Any tips? Searched the archives and couldn’t find anything recent. New (to me) tri bike. First race (local duathlon) this morning and I was scarred to stay on the aero extensions on fast descents. Previous years I’ve been on a road bike with short bars and most likely was in the drops for most fast descents. I’ve had a professional fitting. Otherwise not bad at bike handling (from a mountain bike perspective, never road raced/crit’d).
So aside from descending more, any suggestions to help feeling more comfortable at higher speeds on the aero extensions? Thanks.
If you’re descending straight line, being on the aero extensions is possible (depending on the circumstances) if your bike is steady and you have lots of experience. However, it will take you some time to get on your brakes if needed. That’s where lots of judgment comes in as to where you’re gonna rest your hands. And that’s where you realize a bike is vehicle, one that can be totally unforgiving of mistakes.
But if you’re descending fast and also cornering, you’re gonna have to be on your base bars or drop bars. You’ll need the leverage to corner rapidly and precisely. And you’ll need to have your fingers on the brake levers to adjust and scrub speed. I personally far prefer drop bars for challenging technical descents and, when racing with drop bars, I pass tons of riders on the bike who are on the base bars of their full tri set up.
maybe nothing recent, but i don’t think you could do better than to pull up slowman’s article(s) on this. it was in
a series of articles on the front page, not a post.
peggy
Thanks for all the advice. I feel like a bit less of a wuss since I pretty much did what was described (on the base bars/fingers on the brakes) for the steeper descents which had turns and stayed not the aero extensions for the straight descents. There may have been a few more that I could have stayed on the extensions for and I’ll just keep working at it. I try and find Dan’s article as well. Appreciate the help.
seaarch YouTube for some videos. there are a few good ones. it’s important to try to use all of your side of the road if possible, starting wide, swinging through the apex of the corner and exiting to the oppositie side to reduce the angle of the corner. Use roadsigns, trees etc to help give you information about the corner. if a roadsign says 15mph (for cars) you can probably take it at 25mph - ie 10mph faster than the sign. put your outside foot at 6 o’clock as you round corners. for more stability on a tri bike, slide to the back of the saddle.
Any tips? Searched the archives and couldn’t find anything recent. New (to me) tri bike. First race (local duathlon) this morning and I was scarred to stay on the aero extensions on fast descents. Previous years I’ve been on a road bike with short bars and most likely was in the drops for most fast descents. I’ve had a professional fitting. Otherwise not bad at bike handling (from a mountain bike perspective, never road raced/crit’d).
So aside from descending more, any suggestions to help feeling more comfortable at higher speeds on the aero extensions? Thanks.
There was an article/video about this recently on Velonews. com You might head over there
I think what you might mean is not so much descending at speed in aero, as the ability to quickly get to the brakes if needed. It comes with practice, but I’ve seen rides tha have on arm on aerobarvand other on brake in very fast descents
I consider myself a pretty good descender. Most of it is just practice and comfort.
But here are a few tips:
Weight through the outside pedal in every corner. Even gentle corners. Everything drives through the outside pedal. Almost no weight on bars or saddle.
In corners, put inside hand someplace low and stable to countersteer. On a road bike, this is the drops. On TT bike, take inside hand off the aerobars and put it in the pursuit position. OK to keep an aeroish position and keep outside hand on the aerobar, if you want. But if it is sketchy at all, you don’t want your inside hand on the aerobars.
Look where you are going. This one seems obvious, but looking through the corner takes you through the corner. Looking at something scary takes you into the scary thing.
Brake before the corner and accelerate with the descent through the corner. Way faster and safer than braking in the corner.
Late apex the corner as much as possible. It is the safest and nearly the fastest way through a corner.
My final tip comes from mountain biking and you are probably familiar. If you feel like you are going too fast, look as far as you can up the trail/road. If you still feel like you are going too fast, then you should probably brake.
I consider myself a pretty good descender. Most of it is just practice and comfort.
But here are a few tips:
Weight through the outside pedal in every corner. Even gentle corners. Everything drives through the outside pedal. Almost no weight on bars or saddle.
In corners, put inside hand someplace low and stable to countersteer. On a road bike, this is the drops. On TT bike, take inside hand off the aerobars and put it in the pursuit position. OK to keep an aeroish position and keep outside hand on the aerobar, if you want. But if it is sketchy at all, you don’t want your inside hand on the aerobars.
Look where you are going. This one seems obvious, but looking through the corner takes you through the corner. Looking at something scary takes you into the scary thing.
Brake before the corner and accelerate with the descent through the corner. Way faster and safer than braking in the corner.
Late apex the corner as much as possible. It is the safest and nearly the fastest way through a corner.
My final tip comes from mountain biking and you are probably familiar. If you feel like you are going too fast, look as far as you can up the trail/road. If you still feel like you are going too fast, then you should probably brake.
Good luck.
Andy
All really good tips. I’d say I’m OK at descending, but what’s helped me improve significantly is following and trying to keep up with riders who are really good and really fast. The key here is you knowing that this is the case and not just picking someone random. Pushing down on the outside of the pedal makes a huge difference, keeps your center of gravity low, which is even tougher to do on a TT bike IMO. Practice, practice, practice more… and always be safe.
The only way to get used to speed is to find a hill and go down it a whole bunch of times. If you can find one with bends, even better.
Either bent low (which I don’t find stable) or full aero on the bars, with an occasional hand on the rear brake. Get used to one hand in either case.
Stay away from the front brake when you are down over the front wheel. Otherwise braking can become a youtube moment.
I love descending and can’t think of the last time I was passed going down a hill. Although going up is a whole different story.
However I might suggest a little math would do you good.
Taking a typical 40k Olympic as a standard consider the following. Most of it will be on a flat or rolling road, so no fears there, you should be able to maintain a good average speed.
On a typical 40k course (Olympic) there might be two or three hills of any substantial slope. Lets assume three hills of a kilometer each.
On the 3k of downhill, if you just coast on the hoods you will certainly reach a speed of 50 to 55 kph, without pedalling. At 55kph that will take you 3.27 minutes to cover 3k.
If you get aggressive and push the downhill you might reach 70 kph, which would mean a streamlined position (maybe on the bars) it would take you 2.57 minutes to cover 3k.
The difference between all out and coasting 40 seconds. This assumes you reach full velocity instantly and maintain a steady speed through all corners and do not brake from 70 kph to make the corners.
It’s unlikely you will brake while at 55 kph. So chances are you are losing even less than the time I suggested.
Assume you average 32kph the other 37k. That will take you 69.37 minutes far better to work on your average, 1kph better for 37k will do you much better by 2 minutes.
Yes lots of people say they can go faster than what I have suggestet, however unless you have the gearing you will spin out by the time you get to 70.kph (110 cadence or more) and few can or should spin that fast down on the bars.