Time trial with cyclocross handlebar?

juppa

Hi everyone,

I bought a new roadie recently and I have a race this weekend. The race includes a time trial and yesterday I noticed that I can't mount my aero bars to the new bike's handlebar because of the handlebar's shape.

I'm now going to take a 44cm handlebar from my Kona cyclocross and put it to my roadie. What do you guys think will this setup have major cons in aerodynamics? There are couple of hours time from the time trial to the road race so should I change the "road handlebar" back to the road race or am I just thinking too much? Both bars are aluminium and the road one is 42cm wide.

Thanks for your time

fenix

Look at yourself in the mirror and see how big you are. Now compare the differences in handlebar width and see how tiny that is. There will be no measurable difference at all.

The fact that you're only slapping the bars on now and you havent ridden that position or tested it at all is far more likely to hinder you than a few cm width of bar.

And I'd not be messing round with changing bars. You'll have to redo brakes and gears too ? There is far too much to go wrong.

Personally I'd just ride without the tri bars at this late stage.

What is the race btw ?

MikeWW

Are you sure you can use tri bars?
Last staged race I did they were not allowed in TT

I certainly wouldn't want to be swapping things over on the day

slowbike

IF you can use TT bars for the time trial then AND you can easily remove the TT extensions for the road race then I'd consider putting them on - providing you're used to using the TT bar extensions. The difference in power requirement when you're on the TT bars is reasonably significant - but only of use if you're used to riding that position.

I wouldn't want to be swapping the whole handlebar setup along with shifters - too much to go wrong and you'd be better spending the 2 hours relaxing and recovering from the TT effort.

If you can use two bikes - then even better - one setup for TT and the other for road race ...

juppa

Thanks for your answers

Yeah you are definitely right about the fact that I should have been training TT-position with the new bike earlier. The reason for all the hassle is that I got a really nice bike deal just a few days ago which included me having to let go of my old bike, and I didn't want to skip the upcoming race.

I have been riding my old bike with tri bars so I'm used to the position but of course the new bike will bring changes. And yes, majority of people rides that time trial with a TT bike but as a young guy relatively new to the competitions I don't yet have one.

So yea I think I'm gonna put the cc bar on for tomorrow and ride the road stage with the same bar. Swapping the bar between the stages can really mess things up as you said.

super_davo

Changing bars isn't the hardest job in the world but it's a faff getting everything set right, cabling set right, removing and retaping the bars etc.

So when I've done it it wants to stay done; the thought of swapping back and forth between two bikes doesn't appeal at all.

But bars can be very cheap - I've seen Deda RHM01s as low as £9. I appreciate your race is this weekend so ordering from Wiggle, Merlin etc wouldn't be an option for now. So do yourself a favour and get yourself some RHMs and Mistral tape - it will cost less than £20, you should be able to fit TT bars and your bike will look much better with fresh tape than removed and reapplied old tape.