I am trying to make my budget Leader 735TT Tri bike a little more aero. I have about $1500 total in this aluminum flyer. I can’t afford a super bike so doing the next best thing. I have been riding with the Torpedo mount via the King Cage for a while and like it. I cut the steerer tube last week about an inch and dropped the bottle down. I just installed the Dark Speed Works 480 last week and just tonight after looking online for a while picked the Two Fish Quick Cage adapter to mount my bottle that was previously on the downtube. I tried a rear hydration set up but it always was difficult for me to quickly change bottles. So because I have never seen this setup before wondering if it will work. Going on a 50 mile ride tomorrow. Right now it is very firmly attached to the toptub and nice and snug. The last time I posted a pic of this bike was to sell it. I decided to just make it faster with some Vittoira EVO CX tires ( replaced Tufos) and adjust my saddle and front end. I went 2:20 on a very flat 56m course last April but am shooting for 2:17 next year with a better setup and more training. Want your thoughts on the top tube mount. Will update after my ride if it doesn’t fall apart.
While I salute your innovation, your set up does not look it’s gonna minimize drag for you.
That said, for training, anything goes. But for racing, you really should improve the set up. Thanks for the 480 purchase, but by putting that big bottle behind it, you might as well use a low-tech brick-shaped bento rather than the Speedpack 480. I think you’re basically losing the benefit of a streamlined bento pack by having the top tube bottle there.
Since you can drink easily from your bta bottle, the question is, where you can keep extra fluid in ‘storage’. If you need a round bottle for possible race hand-ups, get a single behind the seat bottle, mount it very close to your seat and angled close to horizontal, and learn to use it. Remember, you’re not drinking from it, you’re just storing fluid there until you need it. When you need it, you just switch it out and it now becomes your bta bottle. If you don’t need to have a round bottle, a torhans vr bottle is the way to go. It might actually improve the aerodynamics of your frame that it will be a net loss of drag.
Why not double up bottles on the aero bars? It appears you would have enough room to do so, and remove the back bottle without the other getting in the way. Just mount a bottle with zip ties inbetween the aerobars onfront of the other bottle.
Or mount that cage to the back if the saddle…
Also, what is that mount on your aero bottle? Is that connected to the stem???
If what you want is a second bottle, what about one between the arms above the extensions (like you have) with a second horizontal bottle below the extensions? you can mount the second cage with zip ties.
You would need a wind tunnel to know for sure but I doubt it is more aerodynamic. If you have to splay your knees out to clear it, that would negate any advantage. Can you use the on course bottles for racing? If you can just run the aero bar bottle, your rig will be more slippery than many of the super bikes that have crap strapped all over them.
I have a gut feeling that if you scrapped the bento box entirely, and put the bottle where it is currently sitting on your TT, you would probably achieve the same results as bento only. Put whatever feed is in the bento in your pockets and strap whatever flat kit in the bento t othe inside of your saddle, and you have a cleaner bike.
And put some tape around the round part of your seatpost to mate above where the seattube airfoil stops and below where the seatpost airfoil starts.
Pro Matthew Russel took 3rd place with a top-tube-mounted aero bottle at Wildflower 2014 last weekend. Here’s a photo of his Trek Speed Concept in transition:
That’s pretty much what I was envisioning, although for aerodynamics and ergonomics I might have mounted the bottle and cage the other way 'round (i.e valve pointing forward).
3rd place at Wildflower is worth $3,000. Even 1% of that would be a nice thank-you. Or 1% of Trek’s Speed Concept gross sales, since they heard it here first…
if it’s a regular bottle/cage you do want to mount it w/ the top forward. If it’s towards the back there is a good chance it will come flying out the back if you hit a bump, speaking from experience. I’ve mounted mine on the top tube of my 2014 speed concept. My bars (ski bends) don’t allow me to put a bottle on it.
