There’s been four reasons for shaving legs in cycling:
It helps when dealing with road rash; less hair means disinfecting and bandaging (and hopefully healing) are that much easier.
It makes the soignier’s (team masseuse) job easier. Granted, not as applicable for your average racer, but it works for the pros, and contributes to reason 3.
It looks PRO. There have been volumes written on this, but looking PRO is a thing that most amateur cyclists (at least, racers) try to do.
Aerodynamics. There has always been the concession that the aerodynamic affects of it are nearly negligible, but it appears that this one may be moving up in the rankings for the amateur after this study.
I think the earlier test missed probably the obvious. People sweat when they exercise.
A “miniature leg-model with hair glued to it” doesn’t sweat - not unless it’s being misted with salt water. When wet, hair clumps and it doesn’t work the same way as it does dry. That’s why otters spend so much time grooming. The oil on their undercoat keeps the water from penetrating. So, a test that used a totally smooth plastic leg with dry hair would in no way represent how damp, clumped hair would affect drag on a human leg.
If you’re using sticky webbing tape, adhesive dressings and the like, you’re going to end-up hairless anyway. Might as well get a head-start and make the dressings easier to remove.
if you would read the summary (let alone the article), it points out that the previous study used a simulated leg while this one uses real cyclists on a stationary bike in a wind tunnel.
of course this introduces new problems of subject/experimenter bias, but in principle it’s a big improvement.
+1
Also, if I’m going cut out 7% of anything --it’s going to be 7% of my badass ass. That will do far more for my hill climb home than spanky-smooth legs…
Even that’s not clear. The interplay between turbulence and drag is pretty complicated. Golf balls are designed specifically to induce turbulence to help reduce form drag. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that there is an optimal amount of hair which is greater than non.
I’m now picturing bike racers wearing clothes with golf-ball style bumps all over them. Mythbusters did it to a car a while back and it improved fuel efficiency.
Especially given that the significance of air resistance will decrease rapidly as climbing slows you down. It’s apparently negligible at less than about 10mph- I’d be more than happy to exceed 10mph on my hill climb home.
I remember shaving and a cap gave me something like two tenths of a second in the 100m breaststroke, when I was a teenager, so nothing even close to 7% but certainly enough to make the difference between first and third in a tight race. But then again I have always been very lightly furred. I couldn’t grow a decent mustache until I was in my 20s.
