Lids

I've worn an LG Chrono helmet for a couple of seasons now, and I've reached a point with it. I *believe* it saves time because I've read that an aero helmet saves you time. It's a belief though, because the same things I've read say how much time it saves is highly dependent on position and how much it changes. In other words, if I have a great aero position on a great aero bike, a good aero helmet will save me some drag over a regular road helmet. However, if I look down and the tail of said helmet goes up, the drag increases. Likewise, if I'm on the pursuit bars and not the aero bars, everything changes again.

A colleague of mine said of aerodynamics, "they rarely do what common sense tells you they will". I've seen that hold up - toroidal farings are apparently more aerodynamic that conical farings, shaving leg hair saves up to 15W, and on and on. I have NOT seen specific aero data for helmets, because who is wearing it and what position they are in changes things.

Anecdotally, I know my tri bike is faster - with all else held constant - than my road bike, and quite a bit so. In a recent 4 mile time trial, the difference between bikes was 30 seconds. I attribute most of that to position, meaning I can *get* in a better aero position aboard the tri bike than I can in the drops on the road bike. I've done similar trials swapping helmets and while there is a difference, it's nowhere near as big.

My issue with the helmet - I don't disbelieve the evidence, but it looks ridiculous:

The only person I've ever seen make it look good is Mirinda Carfrae, but she could make anything look good:

It looks stupid. Really stupid. Not the stupidest:

And not the funniest:

but I'm done with this juju. This weekend will be the last that I sport the Chrono, I'm moving to something less stupid looking:

I'm definitely opting for the visor-less version, because then we're back in stupid land again. I'm sure the 5 seconds I'll lose over 56 mile courses due to not having a flare behind my head will bother me not at all.