I’ll (obviously) defer to Rule28 here, but there are massive differences in the airflow over a golf ball vs. bike kit. Besides the speed difference, there is a massive difference in the rotation of the object. That has a big impact on the design of the surface texture.
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A dimple pattern like a golf ball, for aero socks at least, is a bad idea. We tested a load of aero socks recently and the golf ball pattern tested very poorly. They were slower than regular socks.
Smooth is good for the torso and legs. There are some instances where a little texture in these areas can be advantageous but its position and body shape dependent.
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Great to know. Thanks!
can you name names for the sock test data privately? I’m pretty curious, only some of the socks were easy to identify.
Not to mention the fact that golf balls are designed to go > 150 mph, a speed I seldom reach during training or racing 
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Thanks @Rule28, glad to hear the jersey tests well…I’ve got two of them, and they are a fantastic piece of kit in terms of breathability, fit and materials, super glad to hear they are as speedy as they make me feel. Appreciate your willingness to answer Qs about your products here.
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Yeah, I have some socks I need to replace then..
The worst thing is that the golf pattern socks I have just stay in place and I really like that part. No need for clue, hairspray etc.
Why is that aero sock can’t be made to stay up? Might be a stupid question and I know there is no easy/quick fix to aero..
We’re working on some new gripper compounds that should be an improvement on the current version.
It’s been tricky to find materials that are resilient enough to not degrade within a season or so as well as being sticky.
We’re getting closer but we’re a v small team so don’t have the same resources as major brands.
We’re testing out newer options later this month. If they work out then the kits will be upgraded asap with newer grippers
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Perhaps answered before but something I’ve been pondering: so they typically quote aero savings at 45km/h which admittedly is a tough speed for someone to actually hold for an hour. However isn’t this showing air speed and not ground speed? In other words if I’m riding at 35 into a headwind, my actual air speed could be considerably higher and I’d still be seeing those gains
Am I understanding this correctly, and if so how would I calculate air speed based on a hypothetical ground speed + whatever head/cross wind? Is there some kind of calculator for this? I assume it’s not as simple as 35km/h speed into 10km/h wind = 45km/h
My use of the terms ground and air speed may be incorrect
Headwind or still makes no difference in the calculation for aerodynamics. What matters is air speed over the rider.
What differs between scenarios (e.g. 45 kph in still air vs. 35 kph with a 10 kph headwind) is the cyclist’s ground speed, which affects power required for overcoming rolling resistance and some drivetrain losses - these scale with ground speed, not air speed.
Thanks. So purely from an aerodynamic air over the bike and rider standpoint, riding into a headwind effectively increases your air speed relative to the ground speed, right?
Yes. There’s things like turbulence in the air that will come with headwind that are impossible to account for, but for the purpose of how the equations used look then yes.
Can’t add it here but just google CdA Equation and it will come up.
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I have tested my Rule28 base layer and it is surprisingly how effective it is, given that the total surface area covered is pretty small (I.e., about an 8 -inch section of the upper arm). This has me wondering about what other parts of a rider’s torso might benefit from similar texturing? Wouldn’t tripping the air at the hips help reduce flow separation?
The other area the upper leg. My old Endura suit had a rougher fabric on the inside of each thigh. Thighs seem like a huge potential area for improvement so could you comment on some of the others areas of the body you have looked at and why we don’t see much change in materials?
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Interestingly Rule 28 aero socks seem to always stay up on me where other brands do not. I’ve used the previous Rule 28 socks as well as the newer One aero socks. Wearing size XL due to foot size but my calves are not large.
If you google “crosswind calculator” lots will come up, or you can go to images and there are several there. Pilots use them regularly to determine crosswind and headwind components of the wind.
The calculator may ask for a runway direction, which is really just your magnetic heading. If you just want to do it based on a 45 degree or 90 degree wind, just set the runway heading to 000 (or 360, same thing) then put in the approximate angle of the wind.
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Thighs are much trickier to work with as they’re rotating whereas the upper arm is static.
Through pedalling the angle of the thigh rotates a lot. This means texture in this area usually ends up creating more drag. There are some instances that a small amount of texture could be beneficial, but it wouldn’t look anything like arm ribbing.
If you see anyone doing ribs on the leg run away - it doesn’t work and it’s a pretty good indicator they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to aero
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Seeing that British Cycling riders wore different designs of suits depending on their expected speeds would you see the benefit in sell kit that differs from the fast boys/girls?
If I was racing gravel or a grand Fondo I’m definitely not pushing at the 35kph average, maybe around 20 to 25kph for my hill tighter part of the world so potentially would have different requirements, xc marathon could also be out long enough for aero to count. That would be even slower on average.
Essentially just wondering how varied your market could be, I know a few places have gravel suits now. Which if are designed for slightly slower speeds could be better for non pros on other terrains.
Yes, we already do this.
Our retail gravel suit uses a different set of fabrics from our road and TT suits as well ad and pro gravel rider’s suits for this reason.
You can also see this in effect in our aero sock testing.
Our Aero Ish socks perform better at lower speeds than at higher speeds. Out One Aero Socks are still great at the lower speeds but they really excel at RR/TT speeds
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Can I ask a follow-up about the aero baselayers?
On your sales page it says "this base layer can also provide significant reductions in drag to any skinsuit with untextured fabrics on the sleeves."
I wondered how widely you had tested these baselayers with different kinds of fabrics - as you see people (even pros) wearing them with all sorts of kits that have some or small amount sof texturing. Are there particular patterns that play really badly with a ribbed baselayer? And if they do play badly, is this to the extent that it would actually make you slower than no aero baselayer - or does it just limit the benefit?
For example
Would you expect any of these to be really bad? Some worse than others?
Secondly, did you ever test the baselayer without a jersey on top? How does it perform on its own? If it did well has anyone ever considered wearing one with say, a sleeveless Triathlon jersey?
Yes we have tested with quite a few smooth fabrics - mainly other suits (or we’ve seen these test results from others). We haven’t seen a smooth fabric that it hasn’t worked with.
For textured fabrics, ribs running in the same direction as the base layer is a big no. This ends up being worse than with no base layer ie it increases you drag - so defiantly don’t do this.
Ribs running at an angle has sometimes worked - as we saw with the Le Col suit the NZ track squad use. They tested the base layer and found it worked well with their suit.
When it comes to other textured fabrics, i wouldn’t like to guess. In general I would say avoid it unless you can aero test it and don’t mind finding out it isn’t going to work.
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