Originally published at: Profile Design Neosonic/Ergo+/52GMR: The Perfect Entry-Level Aerobar? - Slowtwitch News
When looking at what is happening at the top level of the sport, it’s clear that aerobars, tires, and where you put your water bottles are the new hype in the worlds of aero and bike geek (and for good reason). At the IRONMAN World Championships this year in Nice, we learned that almost 60% of pro women used “other” aero bars rather than manufacturers’ stock aero bars. Don’t worry; we will reveal those “others” in my next article. But for a moment, I want to pose a couple of questions that could help us figure out what this could mean.
#1. Do we have a bunch of pro athletes who are sponsored by aerobar companies and not bike companies?
#2 Are bike companies moving away from integrated aerobars?
#3 If so, who is going to pick up the slack?
If the pros are moving away from the integrated bars that bike manufacturer provides, what are they doing? Looking at the “other” bars, they aren’t cheap, as I would give them an average of about $1,500 for each setup (rough ballpark figure). Some of the standard names like 51 Speedshop, Wattshop, and Drag2zero are all on that list. We couldn’t ask the pros if they got all this stuff for free or if they paid for it (we will in Kona, though). What we do know is that they are moving away from “standard”
Moving away from pros and into age group racers at Nice, we learned that about 13.4% of the field didn’t have aero bars at all. They were simply on drop bars, aka road bikes, only.
Thanks to feedback in the Forum about how a couple of people hate pie charts. I made sure I created a really special one for you 🙂
Knowing what I do about aerobars, it raises a few more questions: Was it a lack of knowledge about either the course or aerobars generally? Did they not feel comfortable? Was the cost of entry too high, or was it too hard to figure out all together? What was the reason that over 100 women chose to ride their bikes at the IRONMAN World Championships without the comfort and aero advantage of an aero bar?
Behold another unique pie chart.
We also learned that in the ranks of aero bar choices, Profile Design took the win in the count with 31.5% of all bikes with aero bars.
Do you want to know who came in at #2? drop bars / no aero bar, that’s right. Profile Design not only had the highest % of age group athletes using their aerobars, the next closest competitor did not beat out athletes not using a bar at all.
Introducing the new addition to the Profile Design ecosystem, the Neosonic Era 52A GMR
In the world of endurance sports, sadly many companies come and go — so much so that we killed about eight bike brands from the count this year, because while they may have had 1-4 bikes in the count, the companies themselves are not even around anymore to talk about. Since I have been in the sport (23 years now), Profile Design has always been present. They have had highs and lows, but their presence in aerobars have been their constant. And you can see that consistency as they haven’t lost the top position in the good old famous Bike Count since the start. Why is that? One could probably say it’s because of a lot of different reasons, but for the sake of where we are going with this, I’m going to stick to a couple.
#1 They have always made a decent product for the masses.
#2 They are good at OEM.
While heavy, Profile has always had a good entry-level offering. What makes them good? They are simple and use simple tooling. They have over 25 plus years of experience with customers and their issues that they put into each one of their designs and this new set up is no different.
With a bar length of 340mm, according to Profile Design, the end-user has 100mm of measured adjustability with reach.
Ergo+ Armrests with 10mm pads come with five vertical and three horizontal adjustability points. All of which have plenty of wiggle room for micro-adjustments: 80 in total, if you want to get geeky.
With a rise of 137mm, you are left with a very comfortable 52-degree grip angle
The armrest can be installed behind the handlebars, allowing for easier installation and hand placement.
All in all, this setup took me about 10 minutes to put on my bike. It came mostly put together and was super easy to adjust.
Also plenty of room for all your dashboard computers
One thing that I really did not like was the 6Nm suggested bar clamp pressure. One must be very careful with what handlebars you attach these to. I will need to get out some carbon grip gel and try out a carbon bar with 5Nm at some point.
If 60% of pro women racing at the top level in the world are going out of their way to get a better, more comfortable aerobar then what is currently being offered to them on a stock bike, then we really should be figuring out how we can help improve the experience for the 13.5% of women who chose not to even use an aero bar at the World Championship. There are many companies out there that have great offerings on aero bars. But at $200, this new offering from Profile just might be the gateway to improving ride experience for athletes from the World Championships to just entering into our sport.
You can find more information about this new bar set up here.