Aerodynamic drag burns 85% of your cycling power on the flat.

80% of your aerodynamic drag comes from your body alone. 

Aerodynamic drag is by a large margin your biggest barrier to going faster.

Our Aerodynamic Cycling System (ACS) is a complete system for measuring and optimising your aerodynamic drag on the bike in realtime on the road and track.  Developed using Formula One technology, aerosensor gives unparalleled accuracy in realtime cycling aerodynamic drag measurement.

ACS harnesses the power of three unique devices to provide highly repeatable aerodynamic measurement:

• aerosensor: a pioneering real-time cycling aerodynamic drag measurement device with unrivaled accuracy.
• aerobody: a groundbreaking on-bike optical body position sensor, giving instant feedback to the rider.
• aerodrome: a wireless lap or route timer, giving sub-millisecond timing to enhance aerosensor‘s drag measurement accuracy.​

Our system gives highly repeatable data on the road, track or even in the wind tunnel, to allow you to test in any environment and make sure you keep those hard earned aero gains!

Drawing on many years of experience in Formula One aerodynamics, aerosensor gives accurate wind speed and angle measurement in practically all wind conditions.  Using the latest pressure measurement sensors, coupled with the cycling speed sensor and power meter, it can measure aero drag in realtime with unrivaled accuracy: +/-1.5% on the road, and better than +/-1% in the velodrome.

Following 185 design iterations, 21 wind tunnel tests and countless computer simulations we have now been granted a patent on this aerodynamic probe design which gives wind speed and yaw angle measurement up to +/-50°.  This is the foundation of the drag calculation, and critical to cracking the holy grail of reliable realtime drag measurement on the bike.

aerosensor comes with a go-pro style adjustable mount so requires a go-pro mount on the bike.  If you don’t have one you can get a stem mount as shown in the image above at checkout.  It requires a power meter and speed sensor to calculate drag.

Around 80% of cycling drag comes from the cyclist’s body, so small changes in the rider position have a large effect on the drag.  In testing we find that even professional cyclists tend to lift their bodies as they fatigue without even knowing it.

For optimal performance it is critical that the rider can stay in a consistent aerodynamic position.  aerobody is your virtual coach; a constant reminder to stay aero.  

Using safe infra-red laser devices, aerobody measures distance from the stem to your head and chest, with a resolution of just 1mm.  This data is displayed on your Garmin via our Connect IQ app and recorded to the FIT file for post-ride analysis.  Our app allows you to set a target position for your head and chest. so the display remains white when your are on target; red if you are too high; blue if you are too low, giving you instant feedback at a glance.

 

aerobody uses a standard Garmin style quarter turn mount so you can easily fix it to your stem.  It can be used independently of aerosensor.

aerodrome is a wireless lap or route timer, giving sub-millisecond timing direct to aerosensor, facilitating accurate lap averaging, and giving instant feedback to the rider.

This drag and time data are transmitted to the Garmin for instant feedback to the rider via our Connect IQ app, and recorded to the FIT file for post-ride analysis.

aerobody comes with a tapeswitch – a pressure sensitive strip that you can tape down to the road or track surface.  As soon as the front wheel presses down on this strip the precise time is transmitted to aerosensor.  It requires aerosensor to work.

Testimonials

Don’t just take our word for it!

Sir Chris Hoy

6 times Olympic, and 11 times world champion

Sir Chris has tested our system on multiple occasions and from the outset was extremely enthusiastic about our products.  So much so that he has since become an investor and advisor to Aerosensor. 

“I would have loved to have had Aerosensor when I was competing.  It’s incredibly easy to use.  To have a tool that could remind me to stay in an efficient position on the bike, that would have been a huge help.  I might have won some more medals if I’d had it to be honest!”

Pat Warner

World Hour Record Holder, Masters 50-54 age group

Pat used Aerosensor in his training sessions in LA and Mexico in preparation for his hour record attempt, testing everything from his body position through to his helmet visor and gloves.

“Aerosensor was a very important part of my preparation for the hour record, allowing me to reduce my CdA, and become the first 50 plus to go over 50km.”

Tim Wade

NTT Vice President New Ventures and Innovation

Tim is using Aerosensor to train for his 100km world record attempt later this year.

“Being able to measure drag is the next big innovation in cycling tech, but coupling that with actionable body position insights is next level.”

How it works

Aerosensor accurately measures wind speed and wind yaw angle using its patented probe, together with altitude using a barometer with a 10cm resolution.  Paired with your bicycle speed sensor and power meter, it combines this data to calculate the aerodynamic drag, and sends that wirelessly to the Garmin.

We can’t measure aerodynamic drag directly, so instead we measure all other power sources.

User power = Kinetic power + Gravitational power + Friction power + Aero power

We can measure user, kinetic, and gravitational  power directly.  We can’t measure friction, but since it is a relatively small component, an estimate of tyre rolling resistance and drivetrain losses is sufficient to give highly repeatable aero drag data.  

What makes aerosensor different to other aero devices?

There are other aerodynamic devices on the market, but these have had mixed reception due to their lack of repeatability, and complex workflows.  They typically require their own phone apps to setup and dedicated calibration runs before aero testing can start.

Aero devices will only become popular if they give accurate data and are easy to use:  They should not require dedicated tests to measure your aero.  They should become part of your every-day training setup.

Aerosensor has the following features that set it apart from other devices:

• Accurate wind speed and yaw measurement over +/-50 degrees, giving reliable data in practically all wind conditions.
• High accuracy barometers with compensation for temperature and vibration.
• Body position measurement so you can ensure unintended body position changes are not clouding your drag data.
• High accuracy timing: to further enhance drag accuracy and give instant feedback direct to the rider without stopping the bike.
• No dedicated phone apps necessary: setup is all done through the Garmin CIQ app.
• No dedicated calibration runs needed:  calibration value is provided instantly, allowing you to easily post-correct your data.

About us

Our story started 5 years ago when former Formula One aerodynamicst Dr. Barnaby Garrood wondered if his experience evaluating aerodynamic performance of F1 cars on track could be used to measure cycling aerodynamic drag in real-time.

He joined forces with previous Brawn GP and Mercedes F1 aerodynamics colleague John Buckley to form Velosense, where they dedicated years of research and development to create their patented probe technology. 

Barnaby went on to found Aerosensor to bring their technology to the consumer cycling market.

From the outset we knew that to accurately measure drag we would need a highly reliable measurement of wind speed and direction.  Our experience in Formula One both on track and in the wind tunnel repeatedly showed us that traditional multi-hole pitot tubes do not give reliable results in low speed, high yaw angle conditions, such as hairpins.  On the bike where the speed is relatively slow this is the standard operating condition, so we knew we would need something better.

Taking inspiration from Kiel probes used in F1 to map airflow on the car, we set about designing a completely new airflow probe.  185 design iterations, 21 wind tunnel sessions and countless computer simulations later, we have been granted a patent on the probe shape.

In fact we are now selling a miniaturised version of this probe back to F1 teams; four cars are racing with it on the 2022 grid.  It is a source of great satisfaction that we started bringing F1 technology to cycling, and have ended up bringing cycling technology to F1!

Barnaby has been joined by serial entrepreneur, and Le Mans driver and team owner Tim Greaves as investor and business advisor, who introduced him to Sir Chris Hoy, who used to race Tim’s cars.

Sir Chris understood straight away the potential for Aerosensor to revolutionise how cyclists train, and has since joined our team as an investor and advisor.  

Manufacturing Timeline

To ensure our products are built to our tight specifications, manufacturing will take place almost entirely in the UK.  The only exception to this is the injection mould tooling, and the basic electronic circuit-boards which will be manufactured in China.

Assembly of electronic components onto the boards, product assembly, and final testing of will take place in the UK.

Why we need your investment

After 4 years of research and development our products are ready for the consumer market.  However we need your investment to take them through to production.  

Key cost areas are as follows:

• Design refinements for production
• Plastic injection mould tooling.
• Electronics production tooling
• Manufacture of first batch of products.
• Certification and radio protocol licensing

We have already taken on substantial investment, but need a minimum of £45,000 to complete the first production run.

The breakdown of where this money goes is shown below:

We already have manufacturing partners lined up in the UK, and look forward to starting work with them to produce the first consumer products.