I swear I thought of this 1st. Dang patent paperwork. 
Seriously makes sense to do this to stay aero and be able to slow a bit. Has anyone rigged something like this? I wonder why there aren’t more setups like this, can’t be because of weight.
Here is the article: http://velonews.com/tech/report/articles/8100.0.html
Little bit more complicated than the conventional braking - but cyclo cross riders sometimes ride STI’s and levers under the flats.
I guess the thinking is that most braking would be done on tight bends or turns, and no-one would get round these on the tri-bars anyway.
sad to say but Mike Pigg was running a third lever back when he rode on Scott DH aero bars…in 1987. Pretty sure he used a cable splitter and a bmx lever to do it too.
Makes sense to stay aero and brake - Or if you just got out of the aero tuck - you’d brake with the extra air resistance anyway. I know I use my body to slow down as well as my brakes.
Like it. Not sure if I’d use it (although i may toy with the idea). Obree used a similar system on his bike.
“I wonder why there aren’t more setups like this,”
Because, it’s not needed! Most triathlon bike courses are rather non-technical. Also, as a Top ITT rider told me years ago, if you are using your brakes THAT much you are just wasting speed/energy. The perfect TT, is when you use your brakes the least or not at all! In fact, I can recall riding entire IM bike courses and and barely using my brakes.
Fleck
“Whoever uses the brakes first … loses.”
I use the brakes probably twice, or maybe three times in a tri. The turn around (or a sharp turn with gravel on it), and when I’m coming into t2. Not in the aerobars for either of those.
Nicely executed setup…but the logic doesn’t follow. If you are braking…you are slowing down…what does it matter if you are in the aero position or not? You can feather quite a bit of speed, while in the aero, by just spreading your knees out and stopping your pedaling…if you require more slowing down than that…you are REALLY slowing down…and the standard position brakes are fine for that…
so why add even that miniscule amount of weight or mechanical complexity…I just don’t follow the logic.
What TriBriGuy said.
Either you are aero (pedaling or coasting), or you are braking.
You either want to slow down, or you don’t.
There is no third option.
Hitting the “air brake” (legs out, and/or chest up) means you can hit the brake levers less, which is a good thing, less chance of loss of control or a skid. Because, the whole idea is, if ya wanna slow down, you don’t care about aero at that moment.
I believe this bike was built up (for basso?) for a very short TT. It had a few turn/curves, but it was only a mile or two long.
The benefit of this brake is that he could hold his top speed for as long as possible, and then immidiatly slow down right before the turn, and then still be in his aero position coming out of the curve. That would help him keep him going at his top speed, for as long as possible.
It would only make the difference of a couple seconds, but for a short tt, that’s all they are won by.
It works for short tt’s, but there’s really no place for it in Triathlons.
a third brake might have been useful for the IM Moo course.
The only real benefit is if you can explode out of the turn at a high rate of speed. Otherwise, you are better off just using the handlebars.
I can imagine using that in a team time trial…in fact, that is a great idea!
CSC did this last year during the tour. Sure looks cool.
dave in VA
Why add a minuscule amount of weight? Because you can actually modulate your decelleration rather than messing around with playing parachute. If playing parachute means you have to start braking just a little bit earlier, it’s not worth it. Plus when you are at your max, messing around with your legs like that may not be the best idea. The guys say they use the third brake quite frequently, so it serves a purpose for them.
It always amazes me how people critique Lance’s position, or Zabriskie’s choice of brake levers, or whatever. Meanwhile inthe last 20 miles of an Ironman, half of you (maybe not you TriBriGuy) can’t stay in the aerobars because you’re not set up right. Sure, the pros make bad decisions from time to time too, but most of the time they do what works for them.
On top of all that, it also prevents them from subconsciously choking up on the bars when they really shouldn’t.
Gerard, now the important question is… can I have one??? I would use it!! I swear!! pleaseee!!! seriously though. Is that a regular VT lever? or some special version of it?
It’s basically almost a regular VT lever I believe. I don’t know if they make these for sale, check with VT.
ahh now i see how it was done!!! I can see the grey housing going up the left ext, loop below the shifters, and come back down the right extension to the brake, which is mounted pointy side out minus the plastic VT cap. That should be easy to do actually. with some sort of cable splitter… or not. and yes, the VT levers are for sale… I just got a replacement cap for mine yesterday.
No cable splitter. The cable runs through the lever, the housing is cut. One side of the housing butts up to the brake base, the other to the lever. So when you apply the lever you are pulling the two ends of the housing away from each other, thereby increasing its effective length and applying the brake.