Rolling resistance in the rain

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EHB
Posts: 129
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 5:52 pm

Rolling resistance in the rain

Post by EHB »

Just caught the end of today’s stage of the Giro d’Italia, which was very wet. The calculations for CdA and power in the other profiles require an estimate of rolling resistance. The device could possibly detect actual puddles using the accelerometer & adjust the rolling resistance? But, riding along smooth road it probably can’t tell if the road is wet; should we be adjusting the CRR manually?

I suspect people would want to know the effect of a rain jacket on CdA & I think assuming the rolling resistance is no different would lead to an overestimate of the negative affect. Maybe some roll downs like you could do with the Newton? I don’t know if that is even possible with the aeropod.
Velocomp
Velocomp CEO
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Re: Rolling resistance in the rain

Post by Velocomp »

I have never seen any studies showing the effect of rain on rolling resistance. Whatever that effect may be, it would be dwarfed by the effect of rain jackets, which substantially increase CdA.
John Hamann
EHB
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Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 5:52 pm

Re: Rolling resistance in the rain

Post by EHB »

Yeah, when I looked it was mostly other wheel types with patterned treads. For example:

http://www.davidpublisher.org/Public/up ... 472e9f.pdf

I was actually thinking more about being outside and caught in a sudden downpour. You don’t change clothing or anything, but going it feels harder. Guess air pressure and weight of the air molecules probably changes too though.
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