Aero Bars

drewfromrisca

I'm looking at doing a few TT's when my injuries have cleared up in the next coming season and due to the g'friend laying down the law with another bike and a huge lack of space anyway, I'm looking for a pair of clip on aero bars. Any suggestions? Looking to spend up to £100.

Cheers

Drew.

Monty Dog

Are you using them with a regular road bike or planning to have the bike in TT set-up all the time? As far as clip-ons go, Deda Black carbon clip ons are light and have plenty of adjustment. For stiffness, Easton carbon clip-ons are stiff, have good pads but have little adjustability. I wouldn't recommend Profile products - poor quality as they're poorly assembled / often fall apart and are surprisingly heavy.

drewfromrisca

Hi Monty Dog, thanks for the advice, I'm using it on a regular road bike as I cant get another bike (TT bike) Are clip on's any good? I could possibly get a TT specific bar and swap it round for the races but is that efficient!?!?!

robbarker

I ran Profile Carbon Stryke tribars on my last road bike. I had them for three years and trained and competed in two half-ironmans and a full ironman tri, as well as some shorter events. I found the excellent - nice quality, highly adjustable and light.

What you must get is fore-aft adjustability. Most people who plonk a set of tri bars on a road bike end up far too far forward on the tribars. You generally need to bring the bars and armpads back or fit a shorter stem.

I've decided to do the big woody ironman this autumn and will be buying the same again for my new roadbike.

Monty Dog

Well, going on my experience of the 3 different pairs of Profile tri-bars that were all returned with warranty defects - finishing a race with no armpad is no fun! I've not experienced any problems with products from Scott, 3T, Deda or Easton in comparison. Clip-ons are fine provided they're set-up correctly. They normally need to be mounted against the bare metal i.e. untaped handlebar, otherwise they'll slip. You may also need to fit a shorter, lower stem in comparison to your road bike set up for a better position - particularly if the bars have got high arm rests. You'll probably find more info on timetrialling or triathlon forums regarding set-ups.

drewfromrisca

Thanks for the help, I do actually run a short stem anyway so that shouldn't be a problem. I would be looking to get adjustable bars. Would it be better to go to a Triathlon specific store as they might a bit more than your average LBS?

willbevan

robbarker wrote:

I've decided to do the big woody ironman this autumn and will be buying the same again for my new roadbike.

Ah good lucky with that:) was hoping to do that myself, but can't run now as i'm injured :S course is only a few miles away from my house and was intending to go watch part of it so might seeyou fly by onthe day lol

robbarker

What was the problem Monty - metal ampad cups unscrewing? Mine were supplied with bolts pre-coated with threadlocker - I wonder if that's what's they did to workaround the problem?