cyclenutnz wrote:
I'd note that bars are a component that I've found to be ill served by bike only testing - interaction with the arms a fairly key element. Having a bulky pad harms a bar on it's own, but makes the rider happy. And then we have the debacle of straight and s-bend bars being forced on the world because they were faster in the tunnel (and looked fast), but cause a lot of people to pop their heads up.I had forgotten about those tiny Vision "blade" brake levers. Those things were certainly ahead of their time in the aero department.
But really it's your point above that I find most interesting. A super cushy aerobar with big pads and convoluted extensions with lots of hand positions is going to get slaughtered in bike only testing vs something more minimal - e.g. PRO Missile - but that's total misdirection.
Without having any insight into the actual process, I can *guess* that this was how the PRO Missile bar was designed - on its own. That certainly explains the straight extensions by default and the extraordinarily minimalist pads. And I also wonder if that isn't why we've lost certain extension shapes - like the "wrist relief" bend - because they did poorly in standalone aerodynamic tests...
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