Yup, hairspray works great for me. Holds them up, but they still come off easily at the end of the day.
Thanks for replies.
Let it dry before pulling socks up or while still wet? Any particular flavor you like? Good for a sweaty 10+ hour day? I’d like to wear them at Unbound this year. Will do some testing at some races coming up.
I’ve been using Muellers tape spray for the rule 28 socks and it works almost too well. Hard to get off after, but doable.
Bought this body glue recently to try. I have a race in the morning, but debating if I want to give it a whirl on a race day or just go with the spray. Will have to see. Amazon.com
The spray has some iffy ingredients, such as benzyne, which I find questionable to put on my body..
Here’s what I do:
-pull on the foot part of the sock, but keep the rest of it down around my ankle
-spray the hairspray all over my calf
-immediately pull the all the way up. I don’t let it dry, I don’t think it would work well to dry first.
It doesn’t leave the rest of my leg sticky, and as I mentioned comes off without any problem either. Just works to hold it up.
As for 10 hours? I would expect it would be fine. I’ve done it for several 5 hour races and no issues there.
I’ll have to check on the brand later, Im not at home right now. I tried some expensive stuff my wife had around first, since it worked I bought my own.
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@Rule28 have you folks done any testing on your lightweight aero jersey by chance? It seems like ribbed sleeves are becoming more commonplace on some brands (Castelli, Assos and Pissei have some offerings), and I’m curious to know whether there are meaningful differences based on rib placement and height, etc., as well as differences between this style and some of the older fabrics used on the arms and shoulders…
Yes. There’s a lot that goes into how these ribbed fabrics work. Variables include:
Base fabric composition/weave/knit
Rib spacing
Rib width
Rib height
Step up or step down style of rib.
Rib angle
There are some general trends that work better than others, but then it’s also a matter of selecting a fabric that will perform best at your target Reynolds Number ( speed basically)
There’s also some variance in what will work best on an individual due to their unique body shape.
Our fabric on the lightweight jersey is a thinner version of what we used on our 2024 kits. It performs in a v similar way.
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I like the guide & the idea of testing at home.
However you are a UK based company, and as a fellow UK cyclist, you will know that asking for test conditions with low winds or crosswinds means we only have a few days a year to play with.
A TT last saturday was 36km/h average & 65km/h gust at almost 90 degrees for 80% of the course… and that wasnt considered to bad 
The UCI ruled on the old Drag2Zero Endura stating that the external trips were illegal. Aero base layers popped up for about a year and since have disappeared, with the ribs / trips now being integrated onto jerseys / arms.
Why are these different? Are the ribbed base layers still faster than the integrated jerseys? Why haven’t the UCI ruled on either - surely this is still a weird grey area?
The Endura suit was always illegal. They just made it and hoped they wouldn’t get banned. The specific rule that they fell foul of was that no part of a piece of equipment or clothing can be made exclusively for aerodynamics. The 3D printed tribulations of the Endura suit served no other purpose besides aerodynamic benefit.
Where aero base layers and dual layer suits like our Neo Suit differ is that the ribbing is part of the composition of the fabric. If we printed a ribbed structure onto the fabric, this would be illegal.
Aero base layers are still pretty commonplace in the pro peloton and below. Where lots of teams were using our base layer with distinctive black ribs, now teams and sponsors have reverse engineered them to make their own. We’ve had clothing sponsors and teams buy a full size sweep of kit and then later in the season we’ve seen kit using our same rib design pop up.
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Ideally still conditions are best. But it can be accounted for with accurate wind speed and direction info from somewhere like My Wind Sock. Run tests in both directions to average out the effects.
The main issue is gusty days as there’s no way to account for that.
Used all last year and it works great. Follow instructions and have wet wipes for cleanup.
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Not to be rude, but isn’t that sort of semantics?
no part of a piece of equipment or clothing can be made exclusively for aerodynamics
The ribbed arms serve no other purpose other than to improve aerodynamics. One could make an argument that they might improve cooling, but I think that’s about as spurious as the argument that perhaps the Endura trips improve abrasion resistance if the rider were to crash. Similarly, are we arguing that an aerodynamic baselayer is there… to what, improve convective cooling?
And just to follow up - are the base layers still faster than the integrated ribs?
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That’s not how it works. A fabric can have ribs so long as they’re under 1mm in height. The ribs on our fabrics and anyone else’s are part of the construction of the fabric itself, that’s why they’re legal and Endura’s suit isn’t
The same applies to disc wheels vs. A wheel with a disc cover.
The full UCI rules are available here: https://assets.ctfassets.net/761l7gh5x5an/36HocrJva5dgK9VloO9GVN/2b3af5b68604dc51521dbec0f60f8fbf/Clarification_Guide_of_the_UCI_Technical_Regulation_-_20250201_-_ENG.pdf
Article 1.3.032 is what you want.
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Integrated dual layer is going to be faster. It means the ribs are kept at the correct angles and removed the need for the torso support panels between the arms.
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That’s the whole point. They’re all pushing the envelope in every way and just hoping the new thing doesn’t get banned. This applies to bicycle design, clothing, body position, food, drugs, etc. Carbon monoxide doping anyone?
Note: I don’t mean that as a dig at Rule28, or anyone else, or to imply clothing manufacturing and design is equivalent to smuggling jiffy bags. It’s just part of the game. Sport lives on the cutting edge and rules get pushed until they break.
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@Rule28 Thanks for keeping up the discussion.
“Moreover, and any non-essential element or device, of which the which is added on (or under) or integrated in any clothing, or other item or accessory worn by a rider shall be forbidden. A non-essential element shall be any element which does not have a purpose which is not exclusively that of clothing or protection, or which is not strictly necessary for the functionality of the clothing, or other item or accessory is forbidden. This shall also apply regarding any material or substance applied onto the skin"
I guess what I’m getting at, is why are aerodynamic ribs strictly necessary and/or essential for the functioning of the clothing in a way that aerodynamic trips are not?
Is it not possible to make clothing without ribs? If it is possible, then by definition are they also not strictly necessary?
Totally in agreement. Rule 28 and others should keep doing what they are doing until told otherwise.
I just think it’s not quite true to say that there is something technically “legal” or “moral” about this current generation of aerodynamic trickery that doesn’t also apply to things that have been banned before.
I wonder if the aero bras had been designed to be worn on top of clothing (and therefore looked a little silly) that the UCI would have banned them using the above rule (even though they actually banned them because they look silly).
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Rule28 explained it quite clearly. Ribs are allowed, under 1mm, as long as they are part of the fabric construction. The previous designs that have been banned had ribs that were not central to the construction of the fabric…they were added once the fabric was complete.
And “morality” has nothing to do with it. It is quite simple - do the fabrics adhere to the rules?
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I think the first mistake is assuming the UCI is consistent in its reasoning or makes sense. That’s giving them waaay too much credit. These decisions are made on a whim as far as I can tell.
But a question for @Rule28 about non-compliant jersey patterns while we’re on topic of aero jerseys. If you were to make an aero shoulder pattern outside of any rule structure and purely for speed advantage, what would it look like? Would it be stitched into the fabric or would it be some sort of rubberized bits added after the fact. I ask because I have a few Cuore jerseys that have something of a hex shaped raised stitched pattern on them and I’m curious if that’s good or bad. Also Q36.5 has this pretty fractal-like shoulder pattern that they seem to be phasing out and I was wondering if there’s any advantage to that.
Would need to test them to find out. Most brands don’t bother with aero testing as it’s not part of their main market. This is totally fine. Where we take issue is with brands calling something ‘aero’ and having no data to support the claim.
When it comes to what tech works, a good rule of thumb is to look at Olympic track kit or WT TT Suits. This is where most R&D takes place. If something is used here, by one of the top teams, it’s a pretty good guarantee that that idea works (at least on that rider).
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good points. But i suppose my overarching question is whether a regular pattern similar to a golf ball versus the debossed stripes would be, in theory, better? Or is it so long as there’s any pattern to help create a boundary layer it doesn’t really matter what it looks like? Or is super smooth just as good as stripey? Not looking for exacts just either something along the lines of a “yes maybe/potentially” or a “no they’re all about the same just buy what looks cool.”