Last week, AeroGeeks sat down with Hans of Torhans and talked about a number of things: CFD data, wind tunnel testing methodologies, designing aero bits for Felt, Cervelo and others… and then, something extra came out – Torhans has designed a Between-The-Arms bottle. Stop the presses.
Calling it a “Horizontal Hydration” system, the Aero Z has been in development since last May, has gone through at least two major revisions, and is due out in July. The release version holds 23 ounces of liquid, 1 ounce more than the Aero 20 (“deliberately,” says Hans), and was designed using CFD to be just as fast as that same bottle is. According to Hans, the wind tunnel corroborates the CFD – in some cases, the new Z is faster. Now that’s something to take notice of.
The new system will continue to use Torhans’ mounting bracket to attach it to your bike, so you will be able to select the Aero 20, Aero 30 or the new system on any given race day without having to perform minor surgery to swap between them – something even Profile Design’s new Aero HC can’t do. The Aero Z uses Torhans’ faired straw system, as well, so it is as close to aerodynamically invisible as it gets, and solves the leaking problems that plague other BTA solutions.
Pricing is, as yet, unannounced, and we do not have a hard launch date other than “July,” but this is something to really get excited for. Unfortunately, we couldn’t wheedle any pictures out of Hans (everything below are CFD’s Torhans used in designing the Aero Z), but more details are forthcoming as we get closer to the ship date. If you’re in the market for your next bottle setup, this could be the do-it-all you’ve been waiting for.
Aero 20
Standard BTA Setup
(notice how the wind hits the flat face of the bottle)
Looking forward to seeing what Torhans will come up with ! Love the CFD information they provide, just wished sometimes hands position were taken into account a bit more. On all the CFD work they share, arms are parralel to bottle but never hiding the bottle. I think in real world, most of us that do actually use a between the arm bottle tend to hide the bottle frontal area with our hands. A picture speaks a thousand words, look at this picture of Crowie : http://www.slowtwitch.com/articles/images/8/49408-large_crowietunnel9.jpg . What do you guys think ? If the Torhans guys could care to comment and correct me if I’m wrong of course, that would be even better !!!