blueQuintana wrote:
I just bought a 2017 Cervelo S2 (as a replacement for my tri bike which was stolen). i have two questions for those who know about road bikes: 1. How much time would I save over a 40k TT by upgrading wheels to something like this:
https://www.probikekit.ca/bicycle-wheels/reynolds-strike-clincher-disc-wheelset/11409299.html?affil=thggpsad&switchcurrency=CAD&shippingcountry=CA&variation=11409300&thg_ppc_campaign=0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_4yG_trv2wIVXTpPCh1flwjSEAEYASABEgLqRvD_BwE
Vague rough sketchy order-of-magnitude ballpark neighborhood approximate guess, a minute or so.
It depends on course and conditions and tire setup and rider and probably some other things. Maybe.
The even bigger benefit of deep carbon rims is that they make your road hum much louder than shallow aluminum.
Quote:
2. It's been discussed at length that tri bars on a tri bike are only useful if actually used. When i had my old bike i was always trying to stay in the tri position as much as possible to take advantage. Does the same hold true for drop handle bars on a road bike? How come most people i see on road bikes are on top of the hoods instead of in the drops?Tri bars are generally the primary position on a tri bike. "Not using them" usually means being much more upright on the base bars, which is obviously much less aero.
How road handlebars are used is a more complicated matter. There are a lot of geometries to the bars, a lot of designs for the hoods, and a lot of ways to configure and use them that can all make sense.
1-How upright you are at a given moment depends on a lot more than just hand position. What are your arms doing? If my hands are in the hoods and my forearms are parallel to the ground with my elbows bent, I'm MUCH lower than if my hands are in the hoods with my arms outstretched.
This also depends on how aggressively a bike is fit, which depends not only on the bike itself but also on the rider's physiology. People usually think that a road bike fit looks relaxed if the handlebars are at nearly saddle height, but if the rider has short arms, it may actually be a fairly aggressive fit. Especially if that rider likes to posture their arms with a lot of elbow bend or whatever.
2-Depending on the location of the bars, the shape of the bars, and the position of the hoods on the bars... the drops might not actually be a significantly more aggressive position than the hoods. The drops are always lower, but they're also closer, which can counteract much of the lowness.
3-Modern brake hoods make for excellent handrests, and shifting is usually easiest to accomplish from a hoods hand position. So modern road bikes are often fit in such a way that the hoods are somewhere that it makes sense to spend a lot of time in.
4-Some people fit their handlebars excessively low, either in an attempt to look cool or because they think it'll make them more aero. The practical outcome is that, instead of being more aero, they just spend all of their time in the least-aggressive positions on the handlebar. Ironically, there's a good chance that some of these folks could be more aero if they raised their bars, since it would be easier to do things like ride with level forearms when the circumstances call for it.