RedBullFiXX

Orbea Orca Aero
Beautiful bike, handling is on point, not a lightweight frame though
Have a sweet spot for those bikes

RChung

RShantz is right. I've worked with Olympic and World Cup pursuit teams. We instrumented each rider to measure their drag, wherever they were in the rotation. Aero still matters, whether you're in the lead or you're drafting.

rodey

It's a beautiful looking bike, which is a big reason I like it, along with the price point. The one at the shop has direct mount rim brakes, and I was kind of set on discs, but I honestly don't really think it matters much for me. I don't do a lot of wet weather riding.

Definitely not as light as it could be/I was thinking of going, but it's going to be lighter than what I currently own, so it has that going for it.

asgelle

Did you gain any insight on the benefit to the lead rider from the riders behind?

Seattle Forrest

Dave is immune to facts, but the rest of us are grateful to hear your results. 🙂

WhyFi

"Next"? They're already here.

RedBullFiXX

The direct mount brakes on my Aeroad are very good !

Abe_Froman

Ask and you shall receive:

colnago62

RChung, a question for you; I have been told that there is an aero advantage as low as around 12 mph. I have also read here that there is no real advantage until 18 mph and in this thread 20+ mph. Is there an actual number that you use for determining this? I have a Madone 9 that I ride mostly with my 32 hole HED Belgians because at the speed I am riding (18-20 mph), it probably won’t make a huge difference compared to my choices of 35 mm or 50 mm Shimano wheels sets.

RShantz

Glad I could help. I always try to be succinct.

RChung

Hmmm. I'm not sure: almost everything confirmed things we already expected to find -- what was kinda cool was that the instrumentation was sensitive enough to actually show it. I've been fortunate enough to work with a couple of pursuit teams where the riders varied a lot in size (and power, and recovery). That meant that the optimization problem was pretty interesting, because you got different results according to different orderings and rotations of the riders. That was a very cool problem.


As long as you're riding in the atmosphere, aerodynamics matters: there's no simple "threshold." That said, some sources of drag are (nearly) constant with speed and some vary nonlinearly with speed. Aero varies nonlinearly, so when you're going really (really) slowly, the aero drag component is small relative to the nearly constant with speed components. It's small, but it's always there. Likewise, when you're going fast, the constant drag components are relatively small, but they're always there too. They don't disappear at high speed; the aero component doesn't disappear at low speed.

RiceAWay

It sounds to me like you're looking for approval to buy a new bike because you don't like the color of the one you have. You don't want an American manufacturer. You also seem to be very susceptible to the GCN advertisements.

You don't climb enough to make a lightweight any better and unless you're a hell of a lot faster than an 18 mph average, aero isn't going to give you anything.

So what it boils down to is that you want a new bike and you're willing to spend a great deal of money for it. Isn't that your business and not that of anyone else?

rodey

Not really sure where you read into any of this.

I don't need approval to get a new bike, I am getting one. I'm getting said new bike because I want to upgrade from 105 to Ultegra and it makes more sense to me, to simply upgrade my entire bike instead of dropping a new groupset and wheels onto my current frame.

I simply came here to ask a question which I have seen raised on GCN and in numerous other publications, and which has seemed to spark good discussion in this thread. I'm not sure how that makes me susceptible to advertisements. I work in marketing. I know how ads work.

You are correct that I don't want an American manufacturer, though.

dalava

Without question, aero. Unless you are doing grand tour climbing stages, there is not reason to go for lightweight at the expense of aero. BTW, the bike is not the only piece in the puzzle, a lot of your choices including helmet and clothing (and zipper) play a part, and we are NOT talking about marginal gains.

Listen to some of Robert Chung's podcast, it's very illuminating. The game has changed a lot in the last a few years.

The old conception of aero road bike is they are too stiff and heavy. The recent models of road aero bikes are all moving to disc brakes to create wider tire clearance for lower rolling resistance and comfort. My 2019 Specialized Venge can clear 35c tires easily. I have 28c tubeless tires and riding at 65psi. It's both faster and more comfortable.