rumrunn6

tell it to me straight. this is the news I don't want to hear cuz I like to carry stuff and bolt stuff to my bike. if you can tell me by how many mph each item is costing me. don't hold back, I'm here for an ass kicking. here the list of stuff:

rear rack
rear trunk on said rack
tail light bolted to rack
strobe hanging off left drop bar
front reflector
computer
magicshine headlight

yesterday was annoying windy and I;m wondering just how big a speed liability all this stuff is. my max was 35.5 and I really want to see 40 again. also at times when I got my speed up on a long decline I thought I should be doing better than 25. also a pacline with 15 guys passed me yesterday and I was only able to keep up for 1/10th mile and that was that.

milkbaby

42

Homebrew01

.142654 mph

pdedes

Looks like you need to rent some wind tunnel time.

Essex

All that stuff will take a toll. BTW - yesterday sucked for riding. My normal loop at Cape Ann was anything but pleasurable. In fact, most of the serious riders I saw on the road had a grimace on their face. I have wind burn on my face and my legs hurt after pounding into the wind for so many miles with so little to show for it.

I can imagine a cheap way to conduct an wind tunnel experiment would be to get a pressure steamer (the kind they have on TV ads for cleaning gunk) , find a brisk day, point your bike into the wind and run the steam by your bicycle to see what levels of turbulence is caused by all that stuff.

Carbon Unit

It not just wind you should be concerned about. If you do any climbing, all that stuff adds weight. Cycling is mostly about power to weight ratio.

AdelaaR

If I'm reading you correctly ...
You want us to tell you that thi stuff is making a huge impact, because you want to go faster than what you go now.
Bummer though
Losing all of this stuff is unlikely to make you even 1mph faster.

DropDeadFred

jesus

Nick Bain

ride a course, take it all off, ride course again. Don't forget to time yoself.

I'd say if you average 16 mph it might cost you .5 and if you average over 20 it might be as high as 1 mph. Im adding the weight disadvantage as well.

I think a loose jacket would be relatively worse.

phil15241

+1
The drag from your body is much much greater than the drag caused by your bike and anything on your bike. Therefore, removing all those things from your bike will probably make little to no measurable impact since your body is the main source of drag.

Triguy

No, no it is not. It's mostly about power to cda ratio. At race speeds depending on the person about 75% of your energy goes towards overcoming aerodynamic drag. People use power to weight for training and comparisons because it's far easier. If you ask someone their cda, they'll probably stare at you blankly. Even if they knew what cda is, unlikely they know what theirs is.

Anyway to the OP, all that stuff is probably hurting your aerodynamics far less than the height of your bars.

There is an old saying that "speed is in the details." However, in your case, I think first it's in the obvious things. Bar height looks high, yes that stuff probably hurts a measurable but not so significant amount. It looks safe and practical but not speed oriented.

njkayaker

The height of the bars is half the issue. The other half is using the drops (it's likely that the OP mostly rides on the hoods).

rumrunn6

1/2 hoods 1/2 drops, yeah the wind sucked

iit_architect

Or if he has access to a car:

JustinHorne

Well, while all that stuff probably slows you down a tiny bit, it's *you* that catches by far the most wind.

Point of note: I have a reasonably clean (aerodynamically speaking) bike. The 'out' half of my trip averaged over 27mph. I felt great, and the tailwind was amazing.

The 'back' part of my trip averaged ~~ 13.5 mph.

Both of these involved me as aero as possible, etc, etc. So yes, wind is massively important, but you are catching the vast majority of the wind, not a few lights on the front.

Triguy

No surprise that a company whose idea of bike design is repainting a hong-fu, thinks wind tunnel testing looks like that.

Trsnrtr

OK. Wind is a drag.

Homebrew01

That front reflector is pretty square against the wind. I suggest you build a clear plexiglass fairing to go over the front.

djb

Wept I believe.

Just wait til you slap on a handlebar bag, plus four full panniers, then Jesus will be positively balling his eyes out.

abstractform20

i didnt know jesus was a ******

djb

I'm sure that he would have been frustrated just like any of us, with a good stiff headwind from Gallilee and a full load of fish and bread, especially that wide and flat, sail-like bread.

jordo_99

FWIW, my commuter had a rear rack with (2) Wald 582 baskets attached to the rear for grocery shopping.

About a month or so I took them off after riding like that for a good 6 months and the difference was incredible...granted it probably weighted close to 8lbs. The rack was next to nothing compared to a 3lb basket. Regardless...the handling and acceleration were piss poor with that stuff on.



For your situation I don't think you're losing much on wind resistance. compared to the rest of your bike that adds a bit but the biggest item is going to be your rear rack and trunk and most of that is going to be in the wake of your body so I don't see why it could affect much. Like others have said, I'd be much more concerned about weight than aero...if you want your bike to be aero then buy an aero frame, it's going to give you much better results.

I think the only good answer to your question is going to be to ride without all the stuff on it and see what you think (leave the computer on though).