Skin suit.

Grill

Overlord2 wrote:

On a standard road bike Skin Suit is more important than aero bars. Aero bars on a road bike are just utterly useless.

For general riding, yes. For TT's no (if properly set up).

pilot_pete

Overlord2 wrote:

On a standard road bike Skin Suit is more important than aero bars. Aero bars on a road bike are just utterly useless.

I beg to differ and suggest you just think a little more logically about it. Ride your road bike in an upright position with your hands on the hoods, fast as you can sustain. Now tuck in on the drops making your frontal area as small as you can. Keep putting the same power out and you will see an increase in speed on your bike computer. Fact.

Fit aero bars correctly and get as optimal position as you can, which may require stem change, saddle repositioning etc and once you are used to the position you WILL be able to go faster. Fact.

You may not be able to get as aero as on a TT bike due to your road bike geometry but you will be able to make some aerodynamic gain. It's not rocket science.....well, it is, but at a very simplistic level.

PP

racingcondor

I suspect what Overlord2 is getting at is that you see a lot of people with clip on's riding bolt upright because their bike just isn't set up for aero. Given the right bike set up and a rider with a decent core I'm sure they help a lot.

Personally I wouldn't buy them (I don't TT though so no reason I would) and think the majority of people who do buy them don't have the knowledge to get much out of them.

bernithebiker

I have a set of bars for triathlons, but my position is already low (120mm -30' stem with no spacers), so I don't think they really give me that much of an advantage. My body is pretty much as low as it would be if I was on the drops.
The only benefit I can see (and why i still use them for tris) is that it puts your arms close together and in line with your body, so that your arms are no longer making much drag.

But if your position is quite upright, I suspect it would be difficult to suddenly go to having your back almost flat with aero bars. The dramatic change in position is likely to cause a big power drop which may or may not make up for the reduction in drag.

aberdeen_lune

A skin suit does make a difference in a time trial. It's hard to quantify exactly but you should think about the science.

Riding at 15mph you have X amount of drag and X rolling resistance and you'll be putting out a set amount of power (assuming a flat road). If you want to double your speed you will need to overcome 4 x the drag. This will take 8 x the power you were putting out at 15 mph.

Anything you can do to reduce the drag will help you go faster. Sure you need to train but if your as aerodynamic as a slab of concrete your going to need to put out a hell of a lot of power to go fast.

ivanoile

Is there any affordable skinsuit for about 100€? I have found from Castelli and from Louis Garneau,but their price is about 200€.

ugo.santalucia

Is it one of those things that takes half an hour to wear and just as you have it on, you need a crap?

ivanoile

Nothing different from putting clothes right now,leg warmers,arm warmers...

fleshtuxedo

ivanoile wrote:

Is there any affordable skinsuit for about 100€? I have found from Castelli and from Louis Garneau,but their price is about 200€.

Santini shadow:

http://www.prendas.co.uk/details.asp?ID ... tAodG1AAwg

Suit is very good, nice tight race fit and the pad is excellent.

Limited sizes on the above link to prendas, but loads more here:

http://www.all4cycling.com/shop/en/mens ... 2_594.html

markos1963

Semantik wrote:

chrisw12 wrote:

If you are going to tt next year then you must be in a club, no? Why don't you wear a club skinsuit or ask members of the club what they wear? You can also probably try club kit on.

Not necessary to be a member of a club unless you are doing Open time trials. Club events are open to all.

And to answer the OP, Impsport do a decent skinsuit for around £70.

Not strictly correct. Only open to non affiliated club members if the event is listed as a 'come and try it' event otherwise the rider won't be covered by insurance.

ugo.santalucia

markos1963 wrote:

Not strictly correct. Only open to non affiliated club members if the event is listed as a 'come and try it' event otherwise the rider won't be covered by insurance.

I believe you can buy the insurance on the day or be wild and ride 10 miles uninsured...

markos1963

ugo.santalucia wrote:

markos1963 wrote:

Not strictly correct. Only open to non affiliated club members if the event is listed as a 'come and try it' event otherwise the rider won't be covered by insurance.

I believe you can buy the insurance on the day or be wild and ride 10 miles uninsured...

Not as far as I know Ugo. You 'buy' the insurance when you sign on and pay your fee, £3 of which is the CTT levy that covers the insurance. You can only sign on if a member of an affiliated club or as I said if it's a 'come and try it race'. Not unknown for people to claim membership of a club to get a race but that is their lookout.

Semantik

markos1963 wrote:

Semantik wrote:

chrisw12 wrote:

If you are going to tt next year then you must be in a club, no? Why don't you wear a club skinsuit or ask members of the club what they wear? You can also probably try club kit on.

Not necessary to be a member of a club unless you are doing Open time trials. Club events are open to all.

And to answer the OP, Impsport do a decent skinsuit for around £70.

Not strictly correct. Only open to non affiliated club members if the event is listed as a 'come and try it' event otherwise the rider won't be covered by insurance.

Are you speaking from experience or from something you have read?

There are six different clubs organising midweek evening time trials in my local area. I have ridden all these events at one time or another. NONE of these clubs advertise their events as 'come and try' and neither do they require participating riders to be members of clubs to get a ride. Results sheets published every week show many riders as being 'unattached'.

markos1963

Semantik wrote:

markos1963 wrote:

Semantik wrote:

chrisw12 wrote:

If you are going to tt next year then you must be in a club, no? Why don't you wear a club skinsuit or ask members of the club what they wear? You can also probably try club kit on.

Not necessary to be a member of a club unless you are doing Open time trials. Club events are open to all.

And to answer the OP, Impsport do a decent skinsuit for around £70.

Not strictly correct. Only open to non affiliated club members if the event is listed as a 'come and try it' event otherwise the rider won't be covered by insurance.

Are you speaking from experience or from something you have read?

There are six different clubs organising midweek evening time trials in my local area. I have ridden all these events at one time or another. NONE of these clubs advertise their events as 'come and try' and neither do they require participating riders to be members of clubs to get a ride. Results sheets published every week show many riders as being 'unattached'.

Certainly is in our district, EDCA.

Semantik

markos1963 wrote:

Semantik wrote:

markos1963 wrote:

Semantik wrote:

chrisw12 wrote:

If you are going to tt next year then you must be in a club, no? Why don't you wear a club skinsuit or ask members of the club what they wear? You can also probably try club kit on.

Not necessary to be a member of a club unless you are doing Open time trials. Club events are open to all.

And to answer the OP, Impsport do a decent skinsuit for around £70.

Not strictly correct. Only open to non affiliated club members if the event is listed as a 'come and try it' event otherwise the rider won't be covered by insurance.

Are you speaking from experience or from something you have read?

There are six different clubs organising midweek evening time trials in my local area. I have ridden all these events at one time or another. NONE of these clubs advertise their events as 'come and try' and neither do they require participating riders to be members of clubs to get a ride. Results sheets published every week show many riders as being 'unattached'.

Certainly is in our district, EDCA.

That's funny, 'cos that's not what it says on your district web page:
http://www.eastdistrictca.org.uk/events/your-first-tt/

markos1963

Yes I know, just been looking at that. I was instructed by a EDCA committee member when I was doing the sign on for a club TT of the rule! Looking at regulation 11 on the CTT site it's not clear, guest riders are allowed but it doesn't state what exactly a guest rider is. A guest rider could be a member of another club and not necessarily a private rider.

Semantik

There are a lot of rules and regulations laid down by the CTT, some necessary, some overly officious ,but fortunately they are not always followed to the letter.. Modern thinking seems to be in favour of encouraging new riders into the sport. A fair number only turn up at these events once or twice and most clubs recognise this and try to be accommodating. A few clubs however,do charge a higher entry fee (extra £1) for riders who are unattached. That often acts as an incentive for people to join a club if they want to keep coming back to these events.

chrisw12

post deleted sorry

markos1963

Semantik wrote:

There are a lot of rules and regulations laid down by the CTT, some necessary, some overly officious ,but fortunately they are not always followed to the letter.. Modern thinking seems to be in favour of encouraging new riders into the sport. A fair number only turn up at these events once or twice and most clubs recognise this and try to be accommodating. A few clubs however,do charge a higher entry fee (extra £1) for riders who are unattached. That often acts as an incentive for people to join a club if they want to keep coming back to these events.

Indeed and my original post wasn't to slight your point it was just to point out that some clubs might not welcome all in the same way. One of our local clubs, North Norfolk Wheelers advertise all their races as 'come and try it' and so there is no problem. I ride 90% of my club races with them as it's a very friendly club and encouraging of new riders.

Semantik

No offence taken.
BTW, didn't realise there were so many clubs in that part of the world!

sparklehedgehog

you have to get one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Free-shipping ... 2ecb14a897

markos1963

Semantik wrote:

No offence taken.
BTW, didn't realise there were so many clubs in that part of the world!

Yes quite a few now which is encouraging, even some of the villages outside Norwich have their own clubs/groups. I think being cut off from the mainstream has made the district very self sufficient.

Anonymous

THis is an interesting article from Cervelo about benefits of aero equipment.

http://www.cervelo.com/en/engineering/t ... iders.html

giropaul

Something that I haven't seen mentioned is that for crits (BC ones anyway) only 4th cats can wear plain skinsuits. 3rds and above must wear club kit (except for private members who can wear plain (no advertising).

If skinsuits are that good then a 4th cat might only get one or two wearings out of a non-club one

ugo.santalucia

giropaul wrote:

Something that I haven't seen mentioned is that for crits (BC ones anyway) only 4th cats can wear plain skinsuits. 3rds and above must wear club kit (except for private members who can wear plain (no advertising).

If skinsuits are that good then a 4th cat might only get one or two wearings out of a non-club one

My take is that amateur racing should be there to help young riders get race experience and eventually climb the categories. As such, I think under 20 should be in a different league, where no aerodynamic or otherwise expensive equipment is allowed, in the interest of promoting the best rather than the wealthiest.
This is not the case and I question whether BC promoted racing actually serves the purpose at all

In other countries where cycling is more popular, you don't see 16 years olds racing against 30 years old