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Body Rocket was created with the goal of making aerodynamic data more accessible. BikeBiz catches up with founder Eric DeGolier to see how the business is progressing.
This piece first appeared in the November edition of BikeBiz magazine – get your free subscription here
Eric DeGolier came up with the idea for Body Rocket while training to compete at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, as the able-bodied tandem captain with three-time Paralympian Matt King in the match sprint and kilo.
As a design engineer, he’s worked for Trek Bicycles, PowerTap, and CycleOps, as well as leading innovation at well-known protection brand D3O.
However, in the background he had an idea to make aerodynamics more accessible by creating the world’s first device to provide real-time aerodynamic drag force measurement for cyclists and triathletes, with the accuracy of a wind tunnel.
“I decided that I needed to either stop wasting my nights and weekends or actually get serious about it,” said DeGolier.
“So that’s when I left D3O and started Body Rocket. That was 2018 when we formally started the company. It was a couple of years of pretty heavy R&D as nobody had done this before.”
By 2020, there was a product in the wind tunnel that proved the concept and physics were working so Body Rocket opened its first funding campaign – reaching its £80,000 goal hours ahead of the official launch.
As of October last year, more than £400,000 of investment had been raised in the UK and Europe from a mix of private investors, former professional road racer Alex Dowsett and crowdfunding.
From prototype to pre-production
A key milestone for DeGolier and Body Rocket was to get the product on the bikes of as many high level athletes as possible.
To do this each of the four sensors, on the handlebars, seat post, and on each pedal, needed to be extremely accurate.
“We realised that the pedal sensing technology path we had decided to go down wasn’t going to work,” explained DeGolier.
“So we had to start from scratch and redevelop the entire pedal part of our system. We had hoped to work with some of the power meter companies but we needed something more accurate.”
That worked out pretty well as Body Rocket was soon on the bikes of Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt, two of the best triathletes in the world.
“That kind brings us up to the last big technology push, which has been making the move to go from our prototypes, which were small and clunky, to our pre-production systems,” said DeGolier.
“That’s what we’ve done for the last year, bringing that system in place and now scaling up for beta testing.”
Working with elite athletes
The proposition for Body Rocket has been unique from the outset.
Rather than testing aerodynamics in a wind tunnel or velodrome, DeGolier wants riders to train with aerodynamics integrated on the bike, similar to a traditional power meter, with real-time data.
Riders are able to use Body Rocket on a daily basis over a longer period, which provides a meaningful set of data that the athlete can learn from and make regular, incremental adjustments.
To put this to the test, Body Rocket entered into a multi-year aero tech partnership with both Blummenfelt and Iden.
“Our first experience with Kristian [Blummenfelt], he came back and he said ‘this felt faster, this felt slower’,” said DeGolier.
“We asked ‘well did you look at the data?’ and he said ‘no, it doesn’t make any sense to me’, so that has been a big focus for this year.
“But we were super excited to have the guys come off their last bit of testing and confidently quote the numbers that they were seeing live.”
This experience will also help DeGolier and Body Rocket when it comes to launching the product to everyday riders.
“You’re a cyclist, not a scientist,” said DeGolier.
“Not everybody wants to schedule out a test before they go out for the ride and then rigorously go through those tests.
“So for people to be able to go out and just experiment and move around and see things makes the consumer experience really valuable. I think it just makes it more enjoyable for everyone as well.”
Working with brands
Alongside working with athletes, Body Rocket has started collaborating with brands to offer real time data to assist with product development, including most recently with Ekoï.
“If you’re a clothing brand or helmet manufacturer, the tendency is to design your kit for your Tour de France contender and then everybody else, you just have to hope it works for them. That’s kind of the economics of aerodynamics right now,” explained DeGolier.
“You have to have your key guy winning and you can’t afford to then do a study with 30 other athletes that you brought into the wind tunnel. That’s something we can bring to brands
“We can actually say ‘well, we’re going to put your helmet on a group of 20 athletes with a range of different morphologies and we’re going to help you design a helmet that works for the 95th percentile of your customers, not just for the 1% at the top’.”
By January next year, DeGolier expects to have 25 bikes in its fleet so there is capacity for more brands to utilise Body Rocket.
“We are very much open to talking to brands, now is the right time,” he said.
Taking the product to market
The long term goal for Body Rocket has always been to make real time aerodynamic data accessible to all.
To start with, select athletes will receive test units to use for a couple of weeks and then that will expand to leaving it with them for several months.
“As an experienced product designer, I know that they’re going to break these things in ways that we hadn’t imagined,” said DeGolier.
“We will get to the point where we’re comfortable leaving beta test units for an indefinite period of time, expect that they’re going to work and the athletes can continue to get value out of them. At that point, we’re ready to tool up and make a product.”
So with that in mind, how close is the product to launching to the mass market?
“Our target is to complete that process in the next 12 months,” said DeGolier.
“We would like to have commercial products available and under our athletes at the Ironman World Championships next year. Bringing a hardware product to market is expensive, so there is a certain amount of money that we need to raise in between to make that happen.
“But that’s our target, and it’s achievable if we have the right team to do it.”
