is that the Oval prototype we saw pics of a few months back?

its blackwell research

Slicker than any production bar made today, Easton's, Profile's, FSA, etc. these are faster from 35% to 11% over a range of 0 - 15* yaw

Around 800g

And don't even ask the price, but they are worth it.

I'll post more info and pics after Interbike.

Gary - www.RotorCranks.com, www.TimeTrial.org

holy-marketing batman!

the bars look cool and all (but i sure as hell would not use them on the Calif. Donner Lake Triathlon. or at least not if i wanted to go really fast, brake, and corner even faster on those downhills).

let's see here.... where do i begin? well, let us estimate how much time one would save (assuming fit and body position was identical, which is readily possible) by going from drop bars with good clip-ons to full aerobars (like profile carbon X's) on a 40k ride at about 25 mph.

the answer: not much at all. since the VAST majority of air resistance is caused by BODY size and shape and BODY POSITION, if you are pretty aero on a pretty aero bike, you would be incredibly lucky to save 15 seconds based on improvements from the bar alone (not body position). unfortunately, those that have examined this data point carefully in a wind tunnel are not too keen on saying publicly more precisely what the savings really are (or, more accurately, how little they are), as it may kill off their full aerobar sales.

well, stay with me on this for a while:

so, if we save 15 sec. by switching from a drop bar and clip-on combo to a full aerobar, let us use a bit of common sense and simply imagine what could possibly be saved by switching between various brands of decent quality full aerobars. so, we might be talking 3 sec., 5 sec., or in our wildest imagination, 7 sec. (unless one of them was bolted to a jet engine or something) difference between decent full aerobars.

so if you toss away your current $400 full aerobar, and use these new cobb bars which "are faster from 35% to 11%", that means they will save you a couple of seconds over your existing full aerobar over 40k.

the most expensive couple of seconds you can possibly buy.

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Where would you want to swim ?

i think anyone with good light bars that upgrades to these bars is not very smart like the previous replies note.
if you can buy a brand new bike and have a choice at these or others then i'd go for them just for novelty...
pedal harder for 100m at some point and also note that you can cut your time by 3-4secs!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm glad some else can stand up and throw the yellow flag on this kind of crap.

I generally say the same think about aero frames, especially Cervelos, though that is like dissing the holy cow here at slowtwitch. These component manufacturers and frame makers are geniuses at marketeing. I switched from a decidedly non-aero frame to a Cervelo P2 with vision tech bars and I was not suddenly 2-4 minutes faster. You are correct-Holy Marketing. What nonsense.

After I ditched the Cervelo (sorry HH, nothing personnel) I wrote something similar about their frames and recieved about a 50/50 split of people who say they were faster or were not faster on their new cervelo. I suspect the improvement could as easily be attributed to the placebo effect and the fact that they were riding with a completely new drivetrain, which would help any bike and be much less expensive then an entirely new ride.

Chad

Yes the $ per second improvement may not be massive but then none of us are nieve enough to believe they would be. The bottom line is always thats it's in the engine. However, ANY performance gain is a GAIN and that as a competitive athlete is what I want to see. It's upto us if we are willing to pay for it. Looking at my hardware and bikes I am.........

CAn I have your cast off Ovals then? ;-)

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

"the most expensive couple of seconds you can possibly buy."

I've now lived in Amsterdam for nearly a month and that is not true.

On topic I agree with the rest of what you say but well they're bike companies - innovate, refine and tinker with the allready near perfect is what they do. I really can't see the problem or why people get so upset about a bit of marketing unless people become so addicted to spending money on aero trinkets they forget to buy food. 99% of what I buy I don't need but none of it looks as cool as those bars.

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"Are you sure we're going fast enough?" - Emil Zatopek

Great/cool/neat /wow and really good to see people pushing the envolpe,but i hate to be the one to tell you thats not going to get you to a 53 minute 40k from a 57minute 40k

John is a brilliant guy. I never doubted we'd be seeing much more from him. This is cool.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Now they can send you your check.

I don't work for Blackwell, just thought the bars were Uber cool.

And no, they wont get me from a 57 to a 53 min 40k - but for that jump, anything will help!

:)

Gary

I think they are ugly. What's with the split base bar? Wouldn't that cause a lot of turbulence?

no, it pulls air through, like the Oval Jetstream fork

According to JC "They really are fast, like .35 lbs. lower drag than a Easton, thats 4-5 minutes on an Ironman."

I thought independent testing showed the Jetstream fork to fare no better than other widely available aero forks ???

rmur

I agree as well. The air that flows so freely over the bars still smacks right into your hips and thighs. I would say the best time to be made with aero bars is at the levers, which hang out in the wind and if wide enough don't get hung up on body parts. Of course a 26in waist and bird legs might be the way to go for real gains.

"And don't even ask the price, but they are worth it."

Worth it for whom? The buyer or the seller.

looks especially clean without the cabling in place.

excellent point. but my answer to this is ... well, yes and no.

here is my problem. i like innovation, i really do. but some people and companies innovate where it really, really makes a a big difference for a a lot of riders. they make riding on road or off road a lot more comfortable, a lot faster, easier, more accessible, simpler, cheaper, safer, or less painful for a LOT of riders in a BIG way.

we can all think of fairly significant innovations in cycling in the last 30 years that fit in this category. even though i started riding and racing in the campy downtube friction shifting age, i think STI shifting with indexing and shift-under-load, 'hyperglide' is one of the best of these innovations.

and there are so many areas in cycling that could still badly use VAST improvements, but in my opinion, saving a 3 seconds on a 40k ride for a $400 investment is just not that high on the list for me. but at least the bars look sort of interesting...

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Where would you want to swim ?

"the most expensive couple of seconds you can possibly buy."

I've now lived in Amsterdam for nearly a month and that is not true.


lol

the truest statement on this entire thread

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I find it hard to believe that any aero bar could make this large a difference, especially in the real world where any time spent climbing hills, slowing down for turns, etc. reduces the effects of aero equipment.

Cool looking bars though. Does anyone know what the relationship is between these and the Oval Concepts bars used by Heras in the Vuelta: http://www.velonews.com/...articles/8919.0.html