewing along the way. I have been thinking about your comments of using TT helmets for general riding/racing and I cannot help but visualize an entire peloton roll down the road with everyone wearing the Specialized TT5. That might not be the best look for the sport of cycling to attract a broader audience!
While this does not have to be wind-tunnel based, it would be great to see you put together a video discussing how the average cyclist/weekend warrior could optimize their approach to efficiency. Josh Portner/Dillon Johnson did something like that a while back, perhaps an updated collaboration with Josh on something like that from your perspective?
Really enjoyed this series of videos, as no way I could afford to go to a wind tunnel, or all the equipment you have tested, so it has been a great insight to what would possibly work for me.
Love all the videos you do.
Looking forward to future videos 🤗
Pretty good series mate, entertaining and informative. Hoping we get a followup to answer some of those questions you got from this session.
Alex, apart from the previously mentioned disappointment over the almost embarrassing lack of embarrassing tabs open in your browser, I must say the more geeky and techy you get, the more I like your channel. This has been some of the best content so far. Would love to see something similar with either types of training or nutrition during rides (both training and races). A bit like Dylan Johnsons techy stuff, but with more examples, more british accent, more embarrassing browser tabs, and maybe a backwards-hat-Dylan-cameo!
Great video/video series. It would have been super sweet to have pictures of the helmets beside the names on the graph and it may also have been nice to see pictures of the helmets in place on the graph. Seeing the relative fits might give some insight into why certain helmets work.
Great set of videos thanks :)
Would be interested to see similar helmet test on a road bike in a mix of positions. I wouldn't be surprised if in a more 'all day' road riding position an aero road helmet was faster than a TT helmet?
I also don't know how it could be done in a tunnel but how a TT style helmet would effect someone sprinting would be interesting. the amount of movement may make a smaller road helmet better.
It's been very imformative!
I've used parts of this video to talk to my federation about aero gains for the 2026 Milan Olympic games.
And I am also trying to figure out how to find some free speed for inline skating, where the position is similar to cycling if a little more upright.
Absolutely loved this series of testing aero stuff. I myself have taken cycling up in the last few years and have loved doing time trials. Would have liked to see you do in this series the rudy project the wing helmet, I’m interested and intrigued because this is the helmet I use and it’s not in your list but I do understand that you can’t test everything.
Top work, thanks Alex. I need to see which of these helmets come in XL for my 63cm bonce
The series has been awesome. As someone who tries to get his mates faster on their tt bikes (national/tour de l'avenir level) I really enjoyed how you shared the thought process and hypothesis behind almost every aspect of wind tunnel testing and results. I will probably never get into one of those places and will stick with test segment results for now but it's always interesting to have feedback from someone as knowledgeable as you.
I'm still surprised by the results of the poc tempor tho, it would have been my go to for larger shoulder individuals based on the assumption of "the more helmet the better" but hey, assumption are still assumption at the end of the day.
Cheers from France, loved every single bit of it
Cheers for doing these. Been pretty interesting. Would be good to see the shoes tested with overshoes, would also be quite interesting to see what the differences are at slightly more human speeds around 40-45kph.
Legendary series. Loved it. And you say "no-one is TTing on GP all seasons" but I think if people knew how much it saved they'd probably bother to get a set of training wheels and race day wheels, although I will likely be doing any TTs I attend this year with CX tyres because I'm not going to win anyway, and comparative times are good.
Well done Alex, great series. Hope the investment pays of for you. there's some great takeaways for me, but the gains ain't gonna overcome the fact im old and slow!
Out of the new age helmets I do like the Sweet Protection for some reason. I used the MDT back in the 90’s and swore by it. Wasn’t designed as a safety hat, purely aero and I still have it as an ornament. I wouldn’t say the Sweet P would work on me now as I’m lap of honouring at age 63 and it appears I’m losing mass 🤷🏼♂️ so I’ll stick with my Carnac stubby thingy and my old Met Pac…
Excellent series of video’s, 👏🏼
The overshoes must make a difference as I won’t be buying another pair of shoes either lol. Think I’m done with trying to gain/save aero/watts whatever and I’ll start spending money on something else 😉
Best of luck for the coming season 👍
Any thoughts on the UCI effectively banning the Specialized TT5? My son bought one of these for US nationals this year, but had to send it back since it will be banned after April 1. He confirmed this with both USAC and Specialized. This kind of flew under the radar as media focused on the sock being non-essential, but the reality is that the Pro teams will not be allowed to use it because removing the sock is modifying the helmet. My son confirmed this with Specialized directly when he returned the helmet. Since they (Specialized) do not have a model without the sock, and all the testing and approvals were done with the sock, they are scrambling to get something developed and approved for the pro teams this season.
Thanks for the data and the test! Was wondering why Tempor without the visor? Couldn't find any data on whether it is faster/worse with the visor. Would love to hear your view on it.
Great content! Do you plan to test all "best" pieces of equipment combined versus some basic setup to confirm whether or not total gain is equal of a sum of single components gains?
Good wrap up, Alex 👍Didn't you want to cover custom fit vs off the peg nopinz hypersonic skinsuit? I was looking forward to that one
Not sure if you've tested the Rudy Wing but that seems to test very fast on most people too. Probably a lower risk option for the majority of people who can't test.
Thanks for the series, it has been fantastic. Just to visualise how much of a difference you think curved and flat back looks like, could you suggest a few riders to check photos of, from plane flat to curved like a cat? It could help us guess where on the scale we fit when we get side on photos of our possible positions.
It's been awesome, super interesting and very enjoyable to watch. Darth Vader would be aero AF if he started cycling, now we know.
If it helps you to create more content like this, these videos convinced me to sub. Very good stuff, super interesting.
Great series! How many positions would that 23 seconds have been on race day?
Hi Alex, thank for such a great video series. Lots of great insights. Could you give us some explications on the difference between the old Giro (which was very good) and the old Specialized (which was very bad)? I have an old tt helmet and I would like to estimate how good it is based on if it has the same features as one or the other
Another decent vid from our teacher of Aero. I have a Lazer Wasp, with a short tail, but i also have a long tail - what is your gut feeling on whats faster, given what you know? Ta Alex
Interesting 👌🏼
I’ve really enjoyed all this.
Question: are there any rumours/measurements about how air temperature and pressure affect helmet aerodynamics? It’s rarely above 20C where i am, so air density is high. Do any helmets behave badly in such conditions?
Good to know my Giro aerohead isnt terrible. :)
Next time you go to wind tunnel could you test winter set up against summer set up for Z2 trading so winter clothes soft jacket , bibs full, gloves full mud guards SKS thermo plastic and winter tyres. Against summer bibs/shorts. I dont have power meter on winter bike bur think on hooda with average Z2 ride at 15mph average and 10-15 nph wind at 10-8c, that it maybe causing 75-100w loss? 🤯
Didn’t the UCI just ban the Specialized helmet sock? Are there races you are doing that can use it? I have enjoyed the series, hoping for more TT content!
BIG GAINS !!
Incredible of you to share this data. I wish it was transferable to everyone but it's a very good guide. Do you by chance know how poorly a good helmet performs when in a bad position? Say a helmet with a tail, and you look down, so the tail is way off your back. Does it turn into a total waste or is it not terrible?
Love the conclusive comparisons. Thanks Alex. BOB HEATH ANTI FOG.
Next time make a aero road helmet test please
Jay vine saw massive improvement once he got the right fit for a TT bike
So - totally don't understand the reason - why almost all Pro ride tt with a visor?..
P.S. Thanks for this work!
How about rudy project?
I’m buying the tt5 even though I’m a ineos fan boy 🙈😂😂😂 gains gains gains plus it’s less expensive than the kask bambino evo etc.
You can dump the Speci sock data as UCI has banned it so it will only be relevant w/o the sock. Will come in effect since this May (24) I believe.
Interesting if you think the evade III would of done better more level like in a road bike position, i only ride road, but I ride quite a head down position and think a longer helmet like the evade wouldn’t be ideal
Thanks. I really enjoyed the series. The one thing that seems odd is your 0.209 CdA. That seems awfully high. Is that because the SSE wind tunnel doesn’t tare the fixtures or is there some other explanation. I can’t help but think you have a pretty solid idea what your CdA is based on the testing for Body Rocket and trips to other wind tunnels. Would you care to share the range of your CdA estimates?
I've seen anything from 0.17 to 0.23 depending on who's doing the testing to be honest. I've never looked at the number in it's own entity and trusted it. I only ever focus on reducing it for a particular aero session on that day.
Hi Alex enjoying the videos and your analysis. My question is your results are based around a speed of 55 kph, we mere mortals cannot sustain that speed for any length of time,so is there a drop off in the gains you can make going 48-50 kph?
The order of helmets should be the same at all the bike riding speeds, differences would just get smaller at lower speeds ☺️
Alex can you test Giro aerohead 2 , please .
Loved all the videos. Am lost when you talk percentages though. If you ride a 100 minute TT, then 1% is 1 minute. If you did a 53 minute TT, then 1% must be just over 30 seconds. Or have I missed something?
Yeah it's not as cut and dry as that, The % is of the cda gain. As the lrelationshiop between speed, aerodynamics and power isn't linear at all then the results can be calculated after finding the gain. Best Bike Split is a great tool to use. Thanks!
If you’re looking for ideas - I’d be curious to know if you tested two helmets (or shoes, or suits etc) using the Chung method would you get the same results. Using a good route with good weather (not confounded by wind) would a test on the open road give the same results?
Just don't use the Specializeed "head condom" in UCI events after April 2. The ban hammer hit it hard.
It would be good to show a picture of the helmet for 1 sec when you're talking about them with respect to the graph. There were many to keep track of.
is there same video for road aero helmets?
I wonder if Trek Ballista would have outperformed Specialized Evade. It looks faster.
What do you think about the Specialized helmet with the sock being banned?
Should have shown the difference between the best of everything v the worse of everything you tested to show the big difference if you get the bad stuff v the best stuff.
Enjoyed all the episodes, and I have zero interest in ever doing a time trial 😀
I'd be interested in seeing how gains stack up, I'm thinking, if helmet A is 1% faster than B and suit A' 1% faster than B', is A+A' 2% always faster than B+B' ? Or could the system B+B' be faster?
So if you would be racing UCI races, and the Specialized sock is banned. Would you race in the fastest helmet? Or in the TT5 without the sock, which showed to not be the fastest.
Cut down the backs of those ski bars so they aren't catching wind.
I'm impressed at how well Juliette handed you those helmets for her age.
'Promo SM'
Why even test the TT5 with sock? That's banned...
He did all the testing prior to the ban.
Fabian won a lot of TTs by a huge margin with that terrible helmet that's significantly worse than others available. I know Tony's Uvex would still be on ok helmet today