Just got back from testing my new disk, front, skinsuit & helmet. Decided to stop by the wall and take a picture:
Upon looking, I found some things out:
my back is not as flat as I could have it.
I shouldn’t be looking up so much ( it was troublesome hanging on to the wall though, so perhaps that is to blame )
my clip-ons are too far down and perhaps my elbows therefore are raised in consequence. I made the following proposed changes:
Do you agree?
FYI: Hed tubular disc, Hed ? front wheel, veery old Rudy Project aero helmet, home-made skinsuit =)
Thanks!
PS ( ok, I give up, how do I get images in here? )
Uh, dude, your back is quite flat. Maybe not completely horizontal, but I’m not so sure that’s important. How relaxed are you in this position? It appears as though you’re really working to achieve that flat back position and could relax a bit. Other than that, if this were a picture of me, aside from being excited that I no longer had a gut, I’d consider using shorter aerobars, raising the aerobar extensions a bit so that they are horizontal or angled just a bit “up”.
BTW, on the shorter aerobar comment, that’s only b/c it looks like you are choking up a bit. With shorter bars, your hands could be comfortably on the upturned part o’ the bars.
Well, the problem is, I had to keep part of my shoulder in contact with the wall and I was not the most confortable there by any means. I had a feeling, whenever I would try to get in place, that I’d fall over to the side. I believe when I’m on the road I feel more relaxed.
But yes, I gotta experiment some more with it. I’m just looking for comments as “this angle is bad”, “your leg/saddle/shoe/whatever is wrong”, etc
If I had to guess from the picture, I’d say you are sitting too far back. Your knee looks to be behind the pedal spindle. Maybe the front end would fit you better, too, if you were further forward…there’s a pretty big gap between your knee and elbow. I’m also going to guess that your saddle might be just a tad high…very hard to tell without your leg in the lowest pedal position though, and also hard to tell without seeing if your hips rock during your pedal stroke…maybe you point your foot a lot at the bottom. Then again, maybe you shouldn’t be doing that, especially if you are having to run off of the bike, plus, I think it is easier to activate your glutes if you are able to drop your heel a bit at the bottom of your pedal stroke instead of pointing your foot. Again, this is almost impossible to tell from just this picture.
This is as far forward as I can go on a road bike frame, unfortunately. My team’s sponsoring shop promissed me a dedicated TT frame, but they could only get it some two weeks prior to the Natls, which would be a little risky. I can only make changes to what I have, as of right now. Will get new pictures once the Natls are over and I can build the new bike from scratch fully aero-oriented.
I’m just cycling, I don’t have to run after I get off this thing, though. It’s not a full-forward tri position, it is meant for a 30km time-trial on slightly rolling terrain.
The skinsuit: not as hard as one may think, my mom has a friend who sews and with her we “built her up” from some feet of lycra and a chamois. Quite a lot cheaper than a commercial one, and custom fit is a plus!
The new position does look like you are back a little too much, but it does not sound like you can fix this on your current set-up. I would try to raise the aero bars a bit more to get closer to 90 degrees on the elbow. You may lose some aerodynamics, but you will gain more force. My understanding of the back position is that as long as your back is below your head (frontal view) you are getting the maximum benefit. I actually like the back position in figure one better as it seems like you have greater ability to apply force.
buy a forward angled seatpost, cost ya a few $ and put you in a better TT position (theoretically speaking anyway, you’d need to test it out and see how your power/wattage/comfort is affected)
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I can’t quite tell from the picture, but your seatpost kind of looks like an Icon-style seatpost. If so, or if it’s similar, you may be able to turn it around 180 degrees and re-attach the seat to gain about 2 forward cm or so.
Trying to be as cheap as possible, this has worked for me.
