One of the cooler things that we saw at the last stage of the PCC was a tire with aerodynamic consideration. How do you aero a tire, you ask? Well, the one we saw has a little piece of rubber between the leading edge of the tire and the rim. Oh man, time for another graphic:
Every little bit of smoothing of the airflow over the bike helps, and as the the tires, especially the front, are the leading edge of the bike, this could smooth things out nicely.
One company on the edge of this is Bontrager, and their Air Wing tire. It is pretty cool design, and they claim all sorts of advantages, naturally. This kind of application is only useful in a high end road race or time trial race. But hey, the trickle down may soon see these on even the commonest of our bar bikes!
Wing shown in red
Every little bit of smoothing of the airflow over the bike helps, and as the the tires, especially the front, are the leading edge of the bike, this could smooth things out nicely.
Aero area highlighted
One company on the edge of this is Bontrager, and their Air Wing tire. It is pretty cool design, and they claim all sorts of advantages, naturally. This kind of application is only useful in a high end road race or time trial race. But hey, the trickle down may soon see these on even the commonest of our bar bikes!
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