Dan’s recent article about evil spacers and stems got me thinking.
If you need to get your base bar to a given height that is higher than the headtube, is it better to use headset spacers with a flat (-17 deg) stem or to use no/fewer spacers with a stem angled upward?
Do areo-shaped headset spacers exist? I would think that would be an easy sell for people who have bikes with standard front ends (except Specialized Transitions and others with some sort of fairing behind the headtube).
I had this same thought a few months ago.
I came to the conclusion, that more spacers and a flat stem was better. Looking at it from the front, I would assume that the surface area of the spacers would be less than that of the exposed upturned stem. The aerobars would “hide” the flat stem better…
Never tested it before but it makes sense to me!
but the shape of an up angled stem relative to the wind is oval which is better than round!
oh snap
I know it doesn’t answer your question, but better than spacers or angled stem would be: no spacers, flat stem and higher stack aerobars.
ding ding ding
.
I know it doesn’t answer your question, but better than spacers or angled stem would be: no spacers, flat stem and higher stack aerobars.
That’s my plan before the season starts, what options are there for bars that raise the pads and extensions vs. just raising the pads up?
Good point that areobars are a better solution than spacers/stem. I guess I wasn’t thinking about bars that could raise both the elbow pads and the base bar. While I don’t spend a lot of time on the base bar, I do want to feel confident and comfortable on it and if it is a lot lower than my areobars, then that won’t be the case. And I don’t have a ton of money, so the expensive ones that almost cost as much as some decent bikes are out of the question for me.
Any suggestions an aero base bar without any drop to the hand position? I think Felt’s bars might be like that… maybe I can get a take-off from somebody who switched. And which areobars have decent vertical rise and/or adjustment?
Most stems extensions are narrower than most HS spacers also. As far as pad risers, thats probably dependant on the particular bar.
Styrrell
The good old Syntace C2 Clip is available with a riser kit. Now, *theoretically *it should be possible to get 2 kits, some longer screws from the hardware store and ´stack´ the top parts of the risers, raising up bars and pads. (see below) but I don´t know anyone who has done this.
Yes there are aero shape spacers available.
Yes there are aero shape spacers available.
Vision makes them. Or use a Bento box
I looked on the Vision web site and only see aero spacers for their integrated bars. Does anybody make areo spacers for standard bars? And a stem with an aero shape at the rear?
Maybe all of this is moot for me. I have a Speed Concept 7.0 and maybe the Speedbox that mounts on the top tube is good enough. What do you think?
I think the answer is going to lie with your specifics – what kind of bars, extensions, and water bottle setup you are using and how your whole frontal plane looks.
Good thought. I’ll get all of that sorted out (it’s a new bike and I’m just figuring out how I want it set up.
Maybe I can make some kind of custom fairing that mounts to the Speedbox mounts on the top tube and goes up to the steer tube.
Thanks all for your thoughts.