Do calf sleeves make me less aero?
Taper is kicking in which means the mind is racing.
I've always worn calf sleeves in my IMs, but rarely during training or 70.3s.
As I'm prepping for IMMOO and looking to get as aero and slippery as possible...do calf sleeves provide an aero penalty vs. nice smooth, shaved legs?
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http://www.danielcassidyracing.com/blog/ccns-wind-tunnel
I did this to kill time somewhere between Grand Junction and Green River
Btw I suspect they will be less aero if only because they add a few mm of thickness to your calves.
FWIW I'm not a huge believer in the benefits of racing with calf sleeves or other compression gear. I figure if that gear was so performance-enhancing then you'd see the top runners and ultramarathoners using it. But instead I only ever see well-heeled triathletes buying the stuff. Who knows...
So if there is an aero penalty then it may be worth it but if there isn't then essentially there is nothing to lose.
Of course, there are also possible downfalls to leg sleeves and compression socks. Now, I'll acknowledge that those that like them, like them a lot, but some athletes and exercise physiologists have eschewed them, suggesting that the compression may not enable the skin to cool the body as effectively as bare skin because of the constriction of the skin surface.
One last option (hey ... you asked!) is to apply something on the legs akin to a fabric 'stripe' running along where the outside seam on a pair of trousers would lie. Neal Henderson (I think NealH on ST; he's the guy behind view-speed) advanced this on Analytic Cycling a long time ago, suggesting that this would trip the boundary layer of wind as it hits the leg (which is at least consistent with the "skin is slow" mantra that's popular at the moment). I had some conversations around this topic with an "aerodynamicist" in real life, and it actually has traction ... there is at least one person who is testing and developing a "texture spray" that an athlete would apply to the outside of his or her legs, and the bumps/divots/texture that the spray would ldave when dried on the skin would serve the boundary layer trip that I mention above.
In my diy world, I've also wanted to Chung/alphamantis test just applying a simple strip of kinesis tape from knee to ankle along the outside of mt calf to see if it achieved any savings ... it seems like this would be legal to use during the swim in non-wetsuit races, would be based on a products that's readily available, and would not constrict the leg or cover the skin (too much). Oh - and it would be cheap. I haven't got around to testing, but now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I'll keep my bike kitted up this weekend and try a few runs.
Anyway, just wondering if there's a tradeoff between cooling benefit and aero drag, if there is any.
All this assumes that they are reasonably tight and not flapping around unnecessarily.
Heck, they're probably still better than skin. I would suspect that the DeSoto Bolero - one-piece arm coolers that also cover the lower arms, upper arms, shoulders, upper back and neck, are an aero improvement on bare skin in a tri singlet. If the bolero is tight, that is.
There's probably some point where the texture of the fabric starts to matter - for example, the LG and Octane have unique texture on the upper arms, shoulders and upper back, and treat these as the key areas for aero gains by the garment. The Castelli t1 takes the same "strategically placed textured fabric" approach, but I compared the aero-fabric in that garment to a Craft sleeveless superlight base cooling layer I have from 10 years ago, and the two are literally exactly the same. So I think texture vs smooth generally matters, but after that distinction, it just gets into proprietary approaches that would achieve minor differences.
These aren't smooth, kinda a very tight weeve meshy-ish material.
Jeremy, check out pictures of Wiggins doing his hour record. If bare skin were faster than fabric, I'm sure he would know and not have the high/tall socks on. That's enough justification for me to keep wearing the calf sleeves on long efforts where they might help my Achilles feel just a tiny bit better.
Dave - someone is selling the fabric strips you mention. I've never seen them in person but here they are http://www.aero-coach.co.uk/store/p...em-12-pack
Thanks a lot, Kane. The claim of 5w savings based on Alphamantis tests is something I can't ignore! I'm curious about how well they will hold up in a swim.
http://www.nopinz.com/product/nopinz-trip-sockz/
Thread closed. Tallo drops the mic.
Wow, I just may get these, if they can be shipped to my Madison hotel in time...
The socks worn by the hour record guys are interesting. I'm at O'Hare waiting for a flight so looked at images of the more recent (i.e. post-2014, Voigt and onward) attempts. The guys all wear socks although none are really calf sleeves. Wiggins' socks are the longest for sure. I do wonder how they figured out the aerodynamics of what socks to wear, particularly given the variation.
(and as we all know, assertions of wattage savings must be taken with massive skepticism...if I added the claimed wattage savings of all of my aero gear on race day vs. a training ride it would probably be something like 40 watts or another ridiculous number)
The thread I'm reading in another browser window is 24 pages of UK timetrialers going gaga over the customer service of the company, so you might be in luck!
7" per 10mi = 77" for IM = 67" if it takes me 10" to take them off. I bet I can practice in my hotel all week to get that down to 5"
:-)
Matt, please indulge my theoretical savings: based on my aero research this morning, I have already won Kona 2016 outright, based on a projected 2:41 bike split.
Save your dream crushing for the course next weekend!
http://www.ellasdeli.com/pdfs/DessertMenu.pdf
I think I am going with a pound cake hot fudge sunday. Big question is caramel, or traditional.