This NEW Wind Tunnel Killing Cycling Tech Could Make You A LOT Faster On The Bike!

Aero testing for the masses – Could aero sensors be the next cycling tech revolution? In 2024 pro cyclists have started using live-streaming aero sensors to try and make themselves faster on the bike without using a wind tunnel. We’ve got our hands on an Aerosensor to see whether this cycling tech could be on all the best road bikes in 10 years.

If you want to be faster on the bike then (other than doing some cycling training) it’s best to look at cycling aero upgrades like aero wheels or an aero bike. But how do you actually know that these will make your cycling faster? This is where the Aerosensor comes in, it measures your drag as you cycle along.

The full review of the Aerosensor will be live on the road.cc website soon but in the meantime let us know your thoughts on this cycling tech and whether it’s the future in the comments below…

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⚫️ In this video

0:00 Introduction
1:05 Why is aero important?
2:05 What is an aero sensor?
2:47 What’s in the box?
3:30 How does it work?
4:40 Does it work?
8:10 Is it the future?

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It is 1994 and the US national team is the first in history to have all their riders kitted out with power meters at the tour de Pont. Fast forward three decades and you’ll be hard pressed to find a single pro in the Peloton who isn’t racing and training to carefully curated wattage targets.

Of course, it’s not just the pros that fit these devices to their bikes. You can now pick one up for less than 300 pounds, and that means that power meters have changed the face of cycling forever, even for mere mortals like me. But what’s the next bit

Of revolutionary cycle tech going to be? Well, today I’m testing something that could be a glimpse into the future. This is an arrow sensor and as I ride along, it measures my CDA or coefficient of drag in real time. It’s tech that has previously used on planes and in F1 cars,

But now teams like Little Trek are using this tech to try and make cyclists faster. Today I’m gonna be seeing if this little sensor is any good, how it works, and whether in 10 years time we’re all gonna be using one. People in cycling are always banging on about aerodynamics, aren’t they?

And it wasn’t so long ago that arrow is everything was specialized phrase for all occasions. The dark art of taming the wind now shapes the clothes. We wear the bikes, we ride the helmets on our heads, and even how we ride. I get very annoyed when people don’t do turns.

All of this is for a very good reason. Drag is in nearly all cases by far, the biggest force impeding our forward motion. In fact, when you think about the case that on a flat road like this one, there is only two things slowing me down,

My tires rolling resistance from an area about the size of a two pence piece and the air I’m trying to travel through. Maybe we should be paying even more attention to how slippery we are. And yet, whilst I can measure my power output, my heart rate, the glucose in my blood,

My core body temperature, and all manner of other nerdy stats, up until now I haven’t had the foggiest idea of how aero I am. Well, this is where the aero sensor comes in because it claims to be able to give me that number without the need

To spend a fortune on a wind tunnel session. It combines data from an amp plus speed sensor and power meter with its own measurements of altitude and wind conditions to calculate my CDA. The idea is that if I then change my body position or equipment, say my wheels,

Then it takes the guesswork outta whether I’ve improved my aerodynamics or given myself an even bigger problem. What the f**k? We’ve got hit by a freak tornado, Right? Well, no. So What’s in the box? Well, on test I have what aero sensor called the a CS body package,

Which is made up of this aero sensor and this body position sensor. You can buy them separately, but I think to get the most out of it, you will require both. It is around 80% of your drag is your body. So even a small change here can have a far bigger effect

Than just about anything I could ever do to my bike. The body position monitor uses optical sensors to measure my head and shoulder position relative to the stem and it’s supposedly accurate to one millimeter. It then live streams this to my Garmin via an IQ app,

And once I’ve set a target of an optimum position, it’ll then change color if I deviate from that. The good thing is that you can go and use this on your local roads. You don’t need a velodrome, although if you do happen to have one

Of them up your sleeve, then Ari sensor makes another bit of kit just for you. Oh, and if you’re wondering whether this rather uh, flimsy 3D printed mount is going to break as soon as I go over a bump. Yeah, so am I. Ari sensor has already taken this on board though

And sent me a much more robust injection molded one Oh, and it will come as standard with the drag measurer from now on. Us downloading the IQ apps onto my Garmin one for the body position sensor and one for the drag sensor. I now get live figures as I ride

And can then see all that data in my fit files at the end for further analysis in some software called Aero Tune. In the case of the A sensor, if you’re a Wahoo user, then I’m afraid you’re gonna have to wait a bit longer. I guess that’s the downsides of not being able

To get use generated apps. You have to wait for Wahoo to actually take notice and get developing. I’m sure as this technology matures, we won’t be limited to using it on select devices though out on a ride. My Garmin then has some new colors to look at.

The one on the left is my head position relative to my stem, and the right one is my chest position. If I’m too low, IE an unsustainable position, then it goes blue. It is white. If I’m at the optimum that I’ve set beforehand and it is red when I get lazy

And sit up, I’ve been using the free ride and out and back testing functions. But there is also modes for if you’re doing laps of a circuit, for example, a velodrome. To be honest, the CDA number changes so quickly when riding that it’s near impossible to figure out how arrow you are.

But as soon as you analyze that ride, for example, like I’ve done here in Garmin Connect, you can quickly draw averages for laps segments and of course the whole thing. The setup does take some effort. You have to do some test runs and then manually change a load of parameters on your garment.

This is fine for someone who’s tech savvy, but my grandparents aren’t gonna be doing this. Not that they probably want to know their CDA. You can read all about the nitty gritty of the testing of the different modes of the area sensor over on their website.

But our review of the area sensor will be coming to the road CC website very soon. This wouldn’t be a real test though without a competition Down the cafe, it’s easy to check who’s got the lightest bike, but trying to see who’s the most arrow is much less tangible.

So who’s gonna have the lowest CDA me or Ed a rider that is much better than me according to my wind sock time Tri list can aim to have a CDA below N 0.2. However, this is by no means the average, which is closer to N 0.22.

A road bike racer can be as low as N 0.24, but the average is closer to N 0.27. A regular road bike rider and with a standard helmet in the summer is likely to be N 0.3 to N 0.32. However, in the winter this can be much higher,

Which is probably why you ride slower in winter than you do in the summer. A performance cyclist should pay continuous attention to the aerodynamic efficiency. So whatever your current CDA you should attempt to lower it, it says win sock. It is in most cases more important than losing weight,

Although they do point out that losing weight is also a good way to reduce your drag. So what was my CDA? Well, on average across my runs I averaged a CDA of N 0.275. I’ll take that. This is likely helped by the fact that I was wearing a well-fitting arrow kit,

An arrow helmet, a specialized of a two arrow socks have an arrow cockpit and I even shaved my legs for the occasion. Ed meanwhile clocked a CDA of N 0.287. A result I rather UNM modestly reminded him of on every subsequent ride right up until I realized

That he’s several inches taller than me and set the result using shallow wheels, still a wind’s a win. It should be noted that neither of us has been to a wind tunnel to validate these results, but perhaps more importantly, the figures were repeatable on multiple attempts on

Different days and with varying wind conditions. I’m therefore confident that you could indeed use the area sensor to measure the effect that different setups and positions will have on your CDA and therefore drag. It should be said that whilst nearly every attempted test resulted in believable figures whilst on training camp,

It was far harder to use back at home. The first issue is that you can’t use it in wet conditions, which during the UK winter just gone has seemingly been just about every day. Secondly is traffic. We found that a car going past or coming in the other direction will

Completely screw up the results. So it’s best to find a quiet flat road, which takes some searching here on the outskirts of bath. So is this the future? Well, yes and no. It certainly is very clever and I’ve certainly learned a few things that will hopefully make me faster.

I’m also looking forward to using this to once and for all, see which of my wheels are the fastest. The bad news is is that this kit I’ve been using has an RRP of 1,215 pounds, which isn’t exactly what most of us have down the back of the sofa.

Of course, this is tech that is very much still in its infancy, and so it’s likely that come five years time, you’ll be able to get this for quite a lot less. I highly doubt that anyone thought $4,000 was a bargain when the first SRM power meter hit the market.

So price aside, is it the future? I certainly think that we’ll be seeing a lot more of them initially being used by more pro teams during training and equipment testing camps, then TT specialists, and then the inevitable trickle down to performance driven amateurs. Who knows, maybe one day someone will integrate this kind

Of tech into a hedge unit. Now that really would be cool. Let us know your thoughts on this real time drag measuring device down in the comment section below. Would you buy one and do you think they’re the future? If you like this content, then please give us a thumbs up.

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