Blackwell Research Wind Tunnel Session - January 2006
The wind tunnel session was really cool! I brought my new bike from CSK. I got there and the first room I went in had all these computer screens and buttons and dials and a big window looking into the next room. The next room was mostly the tunnel behind a big window with this door that was controlled with a button and made a big noise when it was opened. The rest of the room was like a bike shop with lots of tools and parts and stuff.
First we got on the trainer and John Cobb used his AMAZING skills to do a bike fit. Apparently I have really long femurs so they brought my seat back like 2 inches. And I got a new saddle from Blackwell that is really comfy, much better than my other saddle. Then I went and stood against a wall with my fingers on my hip bones and John looked at my legs and said, OK her left femur is about that much longer than her right, but her left lower leg is longer to make up for it. Hahaha. So they put a few shims in my cleats to fix that.
Then they moved on to my handlebars/aerobars situation. They swapped my stem for a 60mm because with my seat back so far, it was a longer reach. The next problem was the aerobars. I have a short torso so I've NEVER felt comfy in AB. They asked me a lot of questions like if I race mostly ITU (yes), what kind of runner I am, and how strong I am on the bike and where I come out of the water. They decided that since I probably won't be flying off the front of the pack, then I probably won't even need the AB (we are talking about short bars for draft-legal). But we put them on anyway, and found that I sit up really high and my back isn't even near flat.
So he said lets test you in the drops and test you in the AB and see the difference.
The tunnel is kind of scary. If I weren't 22 years old I would have been terrified to be in there alone. You get on your bike, which is attached to the floor on a circular cut out section of flooring. You have your race suit, helmet, glasses, and earplugs in and you're told not to move your head or arms, just keep pedaling consistently. Ok I can handle that. Then they leave and shut the big door and from a long way away you hear a humming noise that gets louder and louder. And you're pedaling staring down into this big black hole in front of you, from which some really loud, really cold, really strong air comes blowing. It was pretty cold in a little swim suit! And your eyes and nose start running but you can't move to wipe the tears. Kinda funny I guess. The floor rotates you 5 degrees then slowly comes back and the whole measurement takes 5 minutes.
The results? In the drops, even though my back was flat, I produce a lot more drag than in the AB even with the AB up really high. So they dropped my stem all the way down with no spacers underneath, brought the AB pads back so I don't reach so far, and narrowed the space between them. I think I had 5 or 6 measurements total. It was fun!
Blackwell tested a sweet new wheel and shut the lights off and did the smoke thing on it. It was awesome to watch.
