Bike helmets used by professional cyclists often aren’t well ventilated. A group of master’s students at TU Delft recently set out to fix the problem.
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The students, along with experts from the BBB Cycling company, collaborated on the project as part of a course on Advanced Embodiment Design taught by lecturer Sander Minnoye. They spent half a year designing an improved sprinting helmet dubbed ‘The Tithon.’ Their hard work paid off and BBB Cycling won the Taipei Bike Show Design & Innovation Award on 26 February.
“The assignment was to combine the aerodynamics of a time trial helmet for speed with the heat dissipation of a road helmet for cooling,” Minnoye said. “The students came up with a concept and made all the calculations to validate this concept.” Afterwards, a prototype was constructed and tested in a wind tunnel. “Several tests were performed,” he said. “Most of the tests were done in the lab to validate and benchmark the aerodynamics and heat dissipation. This was done in the wind tunnel with several different setups.”
The unique helmet not only features improved ventilation and an aerodynamic design, it’s pretty cool looking too. As the jurors at the Taipei Bike Show put it: “the Tithon is stylish and well made.”
The helmet has already proven itself in cycling competitions around the world as well. Raymond Kreder, a cyclist who races for the CI Professional Continental team Roompot Orange Peloton, wore a Tithon during the third stage of the Ruta del Sol in February. He later earned an impressive 3rd place win. It was also used by cyclists during the Dubai Tour and Tour of Oman last month.
“None of this could have happened without the involvement of TU Delft’s students,” Sebastiaan Bowier, a product developer from BBB Cycling, said in a recent interview [http://bbbcycling.com/headlines/and-the-winner-is-tithon]. “We often work together with students of this highly appreciated university because they have a lot of specialist know-how.”
“Looking at the other helmets in the same category, the Tithon has outperformed these helmets,” Minnoye added. “This was due to the very good and professional work of the students.”
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