Owls can make you go faster (and more quietly)

[normanicus]

The article below reports a 10 decibel noise reduction for wind turbines by mimicking the owl wing. That also translates to less energy loss. Wind turbines are in the same speed range as bicycles :

http://phys.org/news/2016-11-owl-inspired-wing-turbine-noise-decibels.html

Maybe we will see feathered spokes?

 

[RedheadDane]

And when I just read the headline I was imagining some sort of weird contraption by which owls would somehow pull the bike, very quietly.
My mind works strangely when I'm tired. My mind works strangely all the time...

 

[King Boonen]

Wind turbines are pretty different to wheels. As for translating into less energy loss, I'm skeptical, especially when you read this:

Streamwise-oriented 'finlets' are installed on a wing or blade trailing-edge to reduce trailing-edge noise by up to 10dB without substantial changes to the aerodynamic performance and over a range of angles of attack

aerodynamic loses are bad, would need to see a lot more info on this but it seems unlikely for bikes based on this article.