We know a few of you have been a bit lackadaisical with your holiday shopping and might have a triathlete or two still to check off your list. Make sure to check out the AeroGeeks Holiday Gift Guide if you are looking for gifts ranging from stocking stuffers to the gifts that your friends and family are guaranteed to remember.
For those visiting us for the first time—welcome! One of our favorite ways to showcase our readers is our Readers’ Rides album on Facebook. You can check it out at http://on.fb.me/12jEqE3. If you would like to have your bike featured in our album just tweet us at @AeroGeeks, Facebook message us, or email us at info@AeroGeeks.com.
Friction Facts – Bottom Bracket Efficiency Test
“100% quantitative, 0% qualitative. Just the facts” – this is the motto of Friction Facts, one of our favorite places to get the most complete information regarding mechanical efficiency in our cycling components. Previously they had looked at chains and pulleys, and just this past week they released their latest test – Bottom Bracket Efficiency Test.
Friction Facts makes their money from selling the full details of the report ($4.95) so to get the full details you will have to pay up, however they did say we can share some of the trends. First and foremost – the generic statement “Ceramic is faster than steel” is not always true. Additionally when comparing BB30 versus standard threaded and loaded identically, there is no identifiable trend demonstrating superiority of one versus the other.
As part of this report – Hawk Racing has been able to share how their bottom bracket stacked up versus the competition. We spent some time with their BB30 back in April and came away impressed, so we were not that surprised to see how well they did. Hawk Racing has taken a subset of the Friction Facts reports and shared it on their site however the graph they share is less than 1/3 of the total comparisons that Friction Facts did.
For those considering a bottom bracket upgrade in the near future – we highly recommend spending the $4.95 on this report. You may be surprised to find where your planned purchase stacks up.
This Week’s Reviews:
Monday: FlapJacked Protein Pancakes
Wednesday: Inviscid Design Speedfil Z4 – Review, 2014 Cervelo S3 – The Details
Thursday: Reynolds Aero 72/90 – Final Thoughts
Current Reviews:
- Profile Design TwentyFour Series – PD really hit the price point on these wheels. Good, fast, full carbon wheels for the right price. Profile Design TwentyFour Series – First Ride
- XLAB Torpedo System 100/400 – The solid cap is really the way to go for most rides. Pop it open when you are ready to fill, you get a touch of splashback but once the bottle is topped off you are set to go. XLAB Torpedo System – First Ride
- Cervelo S5 –The S5 is a blast to ride, on the straights it rides more like a TT bike than peloton racer, but when the corners come it shows that it is more than a slimmed down P4. Cervelo S5 – First Ride
- Speedfil Z4+/R3 – We shared our thoughts on the Z4 last week. For this week we can’t wait to show you the R3. Inviscid Design Speedfil Z4 – Review
- Rudy Project Agon – The vents seem to be holding up – no major fogging to date.
- Pearl Izumi E:Motion TRI N1 Review – Tracy has both a 13.1 and 26.2 coming up in the next 2 months so the N1s are getting a serious workout. – Pearl Izumi Project E:Motion Tri N1 – First Run
- Mavic CXR60 Clinchers – One of our biggest question marks was how easy it would be to get the blades on and off. At Interbike we felt like the blades were going to get left on the side of the road come any race time flat repair. But after only a few weeks with them, getting them on is becoming almost second nature.
As always, thanks for reading AeroGeeks and helping build the AG community. Remember that our favorite reviews are the ones that you suggest. Let us know what you would like to see on our pages!
No BB90. There are a lot of Treks out there, many of whom may like to see how they stack-up.
Hi Patrick – I apologize in the late reply. We spoke to Friction Facts regarding the lack of BB90 (and also campy). The reason for their exclusion came down to budget. The guys from FF buy everything out of their own pockets and they were limited in what they could afford. However based on the incredibly positive feedback they may be doing another round of testing in the future.