Saturday, September 20, 2014

The Cycling Jury is OUT! Is shaving your legs more aerodynamic? YES!

Ok so when I shave my legs it's only for TT's and I haven't ever shaved all the way to the skin.  I just use an electric shaver which leaves an eighth of an inch and call it good.  Before I did my first official race this year I researched the topic of shaving my legs for cycling.  I didn't really delve too deep and I was left with a "well it doesn't really matter" thought, but I decided to shave anyway figuring it must be more aero to shave than to let my field of long grass make waves like the ocean in wind.  You see I had taken notice to the hair on my arms as I had ridden around and thought that it can't be that aero.  Shaved, raced, let my hair grow back, shaved again, raced again let the hair grow back and now before another race I stumbled upon this article on my twitter account put out by Bicycling magazine (click on article to read it). I'm convinced, shaving will save me time.  To reassure myself and you about this article we have to take notice that this is coming from a Specialized aerodynamicist.  To me Specialized = the most aero.  This may not be true, but they do have Tony Martin sporting their stuff and he's fast (and aero)! Check out the article and uhm... shave.  At least shave for your next TT or flat RR and save yourself time and energy! Specialized's leg-shaving wind tunnel test results