MORE AERO STATS - DIMPLES?
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Tue, 12 Jun 2007 by Denham
This graph (click here to enlarge) shows the relative performance of a FP60 (purple line) and FP40 (olive line) compared to other Zipp wheels and some common competitors. The FP60 performs well across a wide range of yaw and is only really out-performed by the Zipp 808 (green line).
In many ways, this graph explains the incredulous looks we experience time and time again, when people ride the flash points for the first time. At a ride during May on the Charlotte Speedway, almost everyone who put the FPs on their bike broke their personal best times.
We get many questions about the lack of dimples and what effect this has. The dimples allow the air to 'stick' to the rim at greater yaw angles, so they buy you aero advantage at 3-4 more degrees of yaw - allows you to ride in higher angle cross winds and still enjoy the lower drag. This can be seen as the off-set displacement of the dimpled rim curves to the right in the graph.
Makes you think!!
