Going back to IMWI to tame the hills. Last time I rode my tri bike and would do the same, but installed Hed integrated bars this winter. I use a slight amount of bar tape on the “hoods”…although I’m a bit nervous about THAT amount of out of the saddle hammering and potential to either slipage and/or general leverage issues.
I’m fine with in-saddle hammering on the bars, but the out-of-saddle might be tricky…
I could:
Ride my TT bike, stop whining
Install my old Carbon X (the hood position would be REALLY low)
Buy a new set of bars (?)
Use my Soloist (jam the seat up to 76 where I ride, toss on some aerobars, pretend I’m Simon Lessing)
I don’t know why there is all this concern about the IMMOO hills, are all you folks from Florida or Nebraska?
I did IMMOO with the HED bar and was in the aero’s 95% of the time. The hills are all very short. You can coast/pedal half way up or more in the bars on most of them. There are also many long flat sections where you never get out of the bars. Stick with the HED bar, It’s fast!
Not concerned about the hills, I am concerned about my set-up… (I’ve race Moo 2x/ridden it more)
The goal is a very brisk bike pace, which involves out of the saddle on 60% of the climbs. IMO, the weak link of the Hed bars is the hood nub.
I’ll ride the course plenty this season, so will have an answer by the end of June, just wondering about other’s experience with out of saddle climbing with the Heds.
I rode a conservative 5:24 to set up a 3:27 run. I do tend to climb in the saddle so the small hand grips don’t bother me, in fact they are just bare carbon and I don’t wear gloves. I do get out odf the saddle occasionally to stretch the legs but I don’t think it is as effecient as in saddle climbing.
The great thing about both HED and Oval Concepts aero bars is that the hands on the brakes position, or the ‘hoods’ position is very comfortable…I ride my TT bike (Oval Concepts A700 bars which are evry similar in design) and do normal rides on flats, rolling and hills with no issues…just ride it and save yourself the hassle of changing bars
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I’m considering putting the Hed bars on my P3C this weekend. I’m concerned about the small hoods for climbing. Should I be concerned?..maybe get VisionTech?
Go with 1. The HED bars are FINE for climbing. I live in a hilly area (avg. 1000 vft/20miles) and ride my tri bike (with HED bars) basically exclusively. Rode them in St. Croix, worked fine up The Beast. Put a bit of bar tape if you are worried (I ride mine bare).
Low hoods would be worse.
(marked as 4) Waste of $$
(marked as 5) This would be a good plan if you had plenty of watts to spare…
I would also recommend that climb seated. It’s good enough for Lance to do…
granted the HED bars aren’t the stiffest out there but I have no problem with mine for climbing races, aka Wildflower for example. I’m more of a seated aero grind the big gear climber but never had any problems with extended standing climbs on the HEDs. Guess you just get used to it. You’ve already got the bar tape so if you’re really concerned about grip maybe wear gloves versus going without.