I'm riding the aluminum version of the Oval bars and am very happy with them. They are infinitely adjustable, and very solid feeling. There is no flex that you might find in the carbon bars. I also like the fact that the stem is not integrated so you have more choices for length. The only negative thing is that the arm pads are a bit thin.

I think these bars are the best choice for larger and/or more powerful riders.

I used the Carbon X for about a year and I really liked them, but I had to sell them because they just didn't fit right. Don't buy this product unless you are sure it fits.

I haven't used the new products with a seperate stem yet, but I think this is the way to go. It is just more flexible.

I really like my CarbonX bars...but like AJ said...make sure that they will fit you. You are very limited to stem length.

---

----------------------------------------------------------

What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

I just bought myself Ovals and I love them. They will virtually fit pretty most everybody. As stated above, there isn't any flex which I like. I haven't riden the hed bars, but from what I heard, they're the same as the ovals, just 200 dollars more and 35 grams less.

I recently built a new TT bike, and I'm using the HED bars. I think they're awesome. My biggest concern was that my back is a bit tricky (but getting better) and I might need or want to change the stem length and/or angle (drop), obviously not possible with any of the integrated units.

The HED bars are great, and the integrated brake levers are excellent. One minor discomfitting factor is that the carbon arm rests flex just a bit, which isn't a factor unless your shoulder is screwed up (mine is at the moment) and you shift around while riding. One change I made was sticking velcro to the arm rest and pad, so that the pad is a)thicker and softer and b) more importantly, it is now removable for adjustment purposes.

The new Ovals look pretty good. They weren't available when I got mine, or I might have opted for the lower cost, since they look identical.

---

Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
Brought to you by the good folks at Metamucil and Geritol...

I finally got to take the Hed bars for a spin a few weeks ago and decided they're not for me. They do look great and I was very impressed with the build quality of parts of them. A few things struck me about them. The pursuit "handles" are tiny. They are much smaller than I thought they were going to be. I prefer something more substantial. As brought up many times before, I also had issues with how slippery the bars are when wet. The arm rests were also way too flexy for me. But at 200 pounds I'm heaver than the average rider so I'm not sure it will bother everyone. But the circular arm pads rest on a thin piece of composite that flattens out easily towards the outside of the bar. I imagine this could be remidied by using either an aluminum arm rest rather than composite, or using some sort of reinforcing ridge in the underside of the composite plate to make it more resistant to flexing. Finally, the base bar was a bit narrow for my taste. I'm curious to see how these bars evolve over the years. They are very unique and well built (for the most part) but I think there's a handful of improvements which could be made and hopeful will be in future "releases".

If I were buying bars for a new bike, I'd be looking into VisionTech, Oval, and my old standby, Syntace. But I think with these one piece bars you need to take em' out for a spin. You'll never be able to tell otherwise.

Hey DD, how about Deda Elementi Aeroblack base bar with their Aeroclip bar? All carbon, very light, allows your choice of length of stem. & very sexy!! www.dedaelementi.com and go to triathlon range.

Julian in England.

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Oooh! The Aeroblack is one nice looking base bar. I prefer the GCB extensions though as I like to have my front end mounted bottle (sorry, I know they're ugly) for those longer races. Looks like you have to go with Deda extensions though unless you know of someone who makes them for the 31.7mm bar.

Thank you all for giving me your feedback. The deda is one sweet looking base bar. I actually have the deda clip ons on my current for sale TT bike. Not raced them but I like their simplicity, light weight, old school arm rests, and adjustability fore aft. I'm, I mean the wife, is leaning towards the Ovals since they are priced reasonably vs the Heds and the 60gms heavier or so makes no difference to me. I've never owned a TT bike under 22 pounds. The newest should build to 18.5 w/wheels. I also have a stem so that is one less end to take care of. Thanks for all the feedback. Julian where in the Uk do you live? My wife was living in London for 6.5 months and I was over quite a bit. I got bored running around Hyde/James/Green Parks by myself everyday and would have loved a running partner. DD

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

DD, I live on the central south coast, right on Bournemouth Bay. It has many offroad trails arounds the harbour and up on the head, with the Bay to do sea swims between April and September, with the hills of Dorset and the Isle of Purbeck or the New Forest for cycle rides. Its not got the weather of California but it suits me.

It would be a bit of a trek to run with you as its about 90 miles from London, which doesn't sound a lot to you guys but with our roads it would take 90 mins +.

Happy Birthday and good luck on your purchase.

Julian in England.

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

What is the cable routing like with the Deda AeroBlack/ClipBlac combo and bar end shifters?