They’re mounted on bikes throughout this year's Tour de France peloton where marginal gains matter most – but just how aerodynamic is a GoPro?
Specialized set out to answer that question and, after back to back testing with a new Venge in its wind tunnel, has measured the aerodynamic impact of the world's most popular action camera.
For those who aren't into moving pictures, Specialized's test showed that the latest GoPro camera accounted to less than 1w of drag at 45 km/h. According to a screenshot in the video, the lowest recorded drag power of the Specialized Venge without a camera mounted was 79.5 watts. In contrast, the lowest drag figure with a new GoPro mounted at the front of the bike was 80.3w, amounting to 0.8w of drag from the camera.
When placed at the back of the bike drag from the camera was reduced further to 80.2W. It may not come as much of a surprise but according to this test the new, much smaller GoPro is significantly more aero than its predecessor too, the lowest drag result for the old Hero4 camera was 82.w, that's 2.5w of drag.
