I was about to order some Vision Tech base bars. A guy at my local shop told me they wouldn’t be good for me because they are only 42cm wide. I have broad shoulders and he said I need wider base bars. He said narrow base bars would screw up the way my bike handles.
I plan on being down on the aerobars 90 percent of the time anyway. I’ll only be on the base bars on a climb or descent if I need to be quick with the brakes.
This guy was not a triathlete. Does he have a point? I don’t think anybody makes a wide base bar. Has anyone had problems with bars being too narrow?
I think most of them come in 2 sizes and I cant recall off hand what they are but opt for the wider size. I found that, being that I have wide shoulders as well, that I need my elbow pads placed farther apart than most people, I prefer the pizza slice shape of my elbows to hands so therefore my arm rest pads need to be further apart, so if your base bar is not wide enough then when you hands are on the base bar your forearm will contact the elbow pads, very annoying.
I didnt like the vision bars because of this very issue, I went with the profile design CBX and love them, they have infinite adjustments and you can dial in your aerobars to fit perfectly.
I believe VT only makes one size bigger in 44 (please correct me if mistaken). 2 cm isn’t going to make much of a difference, especially for a typical triathlete spending most of the time on the aerobars. It you were running technical course TT’s then he might have an argument.
I just had apost about this a week or so ago. if you look on the vision webiste they talk about selecting the width. They say you dont pick them based on the width of your shoulders like road bars but more on the type of course. If you normally ride on hilly or t3echnical courses then the 42 cm are what you want. If not the 40’s are more aero and you should get them. The reasonig behind it was that you will be on the aerobars most of the time anyways.
I would think that if your bike handling skills are not that good or you have the back of an NFL lineman then maybe you should go with the bigger bar.
I think you’ve got two major issues with aero bar width. 1st, the right width will bring your arms to the right psosition so that the wind breaks over your hands and past your shoulders. Too wide and you give too much elbow, too narrow, and your chest acts as a sail. 2nd issue, too narrow and you potentially restrict the way your chest can expand when you’re breathing hard.
I had shoulder problems when I had bars that where to small for me, they where 44cm drop/road bars. I moved up to 46cm and my shoulders feel better. I dont think they make cowhorns bigger than 44? If your in the aero bars most of the time Id assume it wouldnt matter.
I had shoulder problems when I had bars that where to small for me, they where 44cm drop/road bars. I moved up to 46cm and my shoulders feel better. I dont think they make cowhorns bigger than 44? If your in the aero bars most of the time Id assume it wouldnt matter.
If you are basing some of your width decision from specs, make sure that you know whether the width measurement is based on outside to outside or center to center, as this will almost be the difference from one size to the next. I run 44CM road bars that are measured center to center. My original basebar was a 42, but I forgot which measurement the size was based on. In my case, the downsize on the basebar was not an issue for the amount of time I spent on them.
I had shoulder problems when I had bars that where to small for me, they where 44cm drop/road bars. I moved up to 46cm and my shoulders feel better. I dont think they make cowhorns bigger than 44? If your in the aero bars most of the time Id assume it wouldnt matter.
If you are basing some of your width decision from specs, make sure that you know whether the width measurement is based on outside to outside or center to center, as this will almost be the difference from one size to the next. I run 44CM road bars that are measured center to center. My original basebar was a 42, but I forgot which measurement the size was based on. In my case, the downsize on the basebar was not an issue for the amount of time I spent on them.
46cm center to center. I know that because a bike shope once ordered me 46 end to end and it was notably smaller. The did replace the bars.