I just got a P3 Carbon…Should I keep the Visiontech basebar and clip-on or upgrade to the Hed bars?
What is your motivation for wanting to change? Are you uncomfortable on your current bars?
What kind of wheels will you be using?
The bike shop is building the P3 for me so I don’t have any bars on it yet. I’m trying to decide if I should have them put the Visiontech bars that come with it or add the Hed bars, which seem to get great reviews…
Zipp 999 disk
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Get the Oval’s. They are similar to the HED’s but with a few nicer features – MUCH more adjustable (and more comfy) pads, MUCH more adjustable on the length of the extensions.
Plus then you won’t have HED bars and Zipp wheels. Oval’s are also red & black (plus you can get the really slick red extensions and brake levers), then it would match your Zipp wheels AND your P3C – totally trick…
I just got a P3sl and although the Visions are pure eye candy and look pretty comfy as well I put my old HED inetgrated bars on as I’ve fallen in love with them over the years. There’s a definete learning curve with the HED bars but if you like them they are amazing. You can’t go wrong either way though.
I only have experience with the Oval A700’s. One thing I like with the A700’s versus separate base bar and aerobars is that one does not have to every worry about the aerobars slipping, which has happened to me with clipon’s. YMMV. The hand positions on the base is somewhat awkward to me but likely the same on any other integrated bar with short bar ends. I actually did not think the Oval pads were thick enough - lost them and replaced them with the CeeGee’s pads from EBay. Amazing amount of adjustability with Oval.
I’ve never recommended Hed’s aerobars for a bike with Zipps. Hed is great with Hed, but with Zipps, I’d go with the Ovals.
I just got the VT on my Tiphoon and have had slippage problems on top of the fact they are not very adjustable and I seem to be in between sizes. I am evaluating whether to change to Oval.
I am not a big fan of the VT base bar - it’s really stiff and my hands start to hurt if I ride in them for a while. If you really want the VT setup, I would look at the integrated carbon one they have.
Next time around I think I am going to try the Profile’s (the Jammer with the F-19 pads) with some Oval or Hed extensions mated to either my old Syntace base bar or perhaps the elusive Visiontech carbon base bar.