Ben Meir
REAP Vulcan Aero Testing
- January 11, 2022
- , 5:02 pm
We have recently (and finally!) taken our Vulcan triathlon bike to the wind tunnel to test it against our first triathlon bike the Generation 1.0.
We released our first triathlon bike – the Generation 1.0 – back in 2017 after extensive aerodynamic testing and development. We tested the Gen 1.0 against what was considered the fastest bike at the time, the Cervelo P5-Six and it proved to be between 2-12w faster – not bad for our first bike.
Over the past few years, we have developed our triathlon package further to now include and integrated aerodynamic cockpit, better nutrition and hydration carriage and refined tube shapes. All of these have aided in producing a faster, more efficient bike.
We recently tested the new and improved Vulcan against the Generation 1.0 to see just how far we’d come, and we were pleasantly surprised.
We tested the Vulcan against the Gen 1.0 across a range of yaw angles at 40kmph, before testing both bikes across a range of speeds from 30 – 50 kmph. This gave us a clear picture of how the bike behaved in varying conditions and how it would fare on different courses.
The yaw angle test results were extremely promising, with the Vulcan not only testing consistently faster across the sweep of angles, but the tests also showed us that the Vulcan is more stable between changes in yaw angle – demonstrated by the less erratic line on the graph above. The Vulcan tested 2 – 20w faster than its predecessor at the varying angles.
But the good news doesn’t stop there. We then tested the Vulcan and Gen 1.0 with and without their respective front hydration systems fitted. The Gen 1.0 utilised after-market handlebars, in this case the PRO Missile Evo handlebar system with an adapter setup for using standard round extensions. The Vulcan on the other hand, utilised our proprietary cockpit setup, with aero extensions and aero BTA bottle cage and computer mount.
Again, the Vulcan was the clear winner – putting an astonishing 14 – 34w between itself and the Gen 1.0 with their respective BTA bottles mounted, and 4 – 15w with the BTA bottles removed.
What we were most excited about is that usually when adding components to a bike, you expect the aerodynamic performance to be negatively affected. With our own cockpit, we have managed to produce a system that is drag neutral when you have it mounted to your bike. As you can see from the graph above, when the BTA bottle was removed from the Gen 1.0, the performance improved quite significantly, but this isn’t seen on the Vulcan.
These improvements lead to massive performance gains over the 180km bike leg of an Ironman. The Vulcan setup is now between 4.5 – 7.5 minutes faster over the Ironman Bike Leg than the Gen 1.0 from an aerodynamic perspective. When you also consider the improved stiffness and compliance within the frame, the Vulcan will carry you to an Ironman finish time a considerable amount quicker than the Gen 1.0 and we bet, quicker than any other bike on the market.
Please note that these figure were achieved under test conditions and results may differ slightly out on the road. We try our best to make sure the tests are as accurate as possible by putting the rider in the same position on both bikes. You can download the raw test data below.
Launching the Vulcan Disc in Spring 2023, sign up below for the Private Launch.
