Was fooling around today and set up my aerobars this way just for kicks after seeing Tom A aerobar set up in the P4 thread. I rode it for about an hour on the trainer and felt great with the straight extensions and having the brakes set up this way gave me a new hand position. I am going to cable the bike and take it out on the road. Stem, basebar, shifters,brakes and aerobars came in at 900g total weight.
So any thought as to why this would be a bad idea?
Gotta have strong thumbs…
Cool!
Have you considered the Titanflex Clean Brake instead?
I have seen that before but since these are all parts I have laying around in the garage, I built it up this way. I was actually going to cut the basebar down to have the brake levers directly under the armrests but the bars swoop back and I would like to do that set up with a straight bar which I might do at a later date.
Two friends of mine do the same thing, it’s all fine
Xav
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How exactly are you squeezing the brakes levers with that setup? Are you mostly using your thumbs?
If you are set on that setup on the brakes I would at least make it possible to change them to the stronger pulling position for training on the road with traffic and people. What many people use in races (baddmanns brake and aerobars) dont work in the real world. That being said I have had 3 out of about 20 races where there was a car bike collision.
Too bad the position of your shift levers negate the few seconds you’d have saved with the turned in brake levers. :^)
Well since there are no cables at this time yes they are in the lower position but when it comes race time the left shifter will be in the up position and the right shifter will me near the middle also keep in mind that my hands will be there and they are bigger than my shifters and my hands will be wrapped around the shifters for the most part anyways which will make the shifter disappear to the wind. So I do not think it will make a difference that you think it will.
At this time I only use my pointer finger to actuate the brakes so I do not think using my thumbs will be that different at all. The only issue that I see is flipping the brake from a downward position in training to the inward position for racing but of course this can be fixed by getting a pair of the TRP levers with internal run housings and cables. With the Stratos basebar the housings exit the bars at the back before the bend so I can run the cable around the back of the basebar. Since I will be using Nokon’s, I can have a tighter bend to keep them hidden from the wind a lot better than stock housings.
Do this have any effect at all?
Will the “sheltering” behind the approx 10mm wide brakes placed 15cm in front of the base bar have any effect?
Bri, you are becoming the new Bunnyman and that’s a compliment!
If you get a break from fabricating, check your PM please 
I’ve looked at a similar setup myself using an old mountain bike bar cut down to a minimal width and sticking some old diacomp levers in the ends. It LOOKS aero, but you never really know unless a windtunnel tells you for sure. Maybe you could do the same thing with a set of slick bontrager carbon levers…
I’ve also thought about using a set of cyclocross top-mount levers to acheive the same thing. They tend to have a smaller frontal area.
Now, if someone could figure out a way to make a similar setup to the USE Tula system, that would be quite interesting.
What brand of aerobars are those…looking for something similar for myself. Don’t look like Ovals , maybe they are though.
Thanks,
BJ
Syntace Stratos zero basebar with upturns cut off.
HED flip light aerobars.
3T straight extentions cut
Oval carbon armrests
Tektro carbon levers.
Jagwire barcons mounts with Dura-Ace barcons
The whole set up is 900g and without the stem and shifters it comes in at 600g. I will sort out later what the weight is just for the aerobars without brakes. I think it will be pretty light.
These are not mine (yet and not sure if they will be) but these were offered to me at a stupid low price. The only thing is that I do not want to put the brakes on the aerobars but want them on the basebar but only if is was a bit longer so that I could put them inline with the basebar. This is the set up that I would like to move towards for TT. Also like what another poster on this thread was discussing. I do like the idea of putting my levers on the end of a little longer basebar as it would give me a little bit more to grab on to while climbing.
http://i42.tinypic.com/4jrnmu.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/sqjg40.jpg
Do you remember this thread?
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2119708;search_string=mtb;#2119708
BTW, the setup shown in the pic in that thread (MTB bar with Vision levers) measured to be ~.005 m^2 CdA lower drag than the Vision basebar and Dia-Compe levers it replaced (after I stupidly miscut the basebar upturns…DOH!)…and that’s even WITH the iAero mounted on that bracket hanging out there.
Having the levers in front of the bar like that affords a fairly solid feel for braking… it’s a very MTB-like configuration.
I haven’t tested the 100K bar setup yet to see if it’s actually any lower drag or not.
Hmmm…I think I know who’s bars those are shown above…I might just recognize the granite counter from some other pics
I remember that thread very well. I just think that the AERO OR DIE might be a bit too little and I would like to have maybe a bit more to hold one to. I do not think the braking with the thumbs is that bad of an idea as I only brake with one finger now. The basebar that I am using currently is only a 38cm wide Stratos so it is pretty narrow already. I weighed the aerobars today without brake levers and the complete aerobar and base bar came in at 455g which is still pretty light. AERO AND LIGHT!
Of course the aero or die would be more aero overall and I might still do that set up but I think for now, I will cable up this set up and try it out.
Oh as for the aerobars in that picture above, a friend of mine was going to do the aero or die set up and knew that I was thinking the same thing but since I already have a few ideas and most of the parts, I have opted out of purchasing them. So if you know of anyone that is looking for this set up, they are available.
Hey! I built those!
g
Hey I know you did and I know what you sold them for as well. Jeff is not going to be using them now and asked if I wanted them which I was thinking about but decided to not pick them up. So knowing what he paid for them and what he is selling them for, it would be crazy for someone to not pick these up just for the parts.