Busy February

It looks like a very busy month for us at Rocket Science Sports.

Already our first shipment of Rocket Bags has come in, sold out and we have people banging our doors down for more. Updates on export traffic and shipping dates now has our next Rocket Bag delivery slated for February 28th at our warehouse in Austin.

If you hadn't seen all the buzz over the last week we had our Rocket Bottle mentioned in the New Tech section of CyclingNews.com with some questions about the integrity of the data. This obviously started quite a stir on popular forums, especially Slowtwitch.com. This has kept me pretty busy over the weekend responding to questions directly relating to our bottles, as well as dealer orders. This design makes a lot of sense for the price point and I expect sales to drastically increase over this spring and summer. Does your shop have stock? Take advantage of the buzz. We'll be working on getting the Rocket Bottle more attention soon.

This Thursday I leave for the pro training camp for Team Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife. We are providing them with Rocket Bottles for exclusive use during their time trial events and our Elite Bags for carrying their gear. I am looking forward to meeting the team, staff and other sponsors. I am not so much looking forward to suffering on my bicycle in the cold and the mountains trying to keep up with the guys on any of their training rides. Well, that's not entirely true, it's the suffering that really makes it memorable. I have made an honest effort to get in some kind of shape so I can keep up with them for at least the first few miles. :)

One of the days immediately following my return from the camp I may also be taking a trip down to A&M University's wind tunnel. Source Endurance is holding a time trial clinic Feb. 11-13th and will do some wind tunnel work with John Cobb. I don't know if we'll be able to do any specific tests with our bottles unless any of the individuals who paid for the clinic want some comparisons, but I hope to gain additional knowledge about wind tunnel testing (Marcin is the guru and I just want to try and be a little more like him). I'm sure it doesn't hurt to hang out with people like John Cobb, Dave Wenger and the other guys from Source Endurance either. Maybe I'll also gain some instant endurance or efficiency by being there. I can dream can't I?

Among everything else I've been working on plans to attend the Austin Marathon Expo and promote our products in the RunTex booth Feb. 15th and 16th . This will be our first time showing our products to a running specific crowd, so I'm hoping to learn a lot from the experience. We'll be selling our Elite Bags, RJ Bags, Chip Straps (RunTex custom logo), Race Belts and possibly some Rocket Bottles. Guess you didn't know Rocket Bottles can shave time off of your running did you! Just kidding. No, they don't make you run faster but I've been told by runners that our bottles have a comfortable shape to hang on to and the dimpled surface makes them very grippy. BTW, if any of you are coming down for the event please come by and say howdy.

Cheers!

Rocket Bottle Makes Recent Tech Section Of CyclingNews.com

Our revolutionary Rocket Bottle has made the "Recent Tech" section of CyclingNews.com.

Understandably as was reflected in the news, our bottle can make a difference which may be hard to comprehend. I thought I'd make some additions and clarifications to the article for you all.

First I wanted to mention that this bottle was designed in 2004 by Marcin Sochacki, founder and CEO of Rocket Science Sports. Since Marcin was classicly trained in the field of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas, he didn't need to make and test a bunch of prototypes before getting it right. His knowledge affords us a great advantage when it comes to design and engineering. This base is what we use to create the most technologically advanced products seen on the market. Coupled with Marcin's personal experience in competitive swimming, triathlons and road racing, we are able to understand what the athlete's needs are and resolve them with, well, rocket science of course!

Testing took place at A&M University's low speed wind tunnel. We were sharing wind tunnel time with John Cobb who was there doing some work with Blackwell Research. John was amazed at Marcin's bottle design and the numbers it yielded. He asked if he could take the data with him to do some additional crunching. Off the top the wind tunnels tests proved that our bottle reduced drag by 16% over a standard smooth surfaced bottle of the same size. That's while ON the bike and IN a bottle cage. The cage we used was an Arundel Trident which in my opinion actually covers more of the bottle surface than some other brands. With that in mind the dimpled surface wasn't even allowed to work as efficiently as might be possible with a cage offering less surface coverage.

Although this picture shows our bottle on the down tube,

the best data recorded was on the seat tube.

What John came back to us with was a 40km time savings of up to 51 seconds at 30mph. Now you might be thinking that 30mph is an unrealistic speed for most to attain. Remember though that this could be acheived by a 20mph pace with a 10mph headwind or a 25mph pace with a 5mph headwind. These are very realistic pace and headwind examples.

On the other side of things is Marcin's conservative calculation of time savings is about 15 seconds/40km. How many seconds are between competitors during a time trial? Last year's US Time Trial Championship saw the top 5 people coming in within 15 seconds of each other.

So whether you are a top athlete fighting for podium position or just want to squeeze out a few seconds over your riding buddies for bragging rights, spending $10 on one of these bottles is a no-brainer.

Keep an eye out for our bottles on the US pro circuit. Professional Cycling Team Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife will be using our bottles exclusively for their time trial events. The picture below is of Bobby Sweeting at the US Time Trial Championships in September of 2007.

Triathlon Lab Talks "Rocket Science"

Lloyd Taylor from Triathlon Lab in Redondo Beach

California talks about Rocket Science Sports products.

Who's That Pro?

... and what the heck is he wearing? Keep your eyes peeled

this year, especially during the pro swim segments.

It IS rocket science!

Ironman 70.3 Coming To Austin

Austin is in! On January 10th Jack and Adams Bicycles held a press conference to announce that Austin Texas will now host it's own Ironman event, The Longhorn Ironman 70.3. The event will take place on Sunday October 5th and will be the first official qualifier for the 2009 Half Ironman Championship in Clearwater Florida.

Below is a video of the press event. Sorry for the poor quality, it's my first try and I didn't have a tripod. If it helps, you can imagine yourself mountainbiking down a bumpy trail while watching. Cheers!

Rocket Bag News Flash

For all those who have been awaiting arrival of the new Rocket Bag, it's here!


BTW, that's the good news. The bad news is that if you hadn't pre-ordered it, we are already sold out! Fortunately we have another larger shipment coming in at the beginning of February.


Just so you know, because of the great demand I'm not even getting one of these bags from the first shipment. I have only myself to blame because I didn't pre-order one either. This won't happen to me again, don't let it happen to you!


I thought I'd leave you with a few refresher images...

Cheers!

Happy New Year!

The Rocket Science Sports family would like to wish everyone a blessed and prosperous new year.

We would also like to take this opportunity to re-commit ourselves to continue designing and manufacturing the most consistently high quality and eco friendly products in the industry today. We will also relentlessly pursue breaking performance barriers that need no marketing hype to relay. We're about mathematical numbers that prove our capabilities, and maybe a few athletes modeling our products who are easy on the eyes.

Cheers!