Bicycle Aerodynamics Articles by Rainer Pivit

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Although these articles by Rainer Pivit of Germany were published around 1990, they still reveal the important foundations of the study of aerodynamic drag on a bicycle and rider. In spite of the dated references to particular bikes or components, the principles are still valid today, and are useful for increasing the speed of any bicycle.

• Bicycles and Aerodynamics
• Drag Forces in Formulas
• Measuring Aerodynamic Drag
• Literature on Bicycles and Aerodynamics

These sites have aero drag data:

• https://web.archive.org/web/20010201062100/http://www.bicyclesports.com/ John Cobb often posts new aero test results here.
• HED's wheel chooser, including drag numbers.
• Humphries aero wheel summary
• Nimble Composite Wheels
• Tour magazine ten wheel test
• Wheel stiffness, friction, aero measurements
• Wheel aerodynamics - a collection of data
• XNG! Wind Tunnel Comparison of 33 road wheels

Here are some other useful links about bicycles and aerodynamics:

• Analytic Cycling, interactive performance predictions based on science
• Bob Schwartz's Cheap Mylar Wheel Covers
• Zipp's take on bicycle aerodynamics
• Aerodynamics of Bicycles, an introduction

Copyright © 1995-2001 

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Last Updated: by Harriet Fell