I’ve been considering getting some aerobars for my road bike. From what I have read it seems I also need to change other things on my bike like seat height and saddle position to accommodate a more aero position using the aerobars. However I would like the option of also doing rides with a traditional road bike set up. Is there an easy way to switch between a time trial setup and traditional road bike setup on the same bike? Can a road bike be altered to come close to a true tt bike setup? My hesitation of messing with my road bike is I don’t want to train in an aero position all of the time. Any advice you guys can offer would be appreciated.
the seat height, defined as the distance from the bottom bracket to the seat, does not change.
however depending on how low your position is with the clip ons, you may be more comfortable and powerful if you can slide the seat forward a bit, either on the rails or with a non setback seatpost (sometimes you can just turn a setback post around)
when you do this, the seat will need to move up to keep the distance from the bottom bracket the same. just a tiny bit though. just measure it =)
Keep the road bike geometry, and add some short ITU style aerobars like the profile design t2 DL. A road bike with short aerobars can be a really nice all round bike. Don’t put the saddle too far forward, and don’t use too long aerobars on a road bike. Both will create problems. One will probably give you lower back or hip injuries, and the other makes you ending up in the ditch cause you can’t handle your bike well.
I used this article as a foundation for my road bike/tri set-up. I only have one bike for both. I love doing long rides, charity centuries and just started doing short course Tris last year. Planning on doing my first HIM in 2011. All on my current bike.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Are_we_ready_to_Get_Shorty__435.html
My bike is an Cervelo S series with the following cockpit:
Oval Concepts R910 Aergo CF handlebar
OC A710 adjustable stem
OC A711 Stem Cap clip-on
OC S-bend extensions
I placed a nice gel pad on the handlebar tops before taping (Slowman used a neoprene pad). This give me a nice vibration free ride when i’m aero.
I had to cut the extensions drastically to shorten my “aero” reach (see article)
I used DI2, so I actaully have shifter controls on the handlebar and the extensions (a luxury set-up, I know:)
I used the optional 2-position seatpost to bring my saddle forward for Tri’s
On the long charity rides, I keep the extensions because I ride with my wheelsucking brother and brother-in-law, so I tend to taking longer pulls in front, that’s when I go into my aero position. When doing a regular road bike type ride, I switch to the regular seatpost with a more slack positioned saddle. When I did the Tour of the Battenkill, I pulled out the extensions and switched out the Stem cap to the standard Oval Concepts stem cap (they don’t allow extensions)
I can’t stay in the aero position for extended periods of time, so this is a great way to do it.
Hope this helps.
You may be able to pull it off pretty well. I have a friend who has clip on aero bars and is able to ride his normal road bike (normal road bike fit) in the aero position. I think he’s rare. But also he has an acute hip angle when he does and I believe he’s losing power as a result.
What you need to do is to mark your seatpost height and your seat rails’ position on the post so you can return it to your road position without remeasuring.
Then with the aero bars mounted move the seat forward and the seatpost up slightly to compensate until you find a comfortable position on the aerobars that keeps your hip angle close to the road position. If you find that position make corresponding marks for your TT position and switching should only take 60 seconds. This is if you are lucky and can find a comfortable position without moving the handlebars.
If you need to move the handlebars (either with a different stem, or turning a stem over, or stacking more or less spacers then switching will take 5 minutes but still be rather convenient.
Like LabRat, I have set up my road bike with the Oval Concepts bars. I sold off my tri bike after doing this. I can ride the aerobars for long periods. I may slide forward a little on the seat, but I make no adjustments. I am fairly flexible and notice no power loss with this set up. Of course I have always ridden rather slack geometry, even on tri bikes.
I’ve been considering getting some aerobars for my road bike. From what I have read it seems I also need to change other things on my bike like seat height and saddle position to accommodate a more aero position using the aerobars. However I would like the option of also doing rides with a traditional road bike set up. Is there an easy way to switch between a time trial setup and traditional road bike setup on the same bike? Can a road bike be altered to come close to a true tt bike setup? My hesitation of messing with my road bike is I don’t want to train in an aero position all of the time. Any advice you guys can offer would be appreciated.
What I did:
- Bought an integrated aerobar, stem and new cables
- Bought a Fastforward seat post
- I marked where my stem and seat were, then took off my drops and stem, as well as seat.
- Put on new equipment and cables.
- Put an old seat on the FF seat post.
- Ran new cables. I did not put little crimp caps on the new cables.
This way I could easily switch back and forth between the two setups with just the one bike. I only did the full switch-a-roo for races. I had another set of clip-ons that I put on for training in the aero position, as well as the FF seat post. This worked really well for me as I was in my first season of triathlon and did not want to cough up the money until I had done a few events and was sure I would do more.
I have all of these parts for sale at the moment as I bought a dedicated tri bike. The ads are in the classifieds at
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3076360
and
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3076350
I did switch my seat post on my road bike to a fast forward for a little better position. No back problems and it has actualy helped me to work on my aero position for longer times.
Any bike trying to accomplish two things is going to be a compromise somewhere. However, adding tri bars to a road bike will be a benefit over no bars at all, allowing you to hold a low position using bone support rather than muscle support. It won’t be a super-aero low position you could achieve on a tri bike, but it will still be faster. If you look at some of the threads about recent IMs, you will see that the average cyclist in tri is not prepared to ride a super-aero position for very long, so while a road bike with tri bars might be an aero compromise, it also might be more realistic for some people.
I would do like the person above recommended and swap out the whole front end. I do this fairly often when I am comparing stuff and it doesn’t take that long. However, if you are not very comfortable with doing your own wrench work and/or you have internal cable routing, this might not be a good idea. Alternately, you could run two seatposts/saddles and ride the back of the saddle in the road position and go a few inches forward for the aero position where you are riding more on the nose. You could get to a full-on aero position with a forward post and adjustable stem, but on most bikes that is going to be a bit scary to ride because of all the weight on the front wheel.
Chad
Chad nailed it. You have two options going with a shorty “ITU style” aerobar setup with the end of the extensions approximately level with the brake hoods and keeping your current saddle position, or going with a more forward saddle position and slightly longer aerobars to a more “tweener” position where you would drop the front end a bit. It would be best with a second seatpost and saddle. The first option would be the easiest to swap between road and tri. It can also be pretty fast as Jodie Swallow showed at Clearwater…
Kevin
Thanks for the great info everyone. This gives me something to think about. Right now I’m leaning towards something simple like a short aerobar with no other changes to the bike. I may have trouble with an agressive aero position anyway. Maybe I should get used to a simple setup to begin with. I did a couple Olympic distance tri’s this year and want to do some 70.3’s next year. From what I can gather I would be at a significant disadvantage on a long course using a road bike with no modifications.
Kevin - I looked up info on Jodie Swallow. Very interesting. What exactly is meant by a ITU style set-up. Does this simply mean a standard road bike with the short aerobars? Or do they change other things like seat position with longer aerobars? Is the Profile Design T2 DL, mentioned in one of the above replies, something that triathletes would use in a ITU style set-up? I think this kind of setup is what I am looking for until I can afford a dedicated TT bike someday.
In ITU rules as I understand them the aerobar extensions cannot extend past the end of the brake/shift lever hoods. The Profile T2 DL is an example, as is the Visiontech Mini, or for example the HED fliplite with cut down extensions. You would leave your saddle back at the standard road position, although some may move it forward a little bit.
Kevin
Just slap some mini-aerobars on there ITU style, it won’t disadvantage you at all.
I’m a big fan of the profile jammer- way more hand positions than the DL or vision tech mini. In fact, it allows you to do the original spinaci hand position, which is the most natural from a road position. The Syntace XXS is also awesome and very light, but is $$$$.
In order of preference for mini aerobars:
- Profile jammers- heavy but very adjustable, $30-50 on ebay, $80ish new
- Cinelli Spinachi- light, adjustable length/width with one general hand position, but only fit 26.0 bars, and don’t have pads, but you can put extra tape or clamp some other aerobar pads to your tops - $10-20 on ebay, $0-20 for some jury rigged pads
- Syntace XXS- super light, not adjustable, expensive $160+
Now someone might say the HED Flip-Lites are lighter, but they are known to slip and the flip up armrests are nice but you don’t really need the narrow tops unless you are doing a very long climb. Worst case you probably lower the front anyways for a tri or tt, so the aerobar pads are where the tops would normally be so you can just grab them.
I just recently made some additions to my road bike and thought I’d share.
I’m pretty new to all of this so I just bought a Profile Design tri package:
- T2+ Aerobars
- Tri Stryke Saddle
- Fast Forward Seat Post
(Seat post is 31.6mm and does not fit my bike. PM me if you’re interested in it.)
Just like you I thought for some reason that the seat was supposed to be higher so I blindly changed around all the settings that the bike shop had fitted me for and came out with a horribly uncomfortable ride.
I put the seat back where it was and after some trial and error I got the aerobars into a comfortable position. The smooth metal made me feel really out of control when I was holding them so I wrapped them in bar tape and it was a night and day difference. I love getting down on the aerobars now and it makes it much easier to maintain higher speeds on flats and downhills.
The Profile Design Tri Stryke saddle is a little bit longer than my stock seat and it lets me move forward to go aero and then get back into my normal upright position comfortably.
I’m very happy with the changes. It’s a comfortable ride and my seat and bars are still in the right place for when I’m not in the aero position.
Keep the road bike geometry, and add some short ITU style aerobars like the profile design t2 DL. A road bike with short aerobars can be a really nice all round bike. Don’t put the saddle too far forward, and don’t use too long aerobars on a road bike. Both will create problems. One will probably give you lower back or hip injuries, and the other makes you ending up in the ditch cause you can’t handle your bike well.
I’m a fan of this method too, but before you start, make sure you have a good road position…and I’m not talking about a bolt-upright touring position. If you can dial in your road position to the point that you are low, comfortable and powerful in the drops, riding a set of Shorty bars will be second nature.