Wilier Triestina’s latest pro-level offering, the Filante SLR ID2, takes an already competitive road race bike, and promises significant aerodynamic advantages, delivered in partnership with Groupama - FDJ Cycling Team. The Italian designed bike, whose aerodynamics were verified in the Silverstone tunnel here in the UK, claims to deliver 4.5% reduction in drag over the outgoing model, with a rider on board.
Their white paper describes how testing at the Silverstone wind tunnel revealed a 13.6% reduction in drag for the bike alone, outperforming the expected 12% reduction based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations overall. This is no small feat, as real-world testing often yields less optimistic results. The bike achieves a 4.5% improvement in aerodynamic resistance compared to its predecessor, the Filante SLR ID1. Which means, for riders maintaining a speed of 40 km/h, this translates to a power saving of 14.15 watts, which if true, is substantial in a race scenario.
