Full disclosure - I’m one of the owners of Redshift Sports, and we make products (aerobars & seatposts) that are specifically designed to address the issue of riding a proper aero position on a road bike (without sacrificing your normal road setup, I’ll add). So I’m obviously biased, but I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about this issue, so I thought I’d weigh in.
Adding aerobars to a road bike is the single biggest thing you can do to increase speed at the same power output on a road bike. It’s also generally the most cost-effective upgrade from a dollars-per-watt standpoint. However, it’s important not to put aerobars on a road bike without thinking about your riding position as a whole.
A lot of people slap aerobars on a road bike and don’t change their saddle position at all. Since you have to rotate your torso forward to reach the aerobars, this leads to two problems.
Your hip angle (angle between torso and thigh at the top of the pedal stroke) gets too tight, meaning you’re fighting against your own range of motion. This frequently causes hip and back discomfort, especially for olympic distance races and up, and can actually cause a decrease in power output, since you’re essentially using one leg to push the other leg over the top of the pedal stroke.The distance from the saddle to the armpads is usually too far, meaning you have to stretch your arms out to reach the pads. Again, this is uncomfortable and tiring, because you end up using your muscles to support your upper body, rather than having your weight transfer straight down through your skeleton.
The key to riding comfortably in aero on a road bike is saddle position. As others here have mentioned, the saddle needs to move forward and up slightly (relative to the ground), effectively rotating your whole body forward about the bottom bracket. This will naturally bring your upper body down toward the aerobars, maintaining an open hip angle and squaring your shoulders over the armpads. This leaves you in a **much **more comfortable aero riding position where you can also generate power effectively.
The obvious downside to this saddle position change (which you hit on already) is that your road riding position is, well… awful. You have too much weight on your hands when you’re riding on the hoods, and it feels like you’re always about to flip over the handlebars. I’ve experienced this first-hand after I set up my bike with a static forward post. So, here goes the shameless plug - Redshift’s dual-position seatpost lets you ride a proper forward aero saddle position, but it also preserves your normal road saddle position, and you can switch back and forth between the two positions on-the-fly while you’re riding.
Based on some of your comments, I think our quick-release aerobars and dual-position seatpost might be a really good fit for the type of riding and training you do. But regardless of whose aerobars you end up with, definitely look at saddle position. More than the aerobars themselves, saddle position is the key to riding comfortably in aero on a road bike.
I hope that was helpful - let me know if you have any questions.
Stephen