The wild new aero helmet, noticed atop the heads of Alison Jackson, Ben Healy and their respective EF teammates, is formally the quickest aero highway helmet available on the market, in response to an in-depth, industry-wide, impartial wind tunnel check.
The POC Procen Air, maybe higher described as a time trial helmet tailored for the highway slightly than the aero highway helmet model we have come to know, has already taken scalps within the WorldTour, however it might probably now declare an altogether totally different victory, one that’s arguably no much less priceless.
On the twentieth April, Cyclingnews assessment professional, Tom Wieckowski, and I took 24 totally different highway bike helmets from 18 totally different manufacturers to the wind tunnel on the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub.
In a bid to create essentially the most full check attainable, we selected the range-topping aero helmet from each model we may consider. We included all of the helmets that beginner riders and racers would possibly think about shopping for, and given Cyclingnews’ connection to the world of professional racing, we additionally needed to incorporate every model represented within the WorldTour.
The remaining record included all the things from Abus to Uvex, together with the S-Works Evade III, the Trek Ballista, the Sweet Protection Tucker 2VI, the older POC Ventral, the Met Manta worn by Tadej Pogačar, the Abus Gamechanger 2.0, the budget-friendly Van Rysel FCR, an even-more finances pleasant helmet that prices simply £20, and even a helmet that does not launch till later this 12 months.
After over 4 hours of back-to-back (to-back) testing, the Procen Air – full with visor – was topped quickest.
To see the complete outcomes, you’ll be able to head to our aero helmets wind tunnel examined function. You’ll should be a Cyclingnews subscriber – it was your subscription charges that helped to pay for this very check – however whenever you’re in, you will have full entry to the uncooked CdA information, our check protocol, the caveats, and the entire issues we discovered on the day.
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We’ve additionally calculated the distinction in watts between every helmet at 30km/h, 40km/h and 50km/h. We then reversed these calculations to unravel for pace at 250, 350 and 450 watts, and from that we labored out what number of seconds that may prevent over a 40km time trial. For occasion, the distinction between the Procen Air and the slowest on check is 12.8 watts at 40km/h. Bump that pace to 50km/h and the wattage distinction grows to an enormous 24.9 watts.
We did some enjoyable calculations too, reminiscent of what number of metres Tim Merlier would possibly achieve in a 200m dash by sporting the aero Evade III as a substitute of the Prevail III from sponsor Specialized; and what number of watts Groupama FDJ gained/misplaced when swapping from Giro to Julbo.
Interestingly, we additionally discovered that the Procen Air is 1.3 watts sooner when sporting the visor than whenever you pair it with sun shades.
Naturally, our check was standardised to make sure accuracy, and every of the 23 helmets was examined at a wind pace of 40km/h throughout 4 totally different yaw angles of 0 to fifteen levels. They had been all examined on the identical day in a wind tunnel utilized by tons of, if not 1000’s, of WorldTour stage athletes, producers and engineers.
Along with the general winner and loser, there have been loads of surprises all through the remaining helmets. For instance, there’s little or no correlation between how a lot you spend and how briskly your helmet will likely be.
As anticipated, we discovered that as a gaggle, the helmets described as ‘aero’ by their producer tended to be sooner than people who had been extra aimed toward being ventilated, however the variations had been a lot nearer than we anticipated, and there have been loads of examples of so-called aero helmets scoring worse than different so-called vented helmets.
We additionally discovered that you would simply undo your aero features unwittingly, reminiscent of together with your straps, and with sun shades placement, however the precise particulars of these checks are but to come back. Watch this house.
Until then, subscribe to Cyclingnews – simply £1 to your first month – and go get all nerdy with the numbers.