Shownotes

What is yaw angle?

03:45 -

• The yaw angle is the perceived angle of the wind towards the rider, if you face a straight head wind, then the yaw angle is zero percent.
  
  Basically, it’s the combined direction and magnitude of the wind and the rider.

Background

07:30 -

• My name is Michael Liberzon and my background is as a mechanical engineering, but I rather soon switched to coaching (mainly coaching triathletes).
  
  In recent years I have been involved as a founder of Stac as well as worked at 4iii.
• I also host the podcast ”The endurance innovation”, which is similar to that triathlon show, but has a slightly different bend.

Aerodynamic testing

09:40 -

• When riding a bike, there are five different factors that affect the mechanical energy putting down into the pedals to speed along the road, these are:
  
  1. Aerodynamic drag
  
  2. Gravity
  
  3. Acceleration
  
  4. Drive train losses
  
  5. Rolling resistance
• In order to be able to do accurate aero tests, then these other factors other than aerodynamic drag need to be factored out very precisely (these ”noise” in the calculation must be eliminated in an as exact way as possible).
  
  Elevation is a huge influent on the speed and hence this one is extremely important to get right.
  
  This can, however, be achieved by using an out and back loop so that the net elevation is zero.
  
  Rolling resistance is another very interesting factor, which is important to get right.
  
  There are several ways to estimate rolling resistance, some of the advanced aero softwares can do it a rather accurate way.
  
  Drive train losses are small and easy to estimate.

Aerotune system (sensor less)

19:40 -

• When doing tests with the aerotune, it is very important to understand that you need a very good test stretch in order to get reliable data.
  
  You also need to do at least two test runs.
  
  It is supposed to be a 1000m without as many influencing factors as possible (traffic light and even traffic itself influence the data in a quite substantial way).
• Then you ride this stretch of road as you collect power and speed and from this, the software makes the aerodynamic calculations.
  
  You get the result instantly in your phone after you’re done, which is a main reason why I like it so much.
• Another thing I would like to say is that one should always perform the aero tests with training wheels as this makes the system more sensitive (you go slower so the differences are greater).

Sensor based testing

31:30 -

• Sensor based testing has a sensor in front of the bike that measures the speed and the direction of the wind.
  
  There are plenty of great sensors that provide good measurements, however, it often requires a longer test stretch, which is hard to find and you don’t get the result instantly as the aerotune testing.
  
  This is why I prefer aerotune testing at the moment.

”Absolute” CDA

41:00 -

• To start with, there is no such thing as ”absolute” CDA, in the same way as there are no absolute FTP, it varies from day to day.
  
  However, measuring an exact CDA on the day is on its way, but there are a few things that needs to be solved, such as barometric pressure.
  
  However, the question I would like to raise in regards to this is, what point does it have to know this?
  
  It’s for instant not relevant in terms of equipment choices.

Live CDA

47:15 -

• Many of the sensor based system did have an ambition to be able to display live CDA so that one can make adjustments based on a value displayed on your bike computer.
  
  However, since there are so many factors that goes into CDA, this is very difficult to achieve, and hence, many manufacturer has abandoned this ambition.

Different equipment and magnitude of differences

50:00 -

• In my experience, helmet choice plays the largest difference in terms of gains to be made in aerodynamics, differences between aero helmets can make up minutes over an Ironman bike leg.
  
  A few of the best tested aero helmets are the Giro aero head, the new Rudy Project (the wing) and the Garneu aero helmet (which is also very cheap!).
  
  - Tri suits are probably the other major equipment choice that can make a really big difference for speed.
  
  It is also highly individual and the speed at which you are traveling influence the choice of speed suit as well.

Other interesting performance enhancing gears

01:10:10 -

• Ways of measuring body temperature in order to analyze the heat’s affect on performance is a field that is on the rise at the moment, and that I find very interesting!

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

• Michael's website
• Michael's Instagram
• Dan Bigham – aerodynamic testing, equipment, and making your bike fast | EP#229
• Aerodynamics, Rolling Resistance, Weight, and Return On Investment with Sebastian Schluricke | EP#90
• Virtual Wind Tunnel with Andrew Buckrell and Michael Liberzon | EP#47
• Endurance Innovation 105 – Marc Graveline On Aerometers
• Endurance Innovation 61 – All About Aero Sensors With Chris Morton
• Endurance Innovation 46 – Notio Aerometer
  
• Endurance Innovation 57 – Notio Aerometer And Swearing
• Endurance Innovation 99 – Aerotune’s Sebastian Schluricke
• Endurance Innovation 84 – Dan Bigham