Although I'd love to blow $500 on a Hed Aero Bar, it's just hard to justify given current finances. But I want to get lower in my aero position and my stem / base bar / clip-on set up is down in the head tube as far as it will go. It seems to me that it might be possible to mount the clip-ons on the underside of the base bar, and build up the elbow pads enough allow the forearm to clear the base bar. I think that the shifter extensions are round tubing so I could rotate those 180 degrees.

Pardon the crude diagram below, but this is how it would look roughly. I think I would just take out the removable shifter bent tubes, remove the elbow pads, flip the clip-ons over and mount them to the underside of the base bar. I'm guessing it's not a good idea to mess with the mounting hardware on the clip-on bar -- just install it as is, but upside down. Then I'd have to figure out how to put the elbow pads on the 'upside down' clip-on. I think the shifter tubes would just slide into tubes.

Has anyone else considered this or done it? If this would work, the base bar and brakes would be completely unaffected. The only thing that would change is that my elbows would sit lower by maybe the height of the base bar (which could be significant I guess). Heck, I'd even get that Jan Ulrich lower-hand position by reaching over the base bar down to the shifters...

looking forward to the feedback (and catching up to Slowman if I can get lower and faster).

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Tom C