I have problems trying to fit a bottle between my arms while keeping the bottle low so that it does not stick up over my arms. I have the Vision aerobars and base bar that came with 2008 Cervelo P2C ultegras. The arm rests fill in much of the space between the aerobars. As a result, only a very short regular bottle fits forward of the arm rests down in the groove where it is behind my forearms and out of the wind. A regular 24 oz bottle or the Speedfil A2 need the space between the arm rests and as a result stick really high up in a very unaero looking position. I just noticed that all the current Vision and Profile aerobar setups with pictures on the internet have armrests that are completely outboard from the aerobars. On some of the new setups, the thing that attaches to the arm rests is actually pointed outward instead of straight down. I think I would have to cut off part of the armrests with a hacksaw to achieve this much space between the arm rests. The innermost bolt holes on my arms rests are much further from the inner edge of the arm rests than they look in current pictures of Vision bars.
Other than moving my aerobars several inches further apart, which I do not want to do, is there anything I can do ?
Would it be reasonable to hacksaw the armrests or am I missing something less drastic ?
Has the design of aerobar setups changed over the last 5 years because of the popularity of BTA setups ?
If you are using the narrow arm rest position, then yes, just cut off the rests that are protruding inboard. I’ve done it with Vision, photos here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=4292587;search_string=nickag%20vision;#4292587
my $0.10. I gave up on BTA bottle idea for that reason. I just keep 0, 1 or 2 depending on race distance behind my seat and always the speed concept bottle on the seat tube.
I personally don’t like the extra weight in front of the steering axis. It makes the front end too imbalanced as well. I suppose the extra weight might dampen steering inputs, but I prefer the front end to be neutral so that most of the steering is done with my body, not the bars (FYI - that’s a tip for poor bike handlers) you steer with your eyes and body, not the handlebars. You learn this really, really fast riding sportbikes at high speed as well. At higher speeds you can even counter steer just a little even on a lightweight bicycle. Most importantly on motorcycles and bicycles, your roll center and point of control is the pegs/pedals.
Using the above principal, you can take turns in the aerobars are pretty high speeds and lean angles with confidence only pausing pedal motion to weight the outside pedal and due to ground clearance. Actually the closer to a 50/50 weight distribution your are, the more balanced a bicycle is anyway. The exception is in wet and gravel/sand where quick steering corrections might be needed. Then you are in the drops/bull horns and leaning to hte inside to keep the bike as upright as possible and squaring off the corner as needed to find the “good pavement” for cornering grip.