Mavic wheel with closed-cell foam fairing
Alex99
Posts: 1,407
Hi all,
in a recent GCN video from Eurobike, they showed a Mavic prototype wheel that has a closed cell foam fairing instead of the usual carbon. Looked like a normal Al-brake track aero wheel. One would presume that it will be prone to dents, but otherwise will be exactly as aero as a carbon wheel and nearly as light as a shallow Al-rimmed wheel. Hopefully will sell at a price closer to a standard wheel.
Does anyone know any more? Will the UCI allow it?
in a recent GCN video from Eurobike, they showed a Mavic prototype wheel that has a closed cell foam fairing instead of the usual carbon. Looked like a normal Al-brake track aero wheel. One would presume that it will be prone to dents, but otherwise will be exactly as aero as a carbon wheel and nearly as light as a shallow Al-rimmed wheel. Hopefully will sell at a price closer to a standard wheel.
Does anyone know any more? Will the UCI allow it?
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Comments
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Alex99 wrote:Hi all,
in a recent GCN video from Eurobike, they showed a Mavic prototype wheel that has a closed cell foam fairing instead of the usual carbon. Looked like a normal Al-brake track aero wheel. One would presume that it will be prone to dents, but otherwise will be exactly as aero as a carbon wheel and nearly as light as a shallow Al-rimmed wheel. Hopefully will sell at a price closer to a standard wheel.
Does anyone know any more? Will the UCI allow it?
Yes I saw it and it looks intriguing. For high end users I highly doubt foam will be quite a slippery as carbon but thats not the point.....the point is it will bring some big benefits for not much weight and not much cost (hopefully). But the two big questions for me are what is the off the peg price, and could it be retrofitted to existing wheels. Imagine a bike shop with a foam casting machine that could aero your wheels for a hundred quid or so!0 -
If it's a fairing rather than structural it would' be UCI compliant I believe.0
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giropaul wrote:If it's a fairing rather than structural it would' be UCI compliant I believe.
No, the rules are about rim depth... over 25 mm needs UCI approval.
On a more general point, carbon is not the ultimate wonder material. If you could make a robust enough fairing out of aerogel, it would weigh nothing and I mean nothing... it would weigh maybe 1-2 grams, couple it with a 400 grams alloy rim and you could have a disc wheel that weighs 400 grams + hub. It is NOT in the pipeline though.
Carbon fibre is a relatively old dog and the number of tricks it can do are limited... it's not particularly light, it's not majestically strong... all it is... it's available...left the forum March 20230 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:giropaul wrote:If it's a fairing rather than structural it would' be UCI compliant I believe.
No, the rules are about rim depth... over 25 mm needs UCI approval.
On a more general point, carbon is not the ultimate wonder material. If you could make a robust enough fairing out of aerogel, it would weigh nothing and I mean nothing... it would weigh maybe 1-2 grams, couple it with a 400 grams alloy rim and you could have a disc wheel that weighs 400 grams + hub. It is NOT in the pipeline though.
Carbon fibre is a relatively old dog and the number of tricks it can do are limited... it's not particularly light, it's not majestically strong... all it is... it's available...
Seems like a decent idea though. Probably won't come to market, or will be only fractionally cheaper.0 -
I'd very curious about this too, could be a great way for me to get that little bit more aero....Specialized Allez Sport 20130
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Definitely. The fairing on my HED disc is very flimsy, and definitely non-structural. If your wheel goes out of true, you can even send it back to HED to get it straightened. You can also get retro-fit fairings made for existing wheels, though I have no idea whether they're UCI compliant (I've only knowingly seen them in CTT races, which are not run under the umbrella of the UCI)Alex99 wrote:giropaul wrote:If it's a fairing rather than structural it would' be UCI compliant I believe.
Some of the Al / carbon jobbies are fairing rather than structural, right? Or do the manufacturers never quite state that?
How smooth is the finish on the Mavic offering? I wonder how close you could get with a can of self-expanding foam and a sanding board...Pannier, 120rpm.0 -
TGOTB wrote:
Definitely. The fairing on my HED disc is very flimsy, and definitely non-structural. If your wheel goes out of true, you can even send it back to HED to get it straightened. You can also get retro-fit fairings made for existing wheels, though I have no idea whether they're UCI compliant (I've only knowingly seen them in CTT races, which are not run under the umbrella of the UCI)Alex99 wrote:giropaul wrote:If it's a fairing rather than structural it would' be UCI compliant I believe.
Some of the Al / carbon jobbies are fairing rather than structural, right? Or do the manufacturers never quite state that?
How smooth is the finish on the Mavic offering? I wonder how close you could get with a can of self-expanding foam and a sanding board...
It had a coarse texture. It was carbon ish dark grey, so still looked good, not home baked.0 -
Doesn't have to be smooth... think dimples... the closer to the surface you generate turbulent flow, the faster they are... that's the wisdom at leastleft the forum March 20230
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Hmmm... If I had the time I'd be very tempted to build and aero-test an expanding foam version. It's quite easy to measure the difference between regular and disk wheels in aerolab, so you could get a reaonable indication of how good it was quite easily. If it did work, it would be wonderfully ghetto. Expanding foam's surprisingly tough, I reckon there's a good chance it wouldn't fall apart.ugo.santalucia wrote:Doesn't have to be smooth... think dimples... the closer to the surface you generate turbulent flow, the faster they are... that's the wisdom at least
If smooth turned out to be faster, you could always fill and fair the foam with microballoons :-)Pannier, 120rpm.0 -
I wouldn't be surprised if the next big thing in aero wheels was sand paper like surface finishleft the forum March 20230
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I recently met a pretty quick guy who'd stuck narrow strips of skateboard grip tape (which doesn't look dissimilar to sandpaper) onto various bits of his TT frame; I don't know what testing he'd done, but he was pretty convinced it had made him faster...ugo.santalucia wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if the next big thing in aero wheels was sand paper like surface finishPannier, 120rpm.0 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if the next big thing in aero wheels was sand paper like surface finish
My knee skin is 'aero'. Awesome0
