Kask Infinity test in Tour Magazin 08/2014

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pyf
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by pyf

Bought Tour Magazin today, very nice aero road helmets article :thumbup:

The only thing my poor german makes me wonder is : is the Kask Infinity only tested open as pictured or ??? I wish the indicated results for fully open and fully closer, would have make results easier to understand for me...

If someone if fluent in German and read the article, could you please enlighten me ?

Thanks :thumbup:

Anders3404
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by Anders3404

It is tested with both configurations. One to measure drag and one to measure cooling.

The article is also available in the English Tour. IMO the test is invalid because the test dummy is in an upright position. The result also shows that the infinity is more aero than their TT helmet - Bambino. It also shows that the Giro Air Attack is less aero than the Giro Aeon helmet

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Zigmeister
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by Zigmeister

^Now the Giro is interested, being a Aeon owner. Got it for it's light weight and good cooling. Turns out it is more aero than the "aero" model?

pyf
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by pyf

What an idiot... I keep buying german versions of the magazine even though I have to translate everything :oops:

So Anders, the 259,6 watts number is the average of one complete run at all angles with open ventilation and then one complete run with closed ventilation. They don't say if it's better open or closed ?

The head/helmet angle shown on the picture seems "fair" to me :noidea:

Anders3404
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by Anders3404

From the article:

aerodynamics test was carried out in the GST wind tunnel in Immenstaad. Our test rider was the rigid TOUR dummy mounted in a typical road bike position, with its back inclined at about 15 degrees. We measured total wind resistance (bike plus dummy with helmet) at a speed of 45 km/h (28 mph), with the yaw angle varying between ± 20 degrees. In essence, the results measured the average amount of aerodynamic drag in watts. Since the test apparatus remained unchanged except for the different helmets, the lowest wattage indicated the fastest helmet. The results made up 35 percent of the overall grade.

But that just leaves more questions for me, because another place they say the test is done with 40 kmh. And regarding the 15 degrees they mention the following: "The fact that the measured differences were relatively small may have been due to the somewhat upright seating position of the dummy, whose head was clearly positioned higher than its body." For me 15 degrees and the phrase "somewhat upright" is not the same.

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micky
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by micky

Can anyone kindly share some info on the test results?

pyf
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by pyf

Micky,

There is an app available for iOS or Android, Tour-mag in german, Tour-int in english, you can buy the magazine and see the results there.
Since it is an August 2014 issue I feel like if we share on the forum we are kind of stealing from these guys... they do a great job with tests so let's support them by actually buying the magazine to see the results :thumbup:

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micky
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by micky

You've got a point!

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Zak
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by Zak

It's a big man who just says "You have got a point" instead of start defending because he is scared of being wrong :thumbup: :beerchug:

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

micky's always been quite reasonable ;)

And cheers for sharing some of the results. Although had seen other tests that did not rate the Air Attack either.

ichobi
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by ichobi

It's an interesting test, but makes one wonder why so upright position? Because it mimics more road use than the TT? (so it is not so much of a surprise that most TT helmets fall way behind because they surely work better with tuck position).

Now if the Kask infinity does so well, would love to see the result of Kask Protone Sky used in Tour.

In Road Bike Action Magazine, the Air Attack and Evade have about 0.003 CdA difference, tested in Alphamantis closed velodrome set up.

Franklin
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by Franklin

Tour is a great magazine as they have a lot of tests, which is refreshing from all the "let's take the manufacturers claims at face value" of many outlets. Computer hardware reviews of the better sites are a lot more critical (and thorough).

Having said that, I also noticed quite a few Tour tests are biased towards German products and their methodology is sometimes not inline with real life usage (the bizarre road disk brake test).

In this case I have extreme doubts that the Air Attack is slower than the Aeon. Other tests and common sense put a lot of questionmarks on that claim.

Oswald
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by Oswald

Agree with Franklin. German products often do quite well in the Tour tests. And some of their testing methods should be taken with a grain of salt.

pyf
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by pyf

Upright position ?
From what I see/read, it's denitely not a TT position (but they are testing road helmets !) but quite a standard road position, the kinf of position most people spend 75% of their time riding at I think...
Maybe head could be a little bit much into shoulders but head angle probably still matters more and in order to see in front of them, most cyclist need to have the helmet at a similar angle relative to "horizontal".
Tests could often be better... but in this case I think the information is good enough to compare those different helmets. Like you I would have thought Air Attack would be faster than Aeon but I've read somewhere else the Air Attack was only a bit faster if the rider spends quite a bit of time head down.

The only thing I would have loved to see in the test was aero and cooling numbers for both open and closed position when the helmet offers two options (Kask Infinity, Casco Speed Time), the results provided don't tell which position was used when testing (or an average of both positions ?) ???

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justkeepedaling
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by justkeepedaling

The position they used is not a typical road cycling position, especially for pros or racers

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