Weight Weenies

some examples.

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I have those Castelli shorts, and the "dimples" are not actually dimples, rather just printed ink on the fabric to give the illusion of dimples. If you touch it with your hands, it's totally smooth. Clearly just a marketing gimick so they could add something to their new "updated" line to make it seem faster.

That sucks. I know there are at least some fabrics out there that have an "aero" texture (for lack of a better term). Isn't the Nike suit made like that?

I'm not vouching for any of the benefits, just showing examples.

xjbaylor wrote:If the value of the dimples was that great (in the case of wheels, we know it applies to golf balls) I highly doubt that Zipp would cover 1/3rd of the dimples with a flat logo sticker. Just a thought.

Haha...and I have a pair of 404's.

@ergott - the Sugoi RS bib short once used dimple-like technology although I never felt any faster

xjbaylor wrote:If the value of the dimples was that great (in the case of wheels, we know it applies to golf balls) I highly doubt that Zipp would cover 1/3rd of the dimples with a flat logo sticker. Just a thought.

The stickers actually conform to the dimples in the rim. Check ergott's pictures of the disc and you can see them.

Yep, the sticker adheres to the rim closely enough to follow the dimples:

yea, i have a hunch zipp works pretty hard to make sure the stickers are thin enough to do that. remember when they had their logos baked in? too bad they turned yellow...
on new wheels, you can take the time to push the stickers in at every dimple, they can really conform.
dimples (and roughened surfaces, etc) really work on bluff bodies, very streamlined shapes should be smooth. the reason zipps have them is to help the air stay attached to the surface at higher yaw angles. when the wind is straight ahead, they may even hurt you.
i got one of those dimpled water bottles. i can feel the speed increase every time i take a swig! but really, the nicest thing about it is it's a bit harder to drop. and it matches pretty well.

If you are worried about the Zipp sticker not being as flush as possible so the dimples work, just take it off. Everyone knows that Zipp are the only company using dimples on wheels so people will know they're Zipps if they were wondering what wheels you had

Getter wrote:

xjbaylor wrote:If the value of the dimples was that great (in the case of wheels, we know it applies to golf balls) I highly doubt that Zipp would cover 1/3rd of the dimples with a flat logo sticker. Just a thought.

Haha...and I have a pair of 404's.

So do I. I still think they are a good wheel, but I just don't think the dimples are doing anything for me.

CarpetFibre wrote:

xjbaylor wrote:If the value of the dimples was that great (in the case of wheels, we know it applies to golf balls) I highly doubt that Zipp would cover 1/3rd of the dimples with a flat logo sticker. Just a thought.

The stickers actually conform to the dimples in the rim. Check ergott's pictures of the disc and you can see them.

I have a pair of 404FC's, and the sticker, while showing minor indentations over the dimples, does not nearly match the wheels. Zipp is doing a good job with their marketing if they can get people to believe that they have special aerodynamic stickers without even having to say so themselves.

2011 wrote:I have those Castelli shorts, and the "dimples" are not actually dimples, rather just printed ink on the fabric to give the illusion of dimples. If you touch it with your hands, it's totally smooth. Clearly just a marketing gimick so they could add something to their new "updated" line to make it seem faster.

Ironically, according to a conversation I had with Steve Smith at Castelli, the dimples on those shorts actually make the bibs LESS aero. Castelli assumed that the dimples would help the aero properties of the shorts before they actually went to the tunnel and found out that the bibs with the dimples were actually less aero than the smooth ones. They are retooling that model, to say the least.

However, I've found that all the Sanremo speedsuits being sold in the US do not have the dimples, and only the speedsuits sold in Europe have them. One time being in the US actual helps in getting a better Italian product. . .

WTF (where W = who) leave the stickers on their wheels?

At the very least, this is Weight Weenies, and those are unnecessary weights.

prendrefeu wrote:WTF (where W = who) leave the stickers on their wheels?

At the very least, this is Weight Weenies, and those are unnecessary weights.

That's why I'm removing eight of the Enve stickers off my wheels!

Going slightly off topic I apologise but I preferred it when Lightweight had just two logos on each side of the wheel. Why do they have to have four now? It doesn't look right and It can't weigh any less.

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