A visit to Specialized HQ with the Rad Riders! (Part 2)

A visit to Specialized HQ with the Rad Riders! (Part 2)

A more detailed look at SBCU (Specialized Bicycle Components University)

In the previous post, I mentioned that we started our time at Specialized with a tour of the museum area and concept bikes with Mike Sinyard, the founder, and Robert Egger, chief creative designer. Following some orientation and signing non-disclosure documents, we went to the helmet lab, where they perform the testing of helmets, including those under development. On occasion, helmets that sacrificed their lives for the safety of those wearing them return home. Here is Alberto Contador's helmet from a crash in the 2014 Tour de France. You can see it's bashed up a bit where his name sticker is and the back of it is completely broken.

Specialized intentionally bashes helmets as part of their testing. In fact, they test helmets from their production runs at a rate well above the required number in order to make certain they meet rigid standards. They test them using different shape anvils to simulate striking the road, curbs and other surfaces and change the angle of impact for all the different ways we can fall off a bike and hit our head. They demonstrated a helmet test for us. 

Aerodynamics is a huge part of helmet development. McLaren assisted with the development of the current S-Works TT helmet. This is chart is a fluid dynamics rendering of the air flow over the helmet and head of the rider. They found that by adding an air intake, called the 'gill', the airflow is smoother over the side and reduced drag. It's a bonus that it increases the cooling of the rider's head. A different chart of the airflow without the gill showed turbulence on the side of the helmet caused by an eddy in the airflow. If you look at their current TT helmet, you will see this gill. There were some new helmets in the room, but remember, we signed nondisclosure agreements, so no photos and that's all we can say about that!

Following lunch in the Feed Zone with Mike Sinyard and other employees that joined us, we heard about Body Geometry from fit guru Dr. Andy Pruitt. He talked to about the origins of Body Geometry concepts and how they were the first to perform detailed, measured bike fits for cyclists for teams in the professional cycling WorldTour to maximize power and comfort. Today all of the teams engage consultants for proper fits of their cyclists on their bikes. He also talked to us about how they developed saddles to reduce pressure in the nether-regions of both men and women, each for their particular anatomy. Men were tested using sensors and let's just say that they didn't use a banana.

Seth and Tony taught us a good amount about the construction of carbon frames. They showed us different orientations of the carbon fibers offer different types of strength. For example fibers that run straight give in-line strength and can't be bent easily length-wise. However they don't have a lot of torsional (twisting) stiffness. Fibers bonded and applied at an angle, like 45°, offer much more torsional stiffness. Many layers are used to build a frame and are layered differently depending on the area applied. The bottom bracket area is subject to more torsional stress from the pedaling action and are layered differently than the down tube. If you're really into some of the technical aspects of this, you can read more on Specialized's website in a whitepaper from a few years ago.

There are lots of counterfeit frames on the market, some look very convincing while others are more obvious. There's no way to know the quality level of these counterfeit frames. Our SBCU instructors explained that they occasionally test counterfeit frames that they get their hands on and found considerable flaws - like head tubes that snap off in a test equivalent to hitting a pothole in the road while riding. Carbon components require heating to cure and some counterfeit components are simply being "cooked" in a residential oven to cure. Doesn't that sound like an item you want to risk your body riding?

We didn't get to visit the Win Tunnel, but we did learn about how they use it. In addition to testing whole bikes, they can also test riders drafting as a group. Because they have their own wind tunnel, they have made lots of comparison tests. Most know that carbon aero wheels offer less resistance compared to other wheels and the aero helmets are used in time trials. Here's some examples of time savings for certain changes that any cyclist can make (depending on your budget). The numbers here represent the number of seconds saved over a 40 km (25 mile) course. Each item was changed one at a time for incremental differences based on each item.

• 45 seconds - Clothing: changing from looser, club-fit style jersey to tighter, race-cut jersey will no flapping. 
• 59 seconds - Aero Frame: Changing from Tarmac frame to Venge aero frame - 59 seconds
• 42 seconds -  Helmet: Changing from Specialized Prevail helmet to Evade road helmet. A TT helmet would be even faster
• 33 seconds - Wheels: changing from regular training wheels to deep section Roval aero wheels. This is based on straight-ahead wind at no angle. Because the shape of the wheels offer a "sail effect" in angled winds, the time savings is usually larger. 
• 17 seconds - Bars: aero bars: changing from regular round handle bars to aerodynamic drop bars (not TT bars). 

Some of these changes are much cheaper to accomplish than others, like just improving the jersey fit or buying a more aero helmet. Watch the video about these time savings, plus they have lots of others - some of which are just plain fun to contemplate and test. 

Lucy August-Perna told us about the Specialized Foundation. They are working with schools to study the effects of cycling to offset Attention Deficit Disorder in children. They have had very promising initial results and are looking to increase the number of schools that have bike programs for therapeutic purposes. 

At the same time that we were on site, there were also some journalists there, including some from Germany and Japan. They were at Specialized for a separate, secret event. Something big was going on, which was what kept us from seeing the Win Tunnel. Andy Pruitt teased us by telling us a new shoe was involved that has new technology built into it, but would say no more. He did offer that perhaps we should look at Alberto Contador's feet at the Giro d'italia. We figured it was a new bike being shown off, but the media folks were sworn to secrecy and no one at Specialized was talking either, aside from obvious anxiety that they wanted to say more because of how long they've been working on it, but weren't letting out even a tiny thread of information.

Now we know it's the new Venge ViAS, plus the Evade skinsuit, and new S-Works 6 shoe. We've also since learned that Peter Sagan's new Venge that went on to help him win a stage in Tour de Suisse was in the building while we were there!

Following the all the learning of the day, it was time to get out and ride! The ride of the day was a road bike ride into the hills around Morgan Hill. After changing, we went to the "cage" that contains the demo fleet of bikes - all kinds of Specialized bikes - racks 3 levels high (see above). A very poignant image was captured by Aaron Edge on our group road ride that showed the tremendous community of cyclists, as one rider lent a hand of support as another worked hard to go up a tougher hill early in the ride.

I captured some video on the road using a GoPro camera and have edited it to about 5 minutes of some of the more interesting section of the ride, including some drafting right on the bumper of a pickup truck while they filmed us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy-r63_Q76g

There's one more installment left - Details of Day 2 at Specialized including a mountain bike ride in the redwood mountains around Morgan Hill.