Like many tt racers I've struggled around car parks in the middle of no where sat in the car carefully pinning on my race number , getting it perfectly flat , even being a bit naughty and using double sided tape to stick it too the skinsuit before pinning it ( and spending ages picking off double sided tape hoping no one sees ) only to start the funky chicken dance to get into the skinsuit only for a pin to come flying off or to realise the number is in the wrong place and in a right state .
Arm numbers are a whole new world of pain in the ass and some of the diy solutions are comical , cling film , sellotape etc to save the odd watt from a flapping number .
Surely there was a better way in 2014 .
Luckily a guy called Blake pond came along ,self confessed aero nut and a very handy racer in his own right , and the nopinz collection .
I first come across these At one of the national tts , I had heard of them and even tried to get hold of some early ,but they where already being well tested in sunny Devon .
I had heard the stories of the claimed savings and the flip side of people saying they wouldn't work , would come unstuck or leave your skinsuit covered in sticky residue . I stuck with what I knew for the national event and that was that , I thought the ways I had was good so what was the point in changing .
The day come and I had managed to get hold of a smart aero skinsuit and my first thought went to my old assos skinsuit that had a huge hole around the bum area from a load of number pinning and was often remarked on at a local Dursley club ten on the mighty u7b , if by luck or the grace of god I saw the nopinz advert again for the new speed pocket , this was basically a version of the single use wallets that I had avioded at the nationals sticking to My old ways , but this was sewn into your skinsuit as a perminant feature .
This seemed like a perfect idea to my solution , a perminant number holder , no more stealing pins of other numbers in the hq because mine are knackered and will ping off after warm up and more importantly no wrecking my skinsuit .
So I went onto the nopinz site and set about checking it out , long story short the suit was in the post that evening , I was having a speed wallet fitted and a set of the aero armbands ,
To my surprise Blake at nopinz had seen the blog and said he would stick in a set of the single use wallets for me to have a look at whilst waiting for my skinsuit to come back .
Four days later my suit is back with the pocket fitted , I went with the reflective strip underneath as well as a bit of added visabilty , it was easy to see this wasn't just a pocket fitted to the suit with little thought , I could see the panel was very neatly sewn into the suit and the outer suit had the smooth seam outside with and sign that it had been stitched in on the inside out the way .
The panel was exactly where it should be low down on the back where I would normally try and stick my number for a race .
On the inside the stitching is neat and there is a small slit that allows you to stick your number in the speed pocket , I heard a few say it wouldn't be possible to get a number in with the suit on so I tested it , I'm like a rubber band so might not work for all but with one arm out of the sleeve I managed to get my arm around the back and get the number in with the use of the mirror in the lounge , if I rode to a event I would probably just strip the suit down to waist level and put the number in , but most times I would just get to the hq and stick the number in before getting the suit on .
The other concern was how stretchy was the panel , would it give enough when doing the funky chicken to get the suit on as the skinsuits are made of a very stretchy fabric , my smart suit is a medium and super tight , I honestly didn't feel any pull in the panel or suit pulling against the panel , even curled up into a ball on the floor so I was stretching it as much as I could when wearing it ( luckily at this time I was home alone , who knows what the wife would of thought If she came home to find me curled up in a ball in a skinsuit in lounge ) , I couldn't feel the area that had been sewn on the inside as it's nicely finished and a soft fabric on the inside of the panel area .
The questions I will test later will be the worry it will steam up inside the pocket and obscure the number being seen by testing the suit on a hard turbo session later , if that doesn't steam it up nothing will , and the sun reflecting of the clear covering of the panel , which will involve me going up and down my road in the mid afternoon sun and getting someone to check the visabilty of the number from multiple angles .
So far I'm really struggling to find fault with it and for me it has to be a no brainer , the tt world seems to be one of that is full of the latest bikes and technology but people are very fearful to move away from the standard of pinning on a number for a event , pinning before a event is part of the whole experience and something that I've always taken a great effort in , but nothing is worse that hearing the rip of a expensive skin suit or when your smashing down a course giving it everything and you can feel the number flapping around on your back because a pin has fallen out somewhere along the way .
Then there are the aero claims , something I really think is there and a will bite someone's hand off for one watt saved ,but I can't test those claims at the moment so I won't go into that side of the speed pocket .
Also in the bag that was returned completed in under 4 days was one of the nopinz skinsuits Blake asked if I would like to try out ,
Taking it out the bag the material felt odd almost Teflon like , it looked good in black with the bright pink nopinz stamp on the arms and legs and back , these can be worn in open events as nopinz are the manufacturer the same as assos / Castelli etc , this obviously has the speed pocket already fitted , with the same quality finish and in the same position as the one fitted to my smart suit ,
It's a very snug fit which is what I'm after in a skinsuit and doesn't bunch up anywhere ( I've had skinsuits before that have bunched a bit between the chest and shoulder when in the aero position )
I wore it back to back with the smart suit and noticed a lot of similar qualities from a suit that has solely been made for aero benefits ,
Will do a ride on the turbo today in the nopinz suit and see if anything else comes out , but for a £150 skinsuit with the speed pocket already fitted you really can't go wrong in my eyes , I've picked out a few tiny details that I think could make it great , but after a quick message to Blake these are already in the pan for the new suit so I won't go into that , but we are talking very small details so watch this space .there is also a more refi ended version of the skinsuit called the championship suit which is fully rttc complient wand can be brought including the armbands for under £200 .
The single use wallets I have stuck to my kit for tomorrow's ride on the road , I've stuck one arm number on now and will stick one on in the morning to see if it makes any difference to the level of adhesion you get , the rear single use pocket will get the ultimate test as I'm going to put my gels and food in for tomorrow's ride so really putting a lot of hope and faith in it sticking .
Lastly the arm bands , these come in 3 sizes and are again a snug fit with the same quality finish as the speed pocket , they are not retro fitted to the suit and can be positioned at any angle on the upper arm ,I will wear them when testing the suit later .
The question I got asked was how can I offer a independent view when I was given the skinsuit to test , easy , I'm not sponsored by nopinz , I don't know the guys at nopinz apart from a few email conversations and I don't owe them anything so I can have a honest opinion ,and like the rest of what we are looking at this year we will be looking at making sure we are using what we know is the best for that situation , the proof as they say is in the pudding and I can say I will be using the armband and speed pocket to race in next year and the skinsuit for club events and who knows when we get to aero test it later maybe for opens as well .
Part 2 tomorrow or Sunday will be test results :)
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