I bought a 2013 Cervelo P3 in June 2013 (7 months ago). The bike came with 3T Aura Pro aerobars. Last month the left arm pad bracket snapped during a ride. Luckily I was only 3 miles from home. LBS took care of it right away and fixed it under warranty.
A couple of days ago the right side arm pad bracket snapped. I talked to both Cervelo and 3T. They will of course fix it again under warranty, but could not offer any ideas for improvement or a more permanent fix. After two broken pieces in a month I’ve lost confidence the Aura bars and think I need to upgrade to something more robust.
I’m 6’2" and 205 lbs. I find elbows a little wider is more comfortable. I’m training for a half in April. I’m looking for aerobar recommendations.
Assuming is those wing extenders that are breaking, you can use the Zipp ones instead:
We’ve had great success with the Zipp “Vuka Aero Pad Wing Extension” plates. I’ll estimate that roughly 65-70% of our P2s leave here with them. Just use the 3T screws to attach the wing to the bar, and the Zipp screws to attach the elbow cup to the wing extension.
The LBS did a great job of taking care of warranty work. The part came in a about 3 days then a day to get it replaced by LBS. Both Cervelo and 3T were quick to say they are happy to send a replacement part.
My issue is different then the 3T recall. The recall was due to short bolts. My issue is the riser piece where the arm pad connects to the bars. The piece also tightens around the bar extensions. The piece actually splits causing the arm pad to drop down onto the base bar and bar extension to freely slide around.
When I talked to the American distributor for 3T, Vittoria, they said they seen a few of this type of break. It doesn’t sound like there’s a good fix for this problem. I don’t want to just keep replacing the part under warranty, so I’m searching for something that will work better for me.
I had a funny experience with these bars when I purchased a P3 last year. I noticed that the label on the right extension was misspelled–instead of “Performance”, it was “Performace”! Not surprised that there are other quality issues.