Canvassing opinions here - what do you reckon to skin suits for gravel races?
The most recent GCN video was quite interesting, illustrating a really large watt saving with a skin suit.
I’m a big lump of a guy (203cm, 102kg) and I’m hoping to qualify in my age group for the UCI worlds in August here in Sweden. I’ll have to do around 33-34kph on a 120-140km (it’s really not clear how far it is) at about 150m/10km climb rate. Generally fast rolling, as everything is here in Sweden.
Unusually for my size, I’m fine on the climbs. I am able to put out way more power going uphill than on the flat, so I’ll be competitive uphill.
I imagine that I’ll be doing around 330w actual, 380w NP for 4hrs but if my understanding is correct, I could save about 11w with a decent skin suit.
Is it worth it? I’ve found a top of the line one in my size for about £85, and 11w over 4hrs at 330w would save me 4.5 minutes, theoretically.
Because I’m fairly broad, aero is an issue for me, so any advantage I can get seems like it’s a good idea.
Tbh at that price you’d be getting a suit and socks for a hundred quid which by all reading makes a massive difference. So for relatively little outlay you’d be silly to miss the low hanging fruit.
Plus you’ll feel fast and the mental edge always helps.
Also, maybe worth clarifying - I think of a skinsuit as old school TT suit that required serious effort to put on and had no pockets. The modern 1 piece that combines bib and jersey and has pockets is sometimes called a skinsuit as well, but I call them speed suits (right or wrong). I’ve also seen them called “race day suit”. As others have said, super comfy, faster than bib/jersey combo, and often cheaper to buy vs. a separate quality bib and jersey. Pretty much all I buy/wear for the last 5+ years. Only downside is if you crash and rip it, you are basically out a more expensive bit of kit. And maybe they look a little sillier to normal people compared to a regular jersey and bib, but I kind of consider that a positive as well. If you are walking around in public wearing lycra, go big.
Everytime I go shopping for nice bibs, I look at the price comparison of those nice bibs to a skin suit and there is always skin suits available for a similar price as the bibs (throw in a nice ‘race’ jersey and you are exceeding the price of that skin suit). I don’t have a gravel suit yet but have 2 road suits due to this. Will probably buy a gravel suit at some point to use for gravel/CX/XC.
I would suggest something with pockets preferably a gravel one with cargo pockets in the legs as well if its for gravel. Unless you carry every thing on the bike or in a vest.
I would say go for it. If you have the budget why not chase every marginal gain you can? I picked up NoPinz gravel skin suit last year and it’s great. Super comfortable, three pockets that are easy to reach in the back, even some on the quads if you want to use them. I have done some real world testing and it’s definitely quicker. 10w over the course of four or five hours may be the difference between qualifying or not!
Thats what I have been looking at, have one of their older road suits that I bought in 2022 that unfortunately has the plastic number holder, which gets hot but otherwise is a nice suit, also like that bright orange. Find its hard to get race kit that isn’t black or in dark colours.
Agreed on the colour way, I went with red back when it was available. I think white would be best for race day but not sure how easy it is to clean. I have white base layers that I have run in gravel races and are still not quite white. First world problems.