This article originally appeared on BikeRadar
Can you ruin an aero road helmet by wearing it wrong? And can you make a regular road helmet aero by covering the vents? I went into the GST Wind Tunnel in Immenstaad, Germany with upstart wheel company Swiss Side to find out.
Swiss Side is a consumer-direct wheel company founded by former Formula 1 aero experts, and recently it helped Cube create what the bike maker calls the fastest time trial bike in the world, the C:68.
I brought three helmets to the GST tunnel and asked Swiss Side to answer my questions with testing.
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Yes, you can easily compromise an aero helmet
Bell Helmets engineering manager Ben Penner recently told me that you can save 7-9 watts just with flat helmet straps versus straps that stick out and flap in the wind. I asked Swiss Side to test an aero helmet (a medium Specialized S-Works Evade) worn normally with properly tightened straps worn under the sunglass arms, and then with loose straps worn over the sunglass arms.
In averaging the results of multiple tests at 45kph, and weighting the head-on drag numbers slightly over the 10-degree yaw numbers, Swiss Side found baggy straps to cost 4.4 watts.
For context, we tested a standard road helmet (a medium Specialized S-Works Prevail) and found it to be 11 watts slower than the Evade aero helmet using the same protocol. A medium Giro Cinder (think a more-affordable, less-ventilated version of the Synthe) measured the same as the Prevail.
No, you can't easily make a regular helmet aero with a cover
Context: You are the biggest drag
Conclusion
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