So why is it that time trial bars sometimes have the sloping base bar and tri bars tend to have a flat basebar. Im in the market for a new set of bars, and like the look of the sloping bar, but they do feel a little strange. what are the advantages/disadvantages of a slope over a flat basebar?
thanks
p
Climbing vs. sprinting
Triathletes climb
TTers will sprint
Of course, the reverse can be true…thus the choice.
The only sloping bar I’ve seen in common usage is the Vision one-piece, a la Cancella world time trial wins. I use one and won’t trade it for anything. The one piece design is really stiff and the forward cant gets the bars out of the way of my knees. The VT bars slope down and forward, so it is more like the drops position on normal road bars, vs position of most tri base bars which is more upright like you are riding the brake hoods.
Chad
yeah i have the vision ones that ive been trying out on the trainer. i like the position, but wonder how its going to work out for me on a 56 mile hilly half ironman ride.
The flat basebars are meant to give you a position similar to the brake hoods on a road bike, while the sloped ones are meant to simulate the drops. Back before aerobars, roadies always time trialed in the drops (the original funny bikes only had a drops position), so many wanted the same position to complement the areobars. That being said, road racers generally do short time trials (the “long” TT in the Tour de France usually takes them about an hour), and don’t have to run afterward.
If you do longer races (70.3+) and/or train on your tri bike, you’re probably going to want the hoods-like position that a flat bar offers. The exception would be if your aerobars are set so high that the sloping bar creates a hoods position, but this is rare.
One of the principal reasons for sloping the base bar is to minimize your frontal profile when braking. With a flat bar you need to raise your torso (sit up) whenever you need to hit the brakes, but with the sloped bar you can remain low/tucked.