It is a known fact that aerodynamics play crucial role in bike’s performance. All top level teams develop their bike’s fairings in wind tunnels using the latest technologies to ensure optimum air flow. Most of the time riders must be ON the bike during testing to ensure correct fit. It’s also rumored that smaller riders such as Danni Pedrosa have an advantage thanks to their slim proportions. At 200 mph every inch of the body that’s sticking out past the bodywork slows you down.

While filtering through Formula 1 pits in Malaysia this past weekend, I accidentally found out that Mark Webber, one of mid pack F1 drivers, was forced by his team’s management to switch to Arai helmets because of their superior aerodynamics.

There are several helmet manufacturers supporting riders in Moto GP’s premier class: Arai, Suomy, AGV, Nolan and others. With a switch to less powerful 800cc bikes this year, it’s more important than ever to squeeze every possible drop of performance out of machines and the riders. Whether its lighter 16″ wheels of lighter Pedrobot, teams will make every effort to be the best.

However it looks to me like helmets are often overlooked. For example Rossi has been using the same AGV design for a few seasons without any visible changes to the shape. I think we might see new trend in helmet designs pretty soon. It will be focused on better aerodynamics rather than just safety and looks. Could it be futuristic tear drop shapes similar the helmets used in bicycle racing or will it be something dramatically different from shapes we are used to seeing?

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.