I have been using straight bars for a while (after realizing that I always held my bars on the straight part anyway). It does give some extra leverage and I find them more comfie (but this is personal).

Walser bars though are very expensive (about $700 with the strong euros). I use Profile carbon X, with the pads directly on the base (remove the metal piece put a washer and have the screw straight in the pad then the base) and for the straight bars, I use a straight mountain bike bar, cut in too (easton carbon). Works well but needs bit of work to fit the shifters in the bar.

I find them pretty comfy. seems i too end up riding before the upward bend, but it is a little short. thanks for the reccomendation. I am hoping trek/bont will come out with the "lance" bar. supposedly that and the bont aero fork are on the way. who knows though. a year or two ago the walsers were like 500. d*** euros.

thanks

yeah, i think it has much more to do with leverage than aerodynamics. even way back in the day, greg lemond said the best thing about aerobars was that they gave him another point of leverage. so perhaps that suits certain types of riders/courses better. has anyone tried this position on long time trials? like 180km?

and is this position/these bars any more aero than the regular 'hands-up' position?

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

yep. Rode 200km last week in this position with 4h fast and it felt great.

[reply] I use a straight mountain bike bar, cut in too (easton carbon). Works well but needs bit of work to fit the shifters in the bar.[/reply]

Cool... I was thinking of doing the exact same thing with my Ovals.

I fugure I could get a cheapie carbon bar and use that...

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I used Deda bars last year and cut the rise out near the base. I left just enough for the shifters to be installed and it put me pretty close to flat. Just like the others I find my hands in the near flat position and find the long upright part a waste of space and weight. I would like to do the same to the Syntace bars but I got the smalls and I wouldn't fit if i hacked them off. I'd do the walsers if it was in the budget just to do it Jan style.

I hear you. Jan is just a cool guy.

But the integrated carbon levers are what get me. I may save up a few months past the heds for the walsers. I would also imaging that it is about the most aero bar out their. Armstrong's new bars look good too though. Lots of rumors and supposedly some word from Trek that the lance aerobars from last year and the new bontrager aero fork are on the way. Will have check with trek on that one sometime soon here. Not sure if that is an intergrated stem or not. To go Jan style, one would need rotate the bars down.

To DRawpt, do you ride an abicci? if so, how has your experience been. what model(s) have you ridden? As I mostly TT and road race, I am pretty sure that the time machine will be my next bike. My first true TT bike. They have agreed to sponsor our local road team and do some great sponsorship work.

Back to the bars, how hard is the PD modification. How many hours? I have yet to have a set of them come into the shop, so not to familiar as to their mechanics.

I did a lot of sponsor research this year, and the ABICI had everything that I found to be important in a TT frame: Dropped top tube, short-but-not-too-short head tube, Internal cable routing, aero tubing (of course... yes I know, not cervelo tubes but life goes on after cervelo, folks...), bladed seatstays, custom cut seat-mast (basically right up to the rails)... aerodynamics are in the details, as far as I'm concerned

Of course, I know it has (gasp) ROAD geometry, but I'm a time trialist, not a triathlete and, NO, I don't have to run off the bike (I used to do tris, but I was always a sucky swimmer). For full disclosure, I have not received the bike yet. It should arrive in Montréal in early March. I have owned a lot of bikes, some of which fit better than others; however, I really believe that there is enough adjustibility built into a bike that, using peripherals (stem, seat setback,etc) you can feel perfectly comfortable and fast after a short adaptation period AS LONG AS YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT SIZED FRAME (which I would say is plus or minus 1 cm of the Lemond sizing system).

I spoke with Roy Knickman at ABICI, and he is really a pleasure to work with. He rode with Lemond and Hinault, and has a ton of experience with bikes.

I am gearing up for the provincial TT champs this year, and will be doing lots of riding on the Time Machine, so I will keep you posted.

As an aside, I noticed that although triathletes are very accepting of new technology, they seem to feel that Rotorcranks are somehow cheating. It's NOT FREE SPEED, guys. You have to work for it. It's no different than clap-skated in speed skating: rotors just have the potential to be more efficient if you train on them properly.

Just my two cents...

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Cool. Roy is an awesome guy. The geometry seems like it will line up very well with me in a small. Kind of in the same boat there too. Just a handful of tris and the rest road races and TT.

Thanks