Rouler with the scoop on the new aero helmet Visma have been using during the Tour. Quite an impressive 17-watt improvement claim over the current Eclipse. But perhaps the current one just isn’t that great to begin with?
Either way - I like the look of it. Seems to work well for small heads which is great for me!
TIL why Jonas has the red helmet
Curious how this stacks up against the Evade
17 watts seems very generous to say the least… you would only normally see those sort of gains from a TT helmet (in a TT position) even then that would be on the high side
17w seems….suspect.
I know you shouldn’t rely on the eyeball windtunnel, but I really fail to see how that design can lead to such dramatic savings.
The current Eclipse does very well in aero comparisons versus other aero road helmets. Not quite as slippery as the Evade, but close, and “normal” looking.
“17 watts” means nothing without a reference speed. Totally reasonable that a slight tweak would get you that gain at 80kph, but that might be more like 3 watts at typical riding speeds (aero engineers correct my math please).
I have noticed that this is a new trend in aero marketing, with many brands giving large wattage savings but not discussing at what speed those occur.
That’s a pet peeve of mine. Every time somebody claims “x watts” without a speed attached is just confirming their marketing team doesn’t talk to their engineers enough.
It looks better than the other aero helmets I can think of (POC, Trek, etc.).
I assume the 17-W figure is valid if you’re riding as fast as Vingegaard.
Or they do talk, and marketing is intentionally only telling half the story 