[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER: I would like to
introduce Jean-Paul Ballard.
I think he's, first of all, an
engineer with a huge passion
towards aerodynamics and
this incredible combination
of things, which,
I think, brings
a lot of interesting angle
to those problems to solve.
And he has a lot of
experience with Formula One.
I think over 14 years, right?
And the last six, seven,
running his own company,
focused on aerodynamics
and wheeled bikes
and all the things around.
So give a warm round of applause
to Jean-Paul, and welcome.
Looking forward to your talk.
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Cool.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you, everyone.
Well, I'll switch
the presentation on,
and we can get started
with the presentation.
So thanks again for
coming, and those
following on the livestream.
Yeah, welcome to Free Speed,
basically a presentation
over the true
revolution in cycling
that's happening right now.
There's a massive era of
revolution that's going on.
And me and my team and
our brand are very much
fueling that fire.
So I thought today I'd present
to you all a little bit
about the technology
behind this revolution
and really just try and lay out
some facts about aerodynamics
and cycling, and,
most importantly, how
you can make yourself faster
because that's what it's
all about, or more efficient.
So I start off with just
a really simple fact.
And that fact is that
aerodynamic drag is the biggest
resistance in cycling.
And that's where
most of your energy
goes when you push
on the pedals.
And that's why it is
really so important.
And if we look at
just some basic facts,
again, this is measured
at 35 kilometers an hour.
So it's a reasonably
quick speed.
But almost 70% of the
aerodynamic drag--
out of the power consumed in
the pedals is aerodynamic drag.
Funnily enough, we've been
brainwashed over the last 20
years about how important weight
is, quite simply because it
was the only thing we
could really measure.
But actually,
weight's relatively
unimportant in the
grand scheme of things.
And in this case,
this is actually
measured over a 1,500
height meter course
over 100 kilometers.
Weight only contributes
to 16% of the power you're
putting into your pedals.
The rest is rolling resistance
and drive train losses.
But as a quick taste, basically,
from the first screenshot,
we can see aerodynamic
drag is very important.
So as a quick intro, I'll tell
you a little bit about myself,
and about Swiss
Side, and what we're
doing in the cycling industry.
Basically, we're a spin-off
from Formula One motor sport.
And so what we're doing is we're
transferring this technology
to cycling.
And this is where
the F1 technology
meets cycling nowadays.
I'll give you some
insights into aerodynamics,
why it's so important,
where it's important,
a bit of an analysis of
the bike-rider system, so
that you can understand
where you can improve
the most through
aerodynamics, how
to make yourself faster,
and then some tips for you,
the rider.
How do you improve
your aerodynamics?
And then, as the next point, how
do you improve your equipment?
What should you be looking
for on the equipment?
And right at the end, we do a
lot of work with triathletes,
and we've contributed quite
a lot to Patrick Lange.
He's the Iron Man world champion
and world record holder.
He was the first man to go
under eight hours in the world
championship last year
in Hawaii, in Kona.
And we did quite a lot of
work towards that goal.
So I'll present a few
insights into what
we did there with him.
And of course, at the end,
we can have a big discussion
about whatever questions you
might have to this presentation
or to your own personal
experience in cycling.
So very briefly about me--
Alexi already mentioned
at the beginning--
I'm the CEO and
co-founder of Swiss Side.
I have a Formula One background.
I spent 14 years in Formula
One as an aerodynamicist
and a design engineer.
At the end of my
career in Formula One,
I was the head of the complete
Formula One car concept
department, so designing
the actual car.
I used to be a racing driver in
motor sport, which is actually
how I got to cycling,
because you needed
to be fit to maintain lap times,
especially over long distance
races.
And then I found my passion for
cycling through motor sport.
I love triathlon.
I do a lot of
triathlon, cycling,
in the winter,
cross-country skiing.
Meditation is a big
part of my life.
And my drive?
Well, my drive is this bridge
of this technology that's
hooked up in this closed
world of Formula One,
to bring it to cycling for
the future of light mobility
vehicles.
That's a bit of another story.
But basically, my vision is in
the future, in crowded cities,
we're going to need
better mobility systems,
and those vehicles
are going to be more
like bicycles than they are
going to be like automobiles.
So I see that the automobile
industry and the cycling
industry are going to come
a lot closer together.
And that's one of the drives
behind bringing this technology
to cycling and, in the end,
to bring it back to mobility.
That's another story.
Today, we're going to talk
about aerodynamics of cycling.
So basically, as I mentioned,
my company, Swiss Side,
is a spin-off from Formula One.
We've managed to poach
quite a few of the employees
from my former team
at Sauber, including
the chief aerodynamicist, who
was there for 19 years, who
is now a key part of our team.
Together, we've got over
60 years of experience
in Formula One.
And we're very much a
one-stop shop for performance.
That's a quote
from the Team Sky,
or now, Team Ineos
technical head.
Basically, if someone
comes to us and they say,
we want you design
a bike, we can
do the whole thing, from
the concept to the design
to the testing to the
production so that we can really
cover all the bases.
And we'll show you a few
examples of that moving on.
As I mentioned before,
we're bringing these methods
and technologies
from Formula One,
which currently don't exist.
So this closed world,
we're bringing those across
to cycling, because
they're really
relevant for the
development of the futures,
the equipment of tomorrow.
We take a complete system
approach to what we're doing.
So we also build our own wheels.
We have our own wheel
brand at Swiss Side.
And when we started
building wheels,
we didn't say, oh, how
do we build the fastest
wheels in the world?
We took a step back
and we said, OK,
what does the complete bike
and rider system look like?
And how do we make that
complete system faster?
And what do we need
from the wheels
to make that system faster?
And that's the approach we take,
which is very much the Formula
One approach.
At the end of the
day, the only thing
that matters in motor
racing is the lap time.
It doesn't matter if
you've got the best
aerodynamics or the most
powerful engine or the best
mechanical grip.
It's lap time.
And it's the same in cycling.
So we try and apply this
real-world performance,
this complete system approach.
And the final thing, which
I'll mention again later
on as my final point, is that
we're a very data-driven brand.
There's a lot of marketing
hype in the cycling industry,
a lot of people telling you
what's good and what's not.
Basically, it's
very, very simple--
real performance
can be quantified.
So if it's faster,
you can measure it.
And that's what we're all about.
So we'll move on from there.
As I mentioned,
we design wheels.
So if you want some
wheels, by all means,
go and check out our website.
But a large part of
what we do at Swiss Side
is our aerodynamics
consulting business,
which we call Aerodynamics
by Swiss Side.
We actually design bikes and
products for many brands.
We help DT Swiss, who's
actually our production
partner on the wheel side.
We help design all
their aero wheels.
We've designed numerous
bikes on the market,
including this Cube
Aerium, which is currently
aerodynamically the fastest bike
in the world, which we designed
in collaboration
with Cube for one
of our cosponsored athletes,
Andreas and Michael Raelert.
We do a lot of work with
Canyon, also together
with many cosponsored athletes,
such as Patrick Lange,
the world champion.
We work with Team Ineos,
formerly Team Sky.
We are their
aerodynamics partner.
We also do all of their
performance simulation
to help them determine their
race strategy, stage by stage.
And we have a big
pro athlete team.
So both world
champions, Daniela Ryf,
four times Ironman world
champion and Patrick Lange,
two times world
champ, both of whom,
since they've been
working with us,
have broken the world
record two years in a row.
Small contribution on the
aerodynamic side from us.
Daniela Ryf is also a
cosponsored athlete, together
with our wheel
partner, DT Swiss.
And we have many, many athletes
in the top level pro scene,
as well as lot as many
ambassador athletes.
And all of these athletes come
with us in the wind tunnel.
And that's great, because they
benefit from our know-how,
but we also learn from them.
So we've had over 100
athletes in the wind tunnel
in the last few
years to learn, which
is some of the tips I'm
going to try and give
to all you guys today.
So first of all, let's look at
some of the aero technology.
Now, I talked about the Cube
bike, which we developed
in collaboration with Cube.
And actually, this was a
project with Andreas Raelert,
who is the rider we see here.
Now, this isn't just a nice,
pretty marketing-looking image.
This is a real safety
simulation that took over
a week to run on 250 cores.
And what we see here is
basically the turbulent air.
This is basically, say, the
maximum loss, pressure loss,
in the flow, and this is a
visualization, effectively,
of the drag that
you see on the bike.
What we use at Swiss Side is
a really complete approach.
And we call this our
four-arm development process.
On the left we have, say,
our understanding arms,
which is performance simulation,
where we can calculate
the time on any given course
with all of the parameter
inputs, and our instrumented
bike, our on-road measurements,
so using devices
like this one here,
where we can measure the
aerodynamic drag actually out
on the road.
And then on the
right hand side, we
have our core
development process,
which is CFD, computational
fluid dynamics,
basically aerodynamics
in the computer,
as well as our wind tunnel
testing, which is really
the cornerstone of what we do.
So I'll take you through
each of these four points.
The great bit is, all
of the know-how that we
have from Formula One is
applicable 1-to-1 in cycling.
It's very, very much
the same approach--
the same technologies, the
same methods that we use.
So here, for example, we can
see, on this particular slide,
everything that's
in blue and darker
colors is where the
maximum losses are,
in terms of aerodynamic drag.
So CFD not only
allows us to quantify,
in terms of the
simulated forces,
we can also visualize the
flow to better understand
what's happening.
So CFDs is one of the key--
is the key development
tool that we use.
Here's a really cool
simulation, actually.
This finished on Friday.
This is an echelon simulation
of road cyclists in an angle
with a strong crosswind.
This is a simulation we've done
for Team Ineos in preparation
for the Tour de France.
And what you see is the
maximum pressure loss,
where the maximum drag
is the chunks in red,
and the next level of drag
is the chunks in gray here.
And we can see in
this pressure slice
why the echelon formations
form, because you
can see how much disturbance
there is in the airflow
and how much the riders towards
the back of the [INAUDIBLE]
tunnel, towards the
back of the group,
are benefiting from
this drafting effect.
But we'll go into a little
bit more detail of that later.
But this is just to show you a
little bit of the technology,
what we get out of CFD
and our simulation work.
The wind tunnel--
the wind tunnels
are a really core
part of what we do.
The way we test the Formula One
cars, the identical is the way
we test in the
tunnel with a rider.
Very important that we can
test accurately and repeatedly.
So again, the methods we use
for accurate, repeatable testing
in Formula One we apply
straightaway to cycling.
Here's one of our
athletes, Laura Phillip
in the wind tunnel with
us just a few weeks ago.
And we can also see one of
our pressure measurement rake
systems behind, which I'll
show you later as well.
It's a new technology.
Again, something we're just
copy pasting from Formula One
to cycling.
This is last week in the
wind tunnel with Team Ineos.
We did some testing
with them in the UK.
And we don't just
test bikes and riders.
We do a lot of
development in suits.
We do helmet
development as well.
We have various
dummies and tools
that we use for that
sort of development.
We recently designed a new
helmet for Rudy Project.
And yeah, here's an example
of the types of things
that we use.
We can also heat the
head of this dummy
so that we can also
measure cooling.
Obviously, when you
put the helmet on,
cooling is an important
factor as well.
So we're taking
that into account
of the design of
helmets that we do.
The next step is the
instrumented bike
on-road measurements.
Some of you may
have seen recently
we brought these new pressure
rakes to the industry,
where we're measuring the
pressure loss behind the rider.
Basically, the
disturbance in the air
can be measured in a loss of
the pressure, the total pressure
behind the rider.
And we can quantify
this with these sorts
of rakes, which gives us a
really important correlation
between real world, wind
tunnel, and also CFD approach.
And again, actually,
it's nothing new,
what we're doing here.
It's something we're just
bringing from our experience
in Formula One.
And you can see a
picture of a Ferrari
running around with a
funny aluminum frame
on doing exactly the same
thing-- measuring the pressure
loss behind the front wheels.
And just as a quick side
note to Formula One cars--
basically, a whole
Formula One car
is a front wheel aerodynamic
management device.
The front wheels create
such a mess to the whole car
that most of the car is designed
around managing that loss.
So that's why these
sorts of measurements
at the front end of
the car in Formula One
are quite important.
We apply the same
thing to cycling.
And as I mentioned before,
here on the front of the bikes,
we have these new
special devices,
which we have been developing
for a number of years.
On the right hand side, we
have our instrumented bike,
which we started in 2013
as a development project
to understand this complete
bike and rider system.
This bike is covered in sensors.
It has position sensors.
It has aerodynamic sensors.
We measure the height
of the rider's body.
And this was designed
so that we could
learn, what does the rider need
from wheels, in particular,
but also from the whole bike
and rider system, to be faster.
And we have basically
taken all of our knowledge
from this bike and
all the testing
we've done with it over
the last five years
and condensed it into
this device, which
is a new device, where we're
looking to bring to the market
in the coming years, which is
what we basically call our wind
tunnel for the road.
And we've already been using
this device with Team Ineos,
in terms of the road testing
we've been doing with them.
So the idea there
is not everyone
can go into the wind tunnel,
so we want to take the wind
tunnel to the end consumer.
But yeah, this is, again, part
of the measurement technology
we're doing for
measuring on the road.
The final step-- I mentioned
this performance simulation.
Basically, it's a glorified
computer program where
we input all of the parameters.
So they can be
environmental parameters,
like where the wind, the course
parameters of the course, what
the course is like,
how hilly, what's
the height profile, the
aerodynamics, the weight,
of course.
But then also the
physiology of the rider--
what's their power output?
How much overpower can they
bring for how many seconds?
And this is a really
important tool
that we call our
virtual pit wall
that we've developed, in
particular, for Team Ineos,
that we use for doing their
stage-by-stage strategy
optimization.
And the great thing
about this tool
is we can calculate
extremely accurately
the time over any course.
And more importantly,
you can then
go in and play
with the parameters
and see which parameters have
the biggest impact on making
the rider faster.
And from this, we see exactly
which part of the aerodynamics
is important.
Moreover, the aerodynamics is a
lot more important than weight,
for example.
And it allows us just to
find the optimum setup.
So by combining all of these
four development arms together,
we have a very good picture
as to how we go and optimize
the bike and rider
system to make it faster.
So based on all that, some key
inputs into, or key insights,
into aerodynamics.
I saw a question on
the Dory come through,
as of which speed is
aerodynamics important.
Basically, from 15
kilometers per hour,
aerodynamic drag is the biggest
resistance that you have.
So even if you're riding
down to the supermarket
to pick up some
groceries, actually,
the majority of the power
you're putting into the pedals
is to overcome aerodynamic drag.
So it's very much important,
also, for low-speed riding.
Another thing is
that aerodynamics
is more important
for slower riders
than it is for pro athletes.
Everyone has this
impression in their minds
that it's all about pro sport.
It's all about super fast.
Actually, not.
The reason for this is when we
make performance improvements
and reduce the
aerodynamic drag by,
for instance, 5%, 10%,
an amateur cyclist,
a lower cyclist, is on
the road for longer.
They're on the
course for longer.
So the percentage time
gain, in absolute terms,
is actually greater.
The other reason is we have this
thing called sailing effect.
New era road bikes
actually harness the wind,
just like a sailing boat does
to help push it forwards.
The slower you go, the larger
the effective crosswind angle,
and the more sailing
effect you get.
So it's a bit of
a compound effect.
But the end result
is, the slower riders,
the amateur riders,
actually benefit
more from aerodynamic
improvements than the pros.
The athlete's body is 75% of
the total aerodynamic drag.
So even if at Swiss Side,
we build and sell wheels,
I'm not going to stand
here and say to you,
the first point of call
is to buy our wheels.
It's not true.
Your first point of call is
to look at your aerodynamics
and how you can improve
your position, the equipment
you have on your body.
So that's a very simple point,
but one that can bring you
a lot of time savings.
The wheels do, however,
have a very large impact
on the aerodynamic
drag of the rider.
Now, you might think,
how can that be?
Now, I showed you a slide
before of our instrumented bike.
And what we saw is that
the front wheel stability
is really important
for keeping the rider
in an aerodynamic position for
the longest period of time.
So if particularly in
triathlon or time trial,
we have these aero bars--
actually, I have a set here--
where we're trying
to hold an aero
position-- if the front wheel
is not stable aerodynamically
and doesn't react predictably
in gusty side winds,
the rider simply can't remain in
this aero position constantly.
Or they come off the power.
They reduce their power
output, both of which
are a huge penalty for the
overall speed of the bike.
So what we discovered
with our research
is that the front wheel
stability, in particular,
is really important for
keeping the rider in their aero
position as long as possible.
And thereby, it has
quite a large impact
on the overall performance
and the aerodynamics.
So the wheels do have a
big influence, actually,
on the aerodynamics
of the rider.
With a good aero setup, you
can save more than 10 minutes
per 100 kilometers on the bike.
So we're not talking
about marginal gains.
We're not talking about
a few seconds here.
We're talking about minutes,
and tens of minutes,
potentially, over a longer ride.
So there's a lot in this,
if you're a sporty rider.
Or if it's not just
about time saving,
it's also about saving energy.
So it's an efficiency
gain as well.
And I mentioned
earlier, in triathlon,
weight is actually
relatively unimportant.
And in road cycling, it's
actually only important
when you're riding up a hill
in an uphill time trial.
So what we see is that
for an average cyclist,
you have to have an
average gradient of 4.5%
before weight becomes more
important than aerodynamic.
And that's over
the entire course.
And that's basically only
an uphill time trial.
For a pro rider,
since they are faster,
and the aerodynamic drag
becomes more important,
that gradient's actually 7.5%.
So yeah.
And a perfect example of
this is, back in 2015,
before we designed the
Cube bike that I showed you
before, we designed
another version
of the predecessor of that
bike for Andreas Raelert.
And we discovered that
his original bike was
aerodynamically pretty
terrible, and he
was losing seven to eight
minutes on the Hawaiian Iron
Man world championship course.
So we went into the wind tunnel,
and we optimized that bike
by producing some 3D
printed packers to change
all of the tube profiles to get
more out of the sailing effect,
which I'll show you later.
And we managed to
improve the bike
to the tune of around about
20 watts, which, for him, was
around about six or seven
minutes of performance
on the Kona bike course.
Now, we added one kilo
of weight to the bike
in order to do that.
Because we didn't have
time to produce a new bike,
so we glued all of
these profiles to them,
painted them black, made it look
like it was an original bike.
And the cost of that extra
kilo of weight on the bike
was 20 seconds.
So 7 minutes of gains
from aerodynamics,
20 second penalty
versus the weight
that we added to the bike.
So it gives you a bit
of a feel in triathlon
of the level of importance
of these things.
But enough about that.
A little bit of an analysis
of the bike rider system.
So we already mentioned
before that 75% of the drag
is the rider.
The frame and fork and the
wheels are each only 8% each,
and 10% is the rest.
Now, what is the rest?
The rest is basically the
drive train, the brake disks.
And just for your interest,
one of the most offending parts
on the bicycle, if you
use an electronic shifter,
is a Shimano Di2 shifter.
It's actually worth about
1 and 1/2 watts of power.
So one of the trends
we're seeing at the moment
is these single chain
ring systems, so 1 by 11,
1 by 12 systems.
And they're really great.
I actually did, two
weeks ago, a test
with an athlete in the wind
tunnel where we built, from a 2
by 11 to a 1 by 12 system, step
by step removing all the parts,
removing the derailleur,
removing the hanger.
And I think we totaled up at
about 3 watts in the end, which
is actually quite
a lot, in terms of,
when you're looking to improve
a bike by 3 watts, that's
quite a bit.
So anyway, that's a little
insight to the rest.
But in terms of the sailing
effect distribution--
I keep talking about
the sailing effect.
So I'll show you what
that is in the next slide.
But 65% of the sailing
effect comes from the wheels.
And so that's why the
wheels are really important.
And you can reduce your
aerodynamic drag massively
using this sailing effect.
So if I'm in an aerodynamic
drag, as I mentioned before,
you need to concentrate on
you, the athlete, the rider.
But for maximizing
the sailing effect,
you need very good aero wheels.
And as I mentioned before,
stable and predictable aero
wheels.
Because if you can't stay
in your aero position,
it's a waste of time.
So what do we measure, whether
it be in safety or in the wind
tunnel?
First thing we do is
we measure forces.
So the main one we
talk about all the time
is drag, aerodynamic
drag, quite simple.
But we also measure a
number of other things.
We measure side force, so
how much side force is there
on the rider.
If you've ever had a
truck driving past you,
you find yourself
on the other side
of the road, that's
side force that you're
experiencing in that moment.
So it also can't be neglected.
One thing that we measure
is this steering moment.
So when side wind
gusts, how much
is the wheel trying
to turn in your hands?
And that's again
what we discovered
from our instrumented
bike development
is how important this
is steering sensitivity
is of the front wheel.
And so we developed a special
load cell and a special balance
for our wind tunnel, where
we can actually measure that.
And we were the
first in the world
to be able to quantify
this steering moment,
to be able to develop our
wheels in a better way,
quite simply because
we saw the impact it
can have on the complete
system, aerodynamic drag.
And then the final thing we
look at is the stall behavior.
An aero frame or the aero wheels
are like the profile of a wing.
And they produce lift.
And this lift is what produces
the thrust or the drag
reduction and this
sailing effect.
And like a wing, because of
a certain angle of attack,
the flow can no
longer stay attached.
It stalls.
It rips off the profile.
And then this lift, or this
aerodynamic benefit, is lost.
But what we need to make
sure is when this happens,
it happens in a very
stable and predictable way.
And there's not a sudden
change in the forces.
So we're also looking at this
stall behavior of our wheels
and of bike frames, the
products that we develop.
Now finally, what is
the sailing effect?
This is what a graph looks like,
whether it's in the wind tunnel
or out of CFD.
And what we can see here is we
start with the base drag level.
So here on the vertical axis,
we have the aerodynamic drag
measured in watts of power.
And on the horizontal axis, we
have the effective onset flow
angle, which we
call the YAW angle.
And as the YAW
angle increases, you
can see the power
decreasing of the wheel.
And actually, at around about
12 degrees of YAW angle,
this wheel has zero drag.
And further, YAW
angles after that,
it's actually producing thrust.
So you read sometimes
in the press this talk
about negative drag.
And actually, the
front wheel on the bike
is the only part
of the bike that
actually produces this thrust.
But this drag reduction
happens everywhere
on the bike where you have a
good functioning aero profile.
And you can see how
important this is.
So in a course like Kona--
so there's 0-- to
put this in context,
20 degrees of YAW, the effective
onset flow angle, this range
is what you see when
you're riding a bike.
About 95% of the time you will
see something between 0 and 20
degrees.
You see more 0 degrees
than you do 20.
But this is the range which
we see in the real world.
In a course, a really windy
course like the Iron Man World
Championships in Kona
in Hawaii, the athletes
are riding with an
average of around about
15 degrees of crosswind, or 15
degrees of onset flow angle.
And you can see on
the front wheel alone,
at 15 degrees the
wheels producing
around about minus
6 watts of drag
compared to almost
15 watts that it
was producing at the beginning.
So that's a 20 watt
drag reduction,
to show you how potent
the sailing effect is
and why the riders need to
use this aero equipment.
What happens if you go to
shallower section wheels?
Quite simply, you get
this sailing effect.
But you also get less
sensitivity in the front wheel
because you've got
a smaller sail.
So at some point, the
big deep section wheels,
like this 80 millimeter
wheel I showed you
before, it becomes unridable
in a stormy condition.
So you need to ride
a smaller wheel.
So this just shows you
the different level
of sailing effect,
the different level
of aerodynamic performance
that you get from each
of these wheel depths.
So that's the type
of things that we
measure in the wind tunnel.
But we also measure, I mentioned
before, the pressure loss.
So we have this.
This is world
champion Patrick Lange
in the wind tunnel with us.
This is a picture
from three weeks ago.
And we have this rake,
which is a 1 meter
wide system with a whole
lot of pressure measurement
probes on it.
And we scan up and
down behind the rider
during the run at
various YAW angles,
the various crosswind angles.
And we can quantify
and visualize
how much pressure loss
there is, which is actually
the aerodynamic drag.
And that looks like this.
So we create these sorts of
plots where we can really
see the pressure loss.
And for example, here
in this contour plot,
everything that's red is
100% energy in the flow,
and everything that's dark
blue is 100% total loss
of energy in the flow.
That means the wind is actually
being pulled along with him.
And like this, one of the
problems of testing in the wind
tunnel is you get a result.
We change something.
You get a result.
But you can't really
pinpoint exactly what
the mechanisms were
that led to that change.
But with this sort of pressure
measurement technology,
you can really understand.
Oh!
The helmet loss got smaller, or
the shoulder loss got narrower.
So you can really
start to understand
what is affecting what and
helps us to be able to optimize
in a better way.
So again, some of the technology
that we're bringing, again,
straight from Formula One
to the cycling industry.
In CFD, you've got all
sorts of different pressure.
You got all sorts of different
measure, visualization
possibilities.
Here we've got streamlined
combined with pressure loss
so you can see both
the flow angularity.
This is a section
through this road cyclist
so you can really,
again, understand in CFD
what mechanisms are at play.
We had, again, on the Dory a
lot of questions about drafting.
So I thought I might
include a slide on drafting.
Here is a simulation that we
did on drafting and triathlon.
So in triathlon,
there's a 10 meter rule.
You're not supposed to be
more than 10 meters close
to the rider in front.
And all of the pros and anyone
who's had a bit of experience
will notice that
even at 10 meters,
you're still not
putting as much power
as you do when you're
out on your own.
And the truth is,
even at 10 meters,
there is a significant
drafting effect.
And you can see this
in this image here.
This image is a plot of velocity
in the flow, where we have
full speed velocity is red.
And everything down to
almost 0, 2 meters a second
is here in blue.
And you can see at 5
meters, well, the airflow
is significantly slower,
hitting the rider in front.
And even at 10
meters, you can see
there's still quite a
significant drafting effect,
just visually from these images.
And how much is it?
Well, one of the
questions in the Dory
was if I'm 20 centimeters
or 50 centimeters
from the rider in front,
what's my drag saving?
Well, my drag saving's around
40% in a time trial position.
If you're in a road
cycling position,
it's actually even higher.
It's 45%, almost 50%.
And if you're
riding, for example,
in a peloton, where the
speeds are often, say,
around 45 kilometers an
hour, 50 kilometers an hour,
at 45 kilometers an hour,
that's a 90 watt drag saving.
So it's quite significant.
And before you get
angry the next time
you're riding round
and some guy has hooked
in on the back of you
and getting a free ride,
and you think, ah, this guy's
getting drafting, actually,
that guy behind you is reducing
your drag by around 4 and 1/2%,
because he's capturing-- he's
carrying some of your drag
from you.
So actually, both
of you are faster.
So don't complain when the guy
is getting a free ride anymore.
Even at 5 meters, in
a theoretical world,
there's still a small gain.
But the truth is,
there's not really much.
But anyway, coming back to the
10 meters, even at 10 meters,
they're still around about
13% drag reduction for the guy
behind.
And this correlates really
well with measurements
we make with these sorts
of devices out on the road
and also just from
the pro athletes.
They know that when
they're in the pack
that they're pedaling 20,
25 watts less than when
they're on their own.
And that's why these big
trains of triathletes
build in these big races
because there's quite clearly
a big advantage to be had,
so a little bit of an insight
into drafting.
But now, what it's all about.
How do you make yourself faster?
And where's the potential?
And so here's a picture
of me in the wind
tunnel having a bit of a play.
You know, you've got to
have a little bit of fun
when you spend so much
time in the wind tunnel.
I wanted to know what the
Superman position was like.
And this has got, actually,
the lowest drag number
we've ever measured
in the wind tunnel,
if it means anything to
anyone, a CDA of 0.132.
But of course,
here, without being
able to actually
pedal on the pedals,
it's not really going
to bring me much.
But anyway, a little bit of fun.
So a more serious example--
I did a test in the wind tunnel.
When I first came to cycling
or came to triathlon,
I'm like most amateur athletes.
I came with a road bike.
I put some clip on aero
bars on the front of it.
I had a standard road
bike with cables exposed,
all of these sorts of things.
I already had aero
wheels, of course.
Because you know, I was a fan.
They look good, too.
You know, it's not an
unaerodynamic set-up.
I already had a one piece
suit, albeit without arms.
Anyway, then a few years
later, I created a company.
We designed some bikes.
We designed some wheels.
And I managed to take
one of those bikes
and those wheels
into the wind tunnel,
as well as some suits and
a proper time trial helmet.
And the question is, how
many watts did I save?
How much percentage
drag did I save?
So we can break it down.
We did this step by step.
And basically, let's go to
the headline number first.
I saved 38 watts of drag
at 35 kilometers an hour.
So I've got the numbers in
red at 45 kilometers an hour,
and the numbers in blue are 35.
For this presentation,
I'll quote numbers
at 35 kilometers an
hour, because I think
that's more speed than I ride.
And I think it's more a
speed that most of us ride.
But it's over 30% drag saving
moving from those setups.
And if we break it down, we
can see the bike alone brought
22 of those 38 watts.
The TT helmet brought 6 watts.
The suit-- reminding you I
already had a one piece suit.
But I went just to a better
full, better fitting suit.
It was another 4 watts.
I went to a narrow arm position.
We see this brings quite a lot.
It's not very comfortable
to ride, especially
if you want to try and
ride a full Iron Man.
But you see a lot of
the pros riding this.
So I tested it.
And for me, it did
bring another 4 watts.
And the big one, shaved legs--
this was on the Dory.
Now, this was a pretty
significant gain.
4 watts is a lot for
shaved legs at 35.
I specifically let my
legs grow really hairy
over the whole
winter for this test.
Right?
And between two runs,
I got out my Phillips,
you know, whatever, man shaver.
And I ground it all off
without touching my suit.
I left my helmet on.
Because we don't like to touch
anything between two runs.
And we got 4 watts.
So it was really a
significant gain.
And it was real, as well.
So again, on a time trial bike,
we can see massive savings.
But a lot of us ride road.
So let's do exactly the same
test and on a road bike.
And here we got
one of the editors
of one of Germany's biggest
cycling magazines, [INAUDIBLE]
from "Road Bike" magazine.
And we did the same thing.
So we asked him
to bring material
of his choice, two bikes.
He brought a standard road bike.
It already had actually some
slightly deep section wheels.
I think about 35
millimeters deep.
And then he brought
a full aero set up
with a full aero helmet, one
piece suit, proper aero wheels
and aero bike.
And we did the same old test.
And how many watts did he save?
So I think in the last
slide we were at about 30%
and about 37, 38 watts.
In this one, we were
also at 37 watts.
The drag is higher
on a road bike.
So the percentage is low.
But still 20%
saving we made here.
And again, the difference
just between the road frames
was 11 watts.
The difference between the--
ha-- the lower bar position--
we'll come to this in a minute.
So the difference between
being on the top bar
position on the brake
hoods, we call them,
to going on the lower bar
position was 8 watts in itself.
And I'll show you,
actually, a breakdown
of those positions in a moment.
One piece aero suit, 7 watts.
The air doesn't like skin.
So the first thing
I'll show you later,
having long sleeves, the
longest possible sleeves that
are allowed within the rules
is actually always a benefit.
And having a one
piece suit means
you have the minimum number of
wrinkles and folds and the best
fit.
And that's all measurable
in the wind tunnel.
And like we say, focusing on
the rider, on you, the athlete,
on the bike, which is 75% of
the drag, that's why we always
see big gains from the apparel.
The aero wheels, in this
case, like I mentioned,
he already had semi-aero wheels.
So we only had a 4 watt gain.
That can be easily
doubled when you compare
to a set of standard
aluminium wheels, which
may be 25, 28 millimeters deep.
Aero helmet, going from
a standard road helmet
to an aero road helmet-- there
are these new sort of aero road
helmets.
We've done a lot of helmet
measurements in recent times.
And they really do
bring something,
3 and 1/2 watts there.
And I threw in my shaved
legs number on top of that,
just to add it--
so yeah, big savings available
there on the road bike,
as well.
But a lot of us probably
don't speak about watts.
So in the end, what
matters is time.
So let's look about
what this means.
Let's translate it to time.
So what I did with
our virtual pit wall,
with our performance simulation
software, we ran a SIM.
And we took a 100
kilometer course
with 1,500 height
meters of climbing,
so that's a pretty hilly course,
a 75 kilo rider with an 8 kilo
bike, and a power
output of 200 watts.
Now this is quite typical
of a normal sporty athlete
that does a bit of training.
It's sort of pretty
much what I'd be doing.
And we ran the SIM to see
what the time benefits were.
And basically, here's exactly
the same thing we see again.
Over that 100 kilometers,
with 1,500 meters of climbing,
we see over 10
minutes of time saved
for that particular athlete.
And again, over three
minutes for the road frame,
two minutes for the lower
bar position, the suit,
two minutes.
You see all of these minutes,
minute to minute, to minute,
to minutes, adding up.
It all makes a big difference.
And a lot of this
stuff doesn't cost.
So obviously, if you want
to go and upgrade your bike,
that costs a lot of money.
But certain things, like going
out and buying a one piece
suit, going out and
buying an aero helmet,
working on your position--
that doesn't cost you anything.
So there are a lot of gains, a
lot of aero improvements here
you can make without
spending a lot of money.
So some tips on
the rider position.
I mentioned the upper
bar positions before.
Now basically, go lower.
Now there's a disclaimer
I'm going to say here.
It's a discussion I have
a lot with bike fitters.
Of course, if you get yourself
into a really completely
contorted position where you
can't push the pedals anymore,
you might save 50 watts of drag.
But if you'd lose 70 watts
of power to the pedals,
you're obviously not winning.
So make sure it's a
position that you can hold
and you can ride.
But this gives you an idea of
where the gains can be made.
So if we take the reference
of being on the brake hoods
on top of the bar, and then
quite simply, in this case,
moving with straight arms
down to the lower drops,
that's the same test we
did before with Moritz.
We see an 8-watt drag saving.
And that's 2 and 1/2 minutes per
100 kilometers, around about.
Now the next fastest
position again
is actually back up to the
top bars and bending the arms.
So 90 degree bent arms,
sitting on the top bars.
And actually, this is quite
a comfortable position.
I can actually ride this
for most of the ride.
And you can see that
brings a 5 and 1/2 minute
saving per 100 kilometers.
And all that requires is a
little bit of core strength
and a little bit of stretching.
Now if you want to go to the
real extreme like our sprinter
friend here, lower bar
position, bent arms, and you're
saving 30 watts at 35
kilometers an hour.
Now, this guy, he's
doing something like 60
or 65 kilometers an hour.
And those 30 watts are more
like 100 watts at that speed.
So you can see how important
the aerodynamic drag
is, in particular, in
a sprint situation.
So it gives you a little
bit of a sensitivity
study of how rider position
affects the aerodynamic drag.
Yoga-- if you want to ride
these positions, especially
if you're triathlete,
especially if you're
going to do a long distance,
if you're really crazy,
and you want to do an
Iron Man, and you're
on the bike for 180 kilometers
for five hours, maybe more,
you want to do some yoga.
They've got some great yoga
classes here at Google, I hear.
So great, sign up.
It's one of the best things you
can do for your aerodynamics.
Strengthen your lower back.
Stretch out your lower back,
core strength, flexibility.
Right.
So now some aero tips
for your rider equipment.
So I mentioned before suits.
And the air doesn't like skin.
So in triathlon,
we're not allowed
to have full length arm suits.
But actually, the biggest gain
to be had is down to the elbow.
The extra addition of
covering the forearms
actually doesn't
bring all that much,
because they're not
so exposed to the wind
because they're
quite horizontal.
But this part is
really important.
So try and avoid
suits without sleeves.
A suit with sleeves is
always significantly,
measurably better.
If you're road cycling, a
one piece suit for race day
will bring you a lot.
So consider a one piece
suit for race day.
In triathlon, most people
are riding a one piece suit
nowadays, anyway.
The suit must fit as
tightly as possible
with a minimum
number of wrinkles.
It's really hard.
You can't generalize
and say this is
the fastest suit in the world.
The reason for this is
there's a big interaction
with the rider's body
shape and their position,
their head position, and so on.
So we see, with some
riders, on suit's better.
With other riders,
another suit is better.
But what we can say and what
we do see in the wind tunnel
with our testing
is that a suit that
fits tightly with the least
number of wrinkles always
is better than one
that's a bit loose.
If it's wrinkly and
loose on the front, where
it sort of crumples
up here like this,
that doesn't make much of
a difference, actually.
Because here the wind is
like a stagnation zone.
The wind almost comes to zero.
But it's where the wind
is really high speed,
around the sides,
around the outside
of the arms is very important.
And sort of around
the side to the legs.
So these are the really
important areas to look at.
So if you're going to the
shop to choose a suit,
that's the best
recommendation I can give you.
And for the guys,
a lot of people
will like to have an
opening at the front,
particularly in
triathlon or cycling,
to be able to go
to the bathroom.
Like I said, the
front end of the suit
is actually relatively
unimportant.
So these suits that have a
partial opening in the front,
they're not a disadvantage.
How much potential is there?
There's a good 9 watts
at 35 kilometers an hour
between a two piece apparel and
a good fitting triathlon suit.
If we take a look at
helmets, aero helmets
do make a difference.
I've spent the whole winter
testing and optimizing helmets.
You saw before a helmet dummy.
We do tests with athletes.
We do tests with a dummy in
different head positions,
different body positions.
Got a really good
idea of what's working
and what's not on helmets.
There's a few tips
I can give you.
First of all, aero helmets
are a really good investment.
They don't cost a huge
amount, and they do bring
a significant performance gain.
Don't forget the cooling.
There are a lot of
helmets out there
on the market that
basically have no cooling.
Now, if you've ever seen the
pictures of the Hawaiian Iron
Man when they're riding
out the lava fields,
I tell you what, if you
don't have cooling there
and you overheat the
processor, you're
not going to be able
to have a strong race.
And actually, we're
doing quite a bit
of studies at the moment
in the correlation
between cooling, in particular,
cooling of the head,
to the power that you
can bring to the pedals.
Because we believe there's
a strong correlation.
So don't forget the cooling.
And a really good tip for that
is, even as an aerodynamicist,
when the helmets with visors
came out, it's, like, oh, yeah,
visors, great.
They're going to make
the flow a lot cleaner.
Actually, we see very little
difference between visor
and no visor when we
measure in the wind tunnel.
And we've done this test dozens
and dozens and dozens of times.
But what we do see is
a significant shift
in the cooling level.
When you remove the visor,
you increase the cooling
by anywhere from 20% to 40%.
So it's a really
great cooling tip.
So on a really hot day, you
can choose to not run the visor
and instead run sunglasses.
Or, on the contrary, on a really
cold day, put the visor on
and you get a little bit more
heat to keep the head warm.
Short tail helmets-- again,
the whole marketing story--
we read so much
marketing in the press
that oh, brands are bringing
out these really short helmets,
and they're really great,
and they work really well.
Well, they don't.
I've yet to measure
a really short tail
helmet that really works.
A little bit of a
tail always helps.
And so they don't have
to be like the helmets
we had 15 years
ago, with, like, oh,
you know, ooh, go all the way
down to the small of your back.
It doesn't need to be that long.
But a certain length
of helmet like we
see on the lower two
helmets here really
does make a difference.
And that's the
typical difference
you see on the right-hand
side between the new range
of aero road helmets compared
to just the standard helmets.
This is a helmet from the
brand Scott, Scott Cadence,
it's called.
You'll see it's slightly longer.
It's got closable vents to
reduce the cooling level.
This really does
make a difference.
So there are some
tips on helmets.
How much potential is there?
For a standard road helmet
to an aero road helmet,
there's around 4 watts
at 35 kilometers an hour.
And then going up to a
full time trial helmet,
there's another 4 watts again.
So it's steps 4 watts each time,
so plenty of potential there.
Frames, bikes,
wheels-- you know,
every brand claims that
they've got the quickest
product, including Swiss Side.
But trust the brands
who deliver proof.
I mean, if it's faster--
I said at the very beginning
of this presentation--
if it's faster, it's measurable.
Not just in a wind tunnel-- you
will measure it on your tacho.
If you've got a power meter,
you can see the power.
If you don't have
a power meter, you
can drive the same circuit
twice, the same course twice,
and you'll see
that you're faster.
So trust brands who
deliver real data
with benchmark comparisons.
And look for independent
test results.
There's a lot of aero
looking stuff out there
which is very, very not aero.
So really be careful,
especially if you're
making the big investment
on a bike frame,
some of these bike frames are
10,000 euros plus nowadays,
yeah, look for the
independent test results.
How much potential is there?
Well, at 35 kilometers
an hour, there's
around 18 watts
in the difference
between a good frame
and a bad frame,
whether that's in a
road or a TT bike.
It can be even bigger.
I've seen some pretty
disastrous bikes out there.
Integrator cables are very good.
But we'll get into
that in a moment.
And the wheels
again, the difference
between standard wheels
and good aero wheels,
around about 7 watts.
But like we saw before,
the sailing effect
can be much, much,
much higher than that.
So you can double
that number if you're
looking at a windy course.
Bike equipment-- cockpits
and bottles-- so we
get a lot of questions
about where should I
put my drink bottles.
Now in UCI road
racing, you're only
allowed to put the drink
bottles within the triangle
of the frame.
A round bottle is really bad.
So round bottles
are quite terrible.
So if you're not UCI racing,
if you're doing triathlon,
do whatever you can to not put
a round bottle on the frame.
If you want to
put a bottle here,
you can put an aero bottle.
There's plenty of aero bottles
out there at the moment,
and they work very well.
Coming to-- oh, the best
place to put bottles
is behind the rider,
behind your butt.
This is the aero we saw
in some of the CFD images,
lots of blue here, lots
of total loss flow.
Basically, you're pulling a
pocket of air along with you.
So the relative airspeed to
your body, behind your butt,
is zero.
So it's really the best place
where you can put bottles.
So you're not allowed
to do it in road racing.
But in triathlon, you're
absolutely allowed to do it.
So it's a great place
to put your bottles.
Aero cockpit makes a
very big difference.
So you see the new
generation of aero bikes
have an aero handlebar with a
very flat-shaped, aero-shaped
base bar.
They really do
make a difference.
And integrating the
cables, the cables
alone are around
about 3 watts of drag.
So removing the
cables and integrating
makes the bike a little
bit of a pain to work on.
But if you're looking for
performance, or to save energy,
to be more efficient, an aero
cockpit with integrated cables
does bring a lot.
And those two things bring
up to around about 8 watts
at 35 kilometers an
hour, more or less
an equal gain from each
of those two things.
Tires-- you're
probably wondering
why I'm talking about
tires and aerodynamics.
But believe it or
not, we've talked
about the sailing effect.
We talked about the
front wheel, which is
right in the front of the flow.
The selection of tire on the
front wheel of your bike,
road or triathlon or
TT, has a huge effect.
And it's absolutely the
most important thing
for the sailing effect.
If you pick the wrong tire,
you will lose all the sailing
effect.
And it's really confusing.
It's really confusing
for the end consumer.
Particularly, Continental has
a tire called the Conti TT.
And you think TT,
time trial, this
has to be the fastest aero tire.
It's a slick tire.
It has no tread on it at all.
Put that on the
front of the bike,
you'll destroy the aerodynamics
of the front wheel.
It's a bit of a
complex phenomenon.
You need a certain
amount of sidewall tread
on the shoulder of the tire.
This trips the flow from a
laminar to a turbulent state.
Without that trip, the
flow won't stay attached.
The wheel will stall.
You lose your sailing effect.
It's very difficult to say
exactly which tire works
and which tire doesn't
by looking at it.
I have no affiliation
to Continental.
But the Continental GP 4000 S
II, which is their older tire,
actually is the best
functioning aerodynamic tire
we've measured in the
wind tunnel today.
It's also a really
good tire in terms
of grip and rolling resistance
and puncture resistance,
so a very good choice.
Their new 5000 tire
isn't quite as good
as the 4000 aerodynamically.
But it's got lower
rolling resistance.
It ends up being around about
a equal game at the end.
But some good tires
to be had there.
The best tubeless tires--
tubeless is really good.
It has a significant reduction
in rolling resistance.
Best tubeless tire is
the Schwalbe Pro One
in terms of aerodynamics
that we've seen.
It has pretty good rolling
resistance, as well.
On the rear tire, you
don't have to worry
about the aerodynamics.
It's in the shadow.
It's in the drafting effect
of the whole rest of the bike,
so you don't have
to worry too much.
But on the front
tire on your bike,
really do look to pick a good
aerodynamic functioning tire.
In this month's
"Triathlon" magazine,
if you happen to
speak German, there's
a huge tire test that was
done in the wind tunnel
to show the aerodynamic
performance of all the tires
combined with rolling
resistance testing
and so on, so a very good read.
Lots of potential--
well, 3 watts--
that's a bit of an
understatement, to be honest.
If you put the wrong
tire and you're
riding in Kona,
like we saw before,
that's going to be more
like 20 watts of a penalty.
So yeah, there's at
least double that when
you're looking at aero tire.
So the last thing
before I wrap up,
I'll give you a real quick
behind-the-scenes look
into Project 101.
So Project 101 was--
we support Patrick Lange in
the World Ironman Champion
since a number of years now.
And in 2017, he was
101 seconds away
from the magic eight hour mark.
And we made it
our goal as a team
to try and get him
underneath that eight hour
mark in the world
championship in Kona.
And so this became
known as Project 101.
We pulled in a few
partners to help us
with this, including Sauber
Engineering, my former Formula
One team employer
with whom we still
have very good contacts, since
we like to steal their staff,
and Canyon, who is
the manufacturer of
and co-sponsor of Patrick.
So basically what we
saw from our CFD work
and our wind tunnel testing is
that the front end of the bike,
particularly because he has
quite a strong 15 degree angle,
that the exposed
tribar extensions
were quite detrimental
to his aerodynamics.
So we said, OK,
well, we're going
to try and integrate these
to make them part of his arm.
So we scanned his arms up.
We also scanned the pads.
There's a great video on
this, by the way, online
that you can see it to a side.
And we designed a new cockpit.
And I've got some
of the parts here.
And so the first thing we
did, we designed some parts,
and we went to the wind tunnel.
Because before we go
manufacturing a part like this
in a road ready state,
which costs a lot of money,
we want to make sure that
it actually does something.
So we took these parts
to the wind tunnel,
and we got a really significant
performance advantage.
And actually, one of the even
bigger performance advantages
that Patrick fed back
to us is the comfort.
Because he was no longer
leaning on the bars
with two points on his
elbow pads and on the tips,
he could rest along
the entire length
of the bar with his arms.
That gave him a
lot more comfort.
He didn't have to
grip the end anymore.
And he could, just quite
relaxed, lean on the bike.
Gave him also a lot more
control on the bike.
So that was a really
good step for him.
Once we saw that at
that it was good,
we got in contact
with our friends
at Sauber, who had recently
invested in 3D metal printing
technology.
Because to produce parts
like this in carbon fiber,
in such a short space and time--
I mean, this picture
in the wind tunnel
was about two months
before the Kona race.
It was impossible.
And also, we saw that
we could probably
make a lighter part using
3D printed technology.
Because you can put different
level of reinforcements.
You can have extremely
thin wall thicknesses.
So the parts we built
were a combination
of titanium and aluminium.
They had wall thicknesses
as low as a half
a millimeter thick with internal
webbings and reinforcements.
And we actually managed to
make these parts lighter
than the original carbon bars,
but also a lot more comfortable
and a lot more aerodynamic.
And together with Canyon, we
did a lot of structural testing
on the parts at
Canyon to make sure.
Of course, the last
thing we wanted to do
was have these parts break
halfway down the bike course.
That would have been
rather embarrassing.
I don't think Patrick would
have been too impressed.
And on race day, looking
the end of the day,
we deliver our bit, which is to
make Patrick and our athletes
as fast as possible.
But he was able to deliver
in terms of his performance
on the day.
And he not only went
under eight hours.
He did the course in seven
hours, 52 minutes, 39 seconds,
I believe.
OK, there were very
good conditions
on the day, which
made it a faster day.
But definitely, the
contribution did something.
So that's a little
bit of an insight
into aerodynamics and cycling.
I hope you've been able to
take something out of it.
And of course now, I'm
open for whatever questions
you can throw at me.
I'll answer them the best I can.
[APPLAUSE]
SPEAKER: I'll do the first
one from [INAUDIBLE]..
You guys can [INAUDIBLE].
So many people don't
have a wind tunnel
to optimize their position.
How big is the typical
gap between efficiency
of a position before and after
calibrating, but by an expert?
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yeah.
So we see a good bike
fitting-- there's
a lot of really simple bike
fitting solutions nowadays.
There's a green
screen type of thing.
So rule number one in
aerodynamics is frontal area.
Reducing frontal area reduces
your aerodynamic drag.
So you see, by doing
a good bike fitting,
first of all to ensure that
you can bring the maximum power
to the pedals, and
then with the sort
of green screen or
frontal area analysis,
we see significant
performance improvement.
So around about 10,
15 watts is definitely
possible with a
simple bike fitting.
Yes.
SPEAKER: Question
from the audience.
AUDIENCE: I'm a big [INAUDIBLE].
And I remember at
some point, if I
started limiting the number of
CPUs you can use [INAUDIBLE]
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yep.
AUDIENCE: Because my
limit was [INAUDIBLE]
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yeah.
So the great thing is we
have no limits on what we
can do with our CPU
hours and whatever.
It was a huge limit
in Formula One,
which was a huge disadvantage
for certain teams,
like Sauber, who had invested
a huge amount in their CFD
technology.
But what was really
counterproductive about that
was it just forced the teams
to invest tens of millions
in useless technology
to get around the rule.
So how do they calculate in
a different way what type
of meshing elements
can they use?
How can they solve in different
ways to reduce the CPU hours?
That's not relevant to improving
performance in the world.
So actually, those
sorts of things
were one of the reasons I
decided to leave Formula One.
Because there was a lot
of irrelevant development
from very smart minds
going into developing stuff
that had no use.
So yeah, it was a big hindrance.
But yeah, we can do
whatever we want.
[LAUGHS] Thanks.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thanks for a super
interesting talk.
Can you weigh in on the
tire and rim width debate?
I feel, like, it's been
getting wider and wider.
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yeah, no,
really, really good point--
does make a difference.
So we're seeing the new
generation of wheels coming out
is slowly getting wider.
Years ago, we had
inner rim widths
of 13 millimeters,
15 millimeters.
The current era wheels are 17,
maybe even 19 millimeters wide.
And we're seeing the
trend to go even wider.
Like I mentioned before, there's
a kind of rule number one,
rule of thumb number one in
aerodynamics is frontal area.
So when you go to a wider rim,
you increase the frontal area.
But there's also
frontal area drag.
We call the parasitic drag.
But then there's also the
form drag, the profile drag.
And what we do see is that
you get less profile drag
when you go wider.
Because the wider tire forms a
more smooth shape with the rim.
And we also see the potential
to get a little bit more sailing
effect.
So the trend to go to
slightly wider rims
definitely brings something.
To go really wide, like,
there's some rims out there
that are, like, 22 or
23 millimeters wide.
That's not necessary.
Actually, the drag is
higher because of that.
So there's a sweet
spot in there,
which is around sort of 17 to
20 millimeters in my experience.
AUDIENCE: I asked a
question in the Dory.
And I had to step out
for a few minutes,
so I'm not sure if
you answered it.
It was about things
like rotational drag.
And I've picked up a discussion
from [INAUDIBLE] who've
been doing some testing and
find that some wheels performed
really badly
because of YAW angle
variablity and rotational drag.
So I was just wondering if
you had any thoughts on that.
And I should mention as
full disclosure [INAUDIBLE]
I'm very happy with it.
[INAUDIBLE]
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: OK.
So firstly to answer the
question on rotational drag,
I'm not aware of the people
you mentioned that were doing
the rotational drag testing.
As far as I'm aware,
we've pioneered,
together with our
partner DT Swiss,
the whole rotational
drag question.
So a number of years ago,
we identified, in CFD,
because in CFD, you
see all the forces.
You can see the
forces on the spokes,
individually, to
the rim, the tire,
and we saw that
the rotational drag
was a significant
proportion of the drag.
Actually, it's between 20
to 30% of the actual drag
that you get on the wheel.
And actually, that's not
measured in the wind tunnel.
Because in the wind
tunnel, we drive
the wheel with some rollers.
And the energy, the power
that drives the wheel
can't be measured repeatedly.
So we're actually not
measuring the rotational drag
in the wind tunnel.
But we do measure the
rotational drag separately.
So we have a special rig which
we developed as a collaboration
project together
with DT Swiss, where
we put in the wind
tunnel, and we
can measure the rotational
drag forces really,
really accurately.
And actually, our latest
generation of wheels
are optimized for
this rotational drag.
So in particular, the spokes,
and going to thinner spokes
is a really important step.
And it's one of
the reasons why we
see that multi-spoke wheels
don't tend to work very well.
So these three,
four spoke wheels,
there's many reasons
why we're not
a fan at all of those, which is
why we haven't developed one.
Because they're not stable
and predictable in crosswinds.
That's one reason.
Because the position
of the spoke
is constantly changing
whenever there's a wind gust.
So sometimes the wheel
will turn one way.
Sometimes the wheel will
turn to another way.
So this is one of the reasons
we see the three spoke wheels,
in particular, to be no good.
But the other reason
is rotational drag.
The profiles that they're
using, the structural profiles
are actually quite inefficient
and create a lot of drag,
a lot more than you get from,
for example, 16 bladed spokes.
So yeah, rotational drag is
a really important topic.
And it's one that we do
consider in the development
of our products.
And again, on our website, you
can actually read quite a bit
about rotational drag.
AUDIENCE: OK.
Thank you.
SPEAKER: There was another
question from Steve.
Lag speed moving, does
it test Iron Man pedals?
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yes.
So when we have the ride on the
bike, we're always pedaling.
Actually, the position of the
legs is a huge difference.
So if you test with static legs,
horizontal legs-- so that's
a good tip for you.
If you're descending
on a downhill position,
horizontal legs is
about 30 watts less
drag than vertical legs
at 45 kilometers an hour.
Because aero drag power
increases with power of 3,
yeah, it goes a lot higher,
a lot quickly if you're
doing 60, 70, 80k an hour.
But yeah, we always
test with rotating legs.
And we actually match,
when we're doing YAW scans,
we actually match the
rate of feed of YAW angle
to the cadence so
that we make sure we
get complete revolutions
with each pedal stroke
for each angle of
measurement for YAW.
SPEAKER: How about dimples
like [INAUDIBLE] on wheels?
Are they effective
and why are they
not used on other
pieces of equipment?
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Quite simply,
a fantastic marketing tool--
doesn't bring anything.
The idea behind
dimples is you want
to trip this boundary layer
from this laminar state
to a turbulent state.
But the fact is, I
mentioned before, this
has to happen on the tire.
Once you've tripped the
flow to the turbulent state,
you actually want
the surface behind it
to be as smooth as possible.
You don't want to increase
the amount of turbulence
in the flow.
So yeah, we've looked
at various technologies.
Dimples is one
way you can do it.
You can do it with other sorts
of turbulators on the surface.
But we discovered you need
turbulation on the tire,
but not on the rim.
So great marketing, it sold
lots of wheels for them.
But aerodynamically, it
doesn't bring you an advantage.
AUDIENCE: So does that
apply to the sawtooth
rim shape, where
things [INAUDIBLE]
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yes.
It does.
We developed the sawtooth
wheel, actually, in 2015.
These things called--
known as tubercles--
the leading edge of whales
have tubercles on them
to deal with strong YAW angles.
Now these strong
YAW angles they see
when they're changing the angle
of their fin in the water.
Now we played with tubercles on
the leading edges of our wings
in Formula One for many years,
mainly on the rear wing flap.
Because in Formula
One, they introduced
a thing called DRS, which is
the drag reduction system.
So they opened the
flap down the straight,
and they snap the flap closed
when you jump on the brakes.
We had a real problem with the
flow reattaching onto the flap
when it went shut again.
So we added these tubercles to
generate a bit of turbulence,
to try and help the
reattachment of the flow.
But we never got
it to work, which
is one of the reasons
you've never seen tubercles
on a Formula One car.
Because we were surely not the
only ones playing with that.
Now the reason it works on a
whale is a whale is in water.
And the density of water is
very different to the density
of air.
Now we thought of
the fact, oh, hey, it
would be really good to do a
marketing feature, something
that's visual aerodynamics.
Because the biggest
problem with aerodynamics
is that you can't see it.
So as a brand that's really
advanced in aerodynamics,
it's really hard
to sort of show you
that our products
are really superior.
So we thought, let's try
and get tubercles to work.
Let's see if they
can work on a wheel.
They increased the
drag by about 20%.
So what they did do was slightly
reduce the steering moment.
But actually, with
our latest designs,
we've been able to reduce the
steering moment even more.
So yeah, we we've
designed such wheels.
And we see it as not really
a relevant technology
for cycling wheels, which is
why we haven't pursued it.
SPEAKER: I got the last one,
last question from Dory.
On the Canyon
Speedmax CF SLX is it
more aerodynamic to use 0, 1, or
2 Elite Crono CX water bottles?
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Right.
OK.
So the Speedmax
CF SLX is the bike
that Patrick Lange
rides, and also the bike
that Laura Philip
rides and Daniela Ryf,
three of our athletes.
So we know this bike very well.
And yes, I can answer
positively to this.
I can answer that
question because I've
tested all sorts of
bottles on these bikes.
The Elite bottle is
neutral on that bike
only on the down tube.
You don't want to put
one on the seat tube.
So on the down tube,
it's quite neutral.
And you want to mount it
in the lower position.
When it's mounted in a lower
position, it's neutral.
In the upper, because there's
two bottle mounts on that bike,
the lower position
is the best one.
And the bottle is
completely neutral there.
Doesn't bring any
performance benefit, though.
SPEAKER: One question.
AUDIENCE: In your
work with Patrick
Lange, was the aero
bars the only thing you
changed on the bike?
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: On the bike,
it's the only thing we changed.
On Patrick's body, we
changed some other things.
We're looking--
each year, we like
to do a new special project.
And I can tell you we're doing a
new special project for Patrick
this year.
So keep your eyes
peeled in Kona.
And we'll see what we can get up
with, if we can do it in time.
Of course, with the
blessing of Canyon,
because we're not allowed to
change anything on the bike
without their permission.
So we need them in the boat.
So I'll be doing some political
managing in a few weeks' time.
AUDIENCE: You had
some [INAUDIBLE]
of [INAUDIBLE] What
actioable advice do
you get so that we all know that
action work because we see it.
Are you able to tell them
slightly different positions,
slightly different improvements?
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yes.
So without giving too
much away, because this
is fresh development, fresh off
the CPUs, what we're looking
is what's the level of
drag reduction, what
are the different spacings,
what's the optimal spacing.
Particularly in an
echelon, you might
have a 30 degree of crosswind.
But it doesn't mean
that the echelon needs
to be at a 30 degree angle.
So we're just trying
to quantify and educate
the team and the riders what's
the most efficient positioning
to have in the various
wind conditions.
And yeah, that's sort of along
the roads that we're going.
And also, for our
virtual pit wall,
for the strategy tools
that we have for them,
which they can also use
live during a stage,
if the conditions are changing,
they can enter new conditions
and sort of see for themselves
what's the best strategy.
So it's important that we
have the input data for that.
And because it's
really difficult
to get all the riders
out on the road
to make these
measurements-- although we
did a whole lot of
measurements last week,
there'll be a video coming
up about that leading up
to the Tour de France that will
be released by us and Ineos,
but we do a lot of work in CFD.
Because it's very
accurate the way we do it.
So we can get a lot of
the data for this from CFD
to input into this tool.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
There seems
to be a bit of a trend
now [INAUDIBLE] where
you have very flat bits in the
TT, and then with the vertical.
What's the time they save
from switching to the lighter
profile?
Is that worth the
time that [INAUDIBLE]
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Yeah.
In the end, it's quite
a simple calculation.
So you know the aerodynamic
drag and the power,
say, the energy consumption
of that bike and rider
system for a time trial bike.
And you know the
energy consumption
of the system for the
standard road bike on a really
steep uphill course.
And yeah, when it
gets really steep,
when you're talking
about 15% plus,
it's actually a no brainer.
You are quicker on the ultra
lightweight road bike setup.
So that's why I
say aero is king.
You're always faster
on the aero road bike.
There are exceptions, for
example, in a big grand tour
race where the whole peloton
rides to the bottom of a climb,
and it's a climb finish.
It's the finish at the
top of the mountain.
So basically, it's
an uphill time trial.
So there are cases when
the amount of time required
to switch the bike
could cost you time,
cost you 10 seconds,
say, for argument's sake.
You've got to make sure
that the time saved going up
the climb on a
lighter weight setup
saves you more than 10 seconds.
If it saves you 20 seconds,
you definitely do it.
And it doesn't have
to be just about time.
It's also about saving energy.
So the rider can really
have a strong sprint
at the end, for example, to win.
So again, it's an energy game
as much as it is a time game.
So yes, there are cases where
switching bikes does actually
make sense during a stage.
SPEAKER: : I think with
this, we're going to wrap up.
Thank you very much for coming.
Hugely appreciate [INAUDIBLE].
[APPLAUSE]
JEAN-PAUL BALLARD: Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
