AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

hi all,

has anyone done any aero testing on a veledrome with a newton and a direct force power meter?

I ask as i wonder if the banking / centrafugal force throws out the tilt and thus the power calcs?

cheers

wolfy

There's been a few discussions and a couple of attempts. A friend of mine tried it on an outdoor velodrome and got "reasonable" results over the course of a lap and several laps. There are lots of issues, from banking to wind.

FWIW, the centrifugal forces do skew things but it does average out well. So in typical Newton fashion, the big picture is pretty accurate. If you're looking to manage your effort over a series of laps then Newton should work rather well without adding weight or forcing you to use a different wheel.

Try it!

Thanks for the response Fernando.

The reason I ask is that the nearest outside veledrome is over an hour and a half away and its not free.

I'm trying to work out how to best spend my time using the ibike for aero testing, well at least where to start. I think I may do some road loops first....

Most velodromes require track bikes, are you doing a TT setup or a road bike setup?

IF you have a stretch of uninterrupted road AND the wind is constant you could do a series of runs in different positions and/or different gear.

Do runs at 20mph for example (flying starts and finishes) so the elapsed time is the same. Now see how much wattage is required with different setups. It might take a three to five runs with each setup but you will see a difference.

Wind is the challenge. Finding constant wind conditions is almost impossible, that's why people use wind tunnels. You could possibly look at the Effort Speed Function in Isaac to help make sense of changes in numbers due to wind.