http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/jun05/protourttt05/?id=nld-gero-83
take a look at this photo! old School? or new?
Dan…
holy crap! what is the width of those bars… They are so narrow! They look like very narrow pursuit bars.
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still twice as large as the aerobars seen on some Hooker bikes…
Hmmm. That looks like a very odd adaptation to me. I would like to hear more information on why this may be considered better than a more traditional aerobar.
They only use it for the Team Time Trial. So either they don’t trust there team mates riding aero bars in a group – some deeply seeded roadie reaction-- or they think-- and now know by winning this one-- that it provides benefit.
Honestly, I can’t understand why they would need their hands near the shifter/brake levers and place themselves in a less aero position.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/jun05/protourttt05/?id=dsc00031
sorry, not sure how to get aroudn the link issue but check out the length of these CSC extensions!
Remember Winning Magazine? Those bars look like the TTT bars the Italians used to win the TTT at the world championships sometime in the 80’s. They were a cross between bullhorn bars and regular aerobars that supported each arm at about knee height and width.
Before the net, etc., Winning Magazine and Velonews were the only way I could see me cycling idols. I practically memorized each picture.
David K
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38cm hbars for everyone except rich who’s built like a brick shit-house, he got some 40 cm bars. suffice itu to say those walsers are fast and aerobars in a team pursuit with those turns were not required. anyone have any pics of the bikes from the side?
jerk
38cm hbars for everyone except rich who’s built like a brick shit-house, he got some 40 cm bars. suffice itu to say those walsers are fast and aerobars in a team pursuit with those turns were not required. anyone have any pics of the bikes from the side?
jerk
I suspect they’re much narrower than that…
Found this pic on cyclingnews from the Ster Elektrotoer race, Netherlands. Must be working for him cos he won there too.
He’s switched to S’s and got the width so that the arms shield the legs directly. An assumption on my part is this puts a major airflow right through the centre and directed downwards. An interesting change of tack. Note until this photo Rich had been using straights for a couple of years.
Tom D switched me to s’s 2 days ago and I’m racing them for a second time on Thursday night. so far so good.
I have to agree with Tom, this is a revolutionary change but I’d like to see some logic as to how this has been conceived faster than aerobars. I seriously doubt it’s because a TT team of this quality ‘can’t handle their bikes’…
100K bars were pretty narrow like that…
Here’s more pictures form the Eindhoven TTT:
http://cyclingfx.sitesled.com/TTT_Eindhoven05/index.html
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/jun05/protourttt05/?id=photos
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gerolsteiner and their walsers and now their awesome tt bars. they are pimps.
jerk
Well at some point you’re as aero as you’re gonna get. Your palms could be touchin, but all that air still hits your chest,abdomen and shoulders etc. So why not open yourself up a little? The bike on it’s own is not as aero, but with the rider, does it really matter so much if the wind is just going to catch you anyway? Perhaps alot of what we do is so much a trade off that it works as well as anything. It obviously worked, but so would have the usuall.
Hmmmm. Possibly. I’ll be interested to see if any of the Gerolsteiner boys use this set up in an individual time trial at the tour. I’m not so sure they will…
Bump.
Anybody know more information about sizing/availability?
Looks like a very powerful position…
These actually make a lot of sense to me. Think about how many position changes you go through on a standard aero/base bar set up…reaching to brake, moving to corner, constantly in and out with the hands from one position to the next.
One of my problems with wind tunnel testing is that it takes a static position and and fine tunes it. We aren’t static on the road. How do we measure how much we lose by moving from aero bar to base bar and back for every corner and climb? We don’t measure that in wind tunnels, but we should, because that is the real world. It’s like aero helmets, they are designed to reduce drag with the head up, but how often do you see guys wearing aero helmets, head down and hammering, that big tail sticking straight up into the wind. I would think they’d be better off with a standard helmet if they ride head down so much.
I think these bars are an answer to a problem that very few have realized exists. These guys are able to ride in ONE position for practically the entire time. No upper body shifts, no rising and falling as they move from aero to base bar. They are low, aero, balanced and static. The more I look at it, the more it makes sense to me.
Or maybe i’m just on crack…