aero bars

Ryan,

I raced tri's starting when I was 16. If you've got a road race geometry frame just pickup any used pair of aerobars from your local craigslist if you can. It's going to take a lot more than a stem or short bars to get the geometry right.

I turned a sub hour 40k in an olympic distance tri back in the day with just some cheap-o aerobars and no aero wheels. Focus on your motor now, you've got a long time to worry about gear and real time trial bikes. Years later I still ride a round tube bike converted to steep geometry and TT well on it because I can't justify buying a $4k Cervelo P3 Carbon.

thanks Chris,

im just getting into triathlons, and have the high school cross country and swim seasons ahead of me, so I have a bit of time before I can race again, so on my own ive started working on the bike leg a little more.

IT will be a while before I can afford the Litespeed saber I have my eye on, so im making good use of my felt road bike.

im not really concerned with modifiying the geometry of my bike too much, because Ive seen Hunter Kemper racing on a Orbea Orca road bike. but taking a close look at some of his pictures, I noticed his aero bars were awful short, ive had some trouble figuring the exact bars he uses on his road bike, but they look similar in length to the profile design T2 + DL, thats why i settled on that idea. I think with standard length road bars I would have to lean much too far forward, putting alot of strain and discomfort on my lower back, this could probably be fixed with a "profile design fast forward seat post" and a shorter stem. but I think I will mimic a pro, and go with a shorter aero bar. because like you said.. I gotta work on my "motor", and i figure that would be the best fix for the money and effort

what did you do to convert your bike to a "steeper geometry"?

profile fast forward seatpost, Look ERGO stem and seat slammed forward in the rails cuts my 58cm top tube to a 54cm effective top tube and 78-80deg seat tube angle. I have about 15cm bar to saddle drop on my TT machine although will be going lower for the first time in testing this winter. I time trial around 25-26mph average these days although I haven't raced tris in a few years. Someday maybe I'll be back.

A short aerobar isn't necessarily going to make the position any more comfortable. You're going to be stretched out quite far from your seatpost to areobar pads no matter how long the extensions are beyond the pads. It can work just fine and if you eventually go the drafting/ITU route that will have to work for you but if you intend to stay non drafting then most will end up prefering a steap angled bike whether that is 76 or 80 degrees for you. Whatever you do, practice it plenty at race pace as easy spins don't replicate how you will really feel trying to go 10/10th stretched out in the aerobars.

Be careful mimicing the pros. What works for them won't always work for you. I could basically be called a pro in the ultra endurance MTB scene and setups of me and my friends are often very different.

If you really want to be good, work on the swim and your run. The bike means nothing for a talented athlete in a draft legal event. You have to get out with the lead pack and out run the rest of the field to win. Feel free to ask away with other questions.

Chris

thanks alot chris,

I had been looking at the profile fast forward carbon seat post, seems like a good idea to me, ill have that on my list of things to get. that will probably help my posture like you said, more than just a differnet style aero bar.

on the profile design website, it looks like you can get just the extensions of some of their aero bars, so if I bought the T2+DL, I could also get the standard length T2+ extensions for non-draft legal events.

ill probably have lots of questions for you in the future, good to know you are here so I dont have to join another forum.
for now my only question is that I was wondering if you move your saddle forward in the rails, do you have to worry about the rails breaking? is their too much stress on the rails?

thanks agiain chris, luckily I have been swimming and running competitively for much longer than I have been cycling. I know from reading that the bike leg is not as important for winning a race. too bad its the most complicated and expensive :). Im just looking to amp up my road bike so I can concentrate more on training.