I’ve been pretty aggressive this season in terms of improving my aerodynamics by getting a bike fit, new wheels, new water bottle mounts, etc. But all of the potential time saved on things like this is negated if I’m sitting up. I’m pretty good about spending the large majority of my time in the aerobars on long rides, but I’d really like to track the time I spend in the aerbars and the time out of the aerobars to see if I can make improvements. It seems to me there’s potential to improve my Ironman times if I discover I’m sitting up more than I think and train myself to stay in the bars more.
My problem is how to do this. I could mount a stopwatch to my bars and hit the start/stop every time I sit up (or use the lap button on my Garmin) but I think this leaves too much room for error. All it would take is for me to forget once and all the ride data is flawed. I’m thinking about some sort of sensor or button that I could mount under my aeropads that would start (or stop) a timer when I put weight on it. I’ve done some searching online and can’t find anything so I thought I’d post the question on ST to see if anyone has any ideas.
Personally, I think an ANT+ aerobar pad that sent time in aerobars data to an ANT+ computer (like a Garmin) would be pretty damn cool. I think a lot of people may be amazed to see how much time they spend out of the aerobars and could really improve their times if they learn to be in the aerobars more.
Anyway, if anyone has ideas on how I could do this I’d love to hear it. Thanks.
Rather than a timer, I think it should have a pressure switch linked to a recording and some little speakers. If you get out of your aerobars, your bike insults you. Something like “your mom stays down better than you”
Why do you get out of aero bars? I have a road bike that I put clip on’s on to help with the wind here in KS and I can stay on the aero bars all day long. I find them to be worth about .7 to 1 MPH or 3.5%.
just stay in position. Maybe do trainer rides where you force yourself to hold aero position and increase the dist/length until you are comfortable. I think the body can adapt to very aggressive aero positions assuming lack of actual back problems/surgeries and enough time to make the adaptations.
Also, you can toss a few spacers under your stem and take one out every two weeks or something to that effect to make the adaptation easier.
even with a sensor hooked up to a timer, how would this really help?
Rather than a timer, I think it should have a pressure switch linked to a recording and some little speakers. If you get out of your aerobars, your bike insults you. Something like “your mom stays down better than you”
You know…this could be taken multiple ways…and the way I’m thinking isn’t nice at all…and frankly, downright disgusting.
It’s not that I can’t stay in the position. I train a lot on the IMWI course which has a lot of little hills which I sometimes sit up to climb and sometimes climb in the aerobars. I also suspect I might sit up sooner coming into corners when I’m fatigued, maybe sit up longer to take a drink on the second loop, little things like that. That time adds up.
I’m just curious how much total time I spend out of the aerobars over 112 miles. It’s easy to guess, or just say ‘stay in the bars,’ but I think it would be interesting to quantify the number. Maybe those times out of the bars don’t really affect overall time and it’s not worth worrying about, but I think it would be interesting to see if there is a noticeable difference in overall time in a ride where I spend more time in the aerobars by climbing in them more or focusing on staying in them longer going into corners. With aerobars ranking toward the top of aero equipment in terms of time saved it seems like making sure they’re being utilized to the fullest extent is worth some effort. With the way I over-think every other aspect of this sport, I might as well over-think this too.
