Since over 75% of a rider's drag comes from the position of their body, changing one's body position is the largest and most inexpensive performance increase a cyclist can make. For competitive triathletes, a difference of 1 cm will cost about 30 seconds over a 1-hour bike course. A difference of 4 cm will cost 40 watts and 2 minutes in time over the same 1-hour course. Maintaining a steady position while cycling is difficult. The position can drift due to fatigue over the course of a ride. It can also drift over a period of weeks and months if it is not being periodically checked. We have worked with world champions and grand tour winners, everyone drifts with fatigue, what can be reduced is how much.

For simplicity, we will divide aerodynamic cycling positions into two divisions: Moderate – Rider’s upper back is higher than their mid-back. Maximises speed and endurance. Maximal – Rider’s mid back is the highest point, upper back is lower. Maximises speed. Every cyclist intuitively knows that lowering their chest and head improves their aerodynamics. What is happening is that the cyclist is both making themselves smaller (less area when viewed from the front) and improving their shape. Once a cyclist has moved from the moderate to the maximal position, they are no longer decreasing their frontal area by going lower. Their drag may decrease further through improving their shape, but these improvements will be much smaller. Every cyclist will also intuitively know that going lower starts reducing power and increasing fatigue, so there are some large drawbacks to going lower. Most riders who maintain a low position in races, train extensively in that position to be able to maintain it in a race, especially while fatigued. The FORMA can accelerate this training process by providing precise feedback and records, so a rider can position themselves precisely in training and racing. Moderate Position For any cyclist whose position lies in the moderate division, a lower position will almost always reduce drag. A crude but useful rule of thumb is 0.01 CdA for every 2cm, for a cyclist travelling at 40 km/h, this will be the equivalent of about 10 watts of power. As a rider’s position lowers, the power in their legs will also decrease. A rider will need to experiment with going lower to see at what position their power drops or they become uncomfortable. A FORMA allows a rider to experiment with positions while stationary or on a turbo trainer, and then confidently maintain that position over time while training and racing. Maximal Position A cyclist in the Maximal division will not benefit much from going lower, however their aerodynamic performance will decrease as they raise their position. Riders using such a position have usually been aero-optimised by a fitter, aero test, or by experimentation. It is not worth lowering a rider, closing their hip angle and decreasing power, if the lower position does not lower drag. Here the role of the FORMA is important in ensuring that when the rider trains or races they keep the same chest and head position as their optimum, not lower, and not higher.

The FORMA can be easily mounted on most bicycles. Road bikes: you can fit a standard 1/4 turn mount to the stem or handle bars of a road bike. TT bikes: Any aero extension setup that allows a quarter turn mount between the riders forearms. On twin pillar aero extensions it can be difficult to get a 1/4 turn mount between the rider's arms. In this case please contact with Streamlines at support@streamlines.aero as we have a variety of mount solutions available.

With a guide laser and screw adjust, aligning the FORMA to the rider is easy. The adjustment screw mechanism is spring-loaded to ensure it always returns to its aligned position should it be bumped or nudged during use. Once aligned, the rider then holds their ideal position for several seconds as the FORMA software records the rider's reference position. From opening the box, to riding with visual feedback, the setup can all happen in less than five minutes.

The FORMA reliably measures head and chest position within +/- 2mm. In addition, the waist range sensor can detect whether a rider is sitting in the saddle or standing upright.

While riding, the rider position can be viewed through a Garmin Data Field or the FORMA CIQ app. After the ride, the rider position can be viewed in Garmin connect, or in the Cirrus portal.