Buy 4Cyclists Aero Socks and save 3.14 watts. We went with this some time ago. And yes, we still think that a lot of watt-saving promises are am… groundless. So we went to the Silverstone Sports Engineering hub to find the truth.

We knew by heart that our speed suit and some other aero-oriented products are fast. Why? Because we know the basics of aerodynamics and we are too geeky about this to just make something and tell you that it’s fast. We do it because we love it.

Why we went there?

We had a chance to go with two of our supported Train2Win TT specialists – Dana Rožlapa (8 times Latvian champion, 2 times Chrono des Nations TOP10, TOP20 finishes at European Championships, TOP30 finishes at World Championships) and Ģirts Vēvers, 2023 World TT Gran Fondo Champion in 50-55 age group. To be short – with really fast riders.

We did our homework and consulted with aero physicists to understand what we needed to achieve and then we just needed to find the way how to do that. We made a few prototypes to test – four speedsuits and a new pair of aero socks.

Also, we took a bunch of our previous kits, including some copies of one of the fastest suits on the market (yes, you can easily buy almost any fabric and copy the cuttings). We had a chance to also take a Latvian national kit which is very very fast. At least on what one of the pro guys said.

Principles that simply work

You can’t fool the physics. Why golf ball flies so far? Because of the dimples. Why dimples? Because you need to “glue” the air on the surface. Why? Because the wind against wind makes much less drag than wind against almost any material.

The second very important thing is to make the vortex behind the rider as little as possible or move it as far behind as we can.

The good thing is that you can combine both things. And we did. We found the fabric with a raised texture not deepened as it’s usually on the aero fabrics and garments. From the first point of view, it can sound stupid. Why someone would like to increase the drag, making kind of a fence? But now look from the other point of view. We make a lot of small barriers and all of them make small vortexes. All vortexes stick to the surface of the fabric and in that way, it decreases the drag. Train slower to race faster! In this case – make a bigger drag, to make it smaller overall.

The results

We made baseline tests with our previous iterations, with some copies of really fast suits and what we saw is that there is a difference but very little. We speak about max 5w at 50km/h. Yes, 5w is nice but nothing WOW. And then we took our new prototypes in the tunnel…

Here we need to make a small remark about how tests are done. You can rent the tunnel and engineer who will do the tests but he/she won’t comment on anything as they also do testing many other brands and he cannot say who and what did and what to do better. So you can only look at, in our case, his expressions to understand what’s happening.

Watts happened! The first 15sec test at 5 degrees yaw was done and the results were so remarkable that the engineer looked at me and told me that it could be a mistake and we needed to wait for the 0 angle results. 15sec and… boom! The engineer looked at me, a smile all over his face and he asked “What was the brand name?”. 13w at 50km/h. Thirteen fucking watts! At 50km/h it means that Ģirts can travel almost 1 sec faster for each kilometer. Imagine adding 13 watts to your FTP. Sounds hard. And, sometimes, impossible. But here you can buy 4Cyclists WattSaver speed suit and get it without any training.

Ok, back to the reality. It’s time for Dana. With her suits, we made a bit different solutions. We wanted to test the principle of the way how we apply the fabrics so we chose a bit different fabric. Still the same “aero barrier” style but a different producer, and different composition. And… it worked! Worked almost as impressive as Ģirts suits.

Time for the socks. Also, the new fabric was put on the test. And our engineer again was all smiles when the results came – 3 watts @45 km/h only with socks!

Conclusion

Now we know how to make you faster. We now can offer you the world’s fastest skinsuit at a price range of up to 700 euros. And we are sure about it as long as nobody else will make commercially available suits using this principle.

We also made a road race speed suit and jersey, aero socks, aero calf sleeves and aero sleeves and gloves (soon will be published) all under the WattSaver name. But it’s not only about reducing drag, it’s also about keeping your body temperature as low as possible. That’s why we use very breathable mesh fabric in places where aerodynamics is not so crucial.

Ready to go faster? Look at our WattSaver options on the website or write us an email to get the prices for a custom design kit!