Personally I don't like to go steeper than around 76-77 degrees on a modified road bike. Been there, done that and handling sucked. You just have to realize it is a compromise set up and can't normally expect to go as steep or as low as a tri bike which of course is designed geometrically for riding steep in aero bars.

matt...i think you mean 74 degree right?

anybody remember Steve Bauer riding that crazy slack Motorola bike?

Kurt

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I tried the same thing using HED aero bars on a Giant TCR. I futzed with everything trying to get it right, but it never felt right and I ended up converting it back to a pure road bike. I've since bought the Felt S22 and the difference is night and day.

ChuckyFinster what was the frame like as a road bike did you race it?

Yes, I raced the Los Angeles Triathlon on it. I figured I'd give that a go since I pretty much painted myself into a corner with it. I forced myself for three months to train with it thinking I was just not used to it and time in the saddle would make all things right. Like you I pushed the seat as far forward as I could, increased the angle of the stem, bought a tri saddle, raised/lowered the seat post. None of it worked, my chode was always raw.

edited to say: as a road bike, I love it. I raced it as a road bike in the last California Half Ironman. But it's like everything else, you know you want to go faster, not faster relative to your equipment, but faster relative to your competition. Hence the Felt purchase.

If that were my bike, I would set it up with my road bike position for the seat height and location, then throw on some Syntace base bars with some drop to them to emulate my drops position, then put on some clipons with little if any stack height - basically the pads right on the base bar.

But that's just me.

I used to do tri on a TCR and it worked quite decent. In fact my bike splits are comparable to my tri bikes.

I had a neutral set back post with the seat forward on the rails which gave an effective seat angle around 76 degrees. I wouldn't go any more than this as it puts too much weight forward and throws off the handling. I tried a Profile forward seat post and didn't like it.

I used Syntace C2's with the drop bars as low as possible with a -17 stem. Used a Hed Jet 60 front and CH Aero disc cover rear.

 

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Fighting gravity on a daily basis