In pre season club kit supplier No Pinz kindly sent us Pro-1 speedsuit for review and I was so impressed that I immediately went and ordered an all seasons speedsuit in club livery! So after a season of use on club and open events, how exactly did it fare?
If you missed it, the original first impression review can be found here: https://www.egcc.net/nopinz-pro-1-speedsuit-product-review/
Ever the optimist, I ordered my Speedsuit in the white club colour-way. …As we now know, this years inclement weather proved a great test for the suits longevity and resistance to staining. Although a few events over the season were cancelled because of standing water, many races still went ahead in the rain and on wet roads.
This inevitably lead to the suit looking like I’d taken up cyclocross immediately after partaking in some 25 mile Time Trials, although after using some vanish powder and washing, the suit thankfully returned to being white! 😅
This also served as a prompt to clean my time trial bike far more thoroughly. After one wet TT, I was left with perfect grubby imprints of my elbow rest pads on the sleeves of the suit. These again required the Vanish treatment but once again, they did come out! (I promise, I’m not on commission! Other detergent brands are available!)
After a seasons use and abuse in some less than ideal weather, the suit has held up well, with only a few very minor stains. Overall considerably less stains than you’d expect after using a white garment all year to race in the wet. This could easily be remedied by ordering the suit in the winter colour option where the darker colours make staining less obvious.
The fabrics, stitching and chamois themselves held up to repeated use and washing… as well as of course the many Vanish treatments!
The number pocket performed brilliantly all season, not using pins for numbers means there is also zero pin damage to the garment.
And this leads onto the aerodynamic savings. Did this suit make me faster?!
Whilst this is hard to quantify without a wind tunnel, and I’m hardly threatening any course records, I did produce consistent times across my events, missing out on one course Personal Best agonisingly by just 3 seconds. This was despite horses on course and being held up at a junction! (😭)
While the speedsuit was not the only change I made for the 2023 season, having also changed helmet and tweaked my position (constantly!). These performances were all produced at lower powers than my previous personal bests, largely thanks to preseason covid and cold interruptions. Overall, the system was certainly faster and the suit no doubt contributed towards that.
I also added to these gains with some no pinz flow guards, and whilst the high sock style certainty abandons all realms of style, I never considered myself fashionable anyway and this was a small price to pay to improve my potato like CdA (coefficient of drag).
So what’s the plan for 2024? One significant time saving I could easily make is removing the Vanish treatments post race!! So a winter colour suit will certainly make me faster off the bike next year! The winter suits look sharp too. And as we all know; looking fast is worth LOTS of watts!
I’ll certainly be starting the TT season early again next year and hope to see the same fantastic attendance by EGCC members at these events! Get your orders in now to get your race gear ready for some spring TTs!
For full transparency, the opinions expressed here are entirely my own, I purchased the suit with my own money and No Pinz have no input on this blog post or its existence.
Chris Pope
