I see there’s been a thread on here about ‘filling’ the gap between aerobars using tape, foam matting etc. And there were suggestions that this hack may not be any more aero than leaving the cockpit alone. But what do people make of the mono-bars (correct me if I’m using the wrong term) used by the likes of Frodeno, Skipper, Ryf, Luis etc – have any of you tested them? Is it faster than having a super-extension of the likes of Speedbar? I guess the answer could easily be: it depends. But thought I’d ask anyway.
It depends is probably correct. I did try connecting the bars together with some tape in the wind tunnel years ago. This is a hack I have seen some of the pros try recently and for me it was a little worse. I talked with the guy running the tunnel and he seemed to think that even though the tape was smoothing the area over, you have the trade off of letting the air flow through the somewhat messy bar attactment area and increasing the frontal area slightly.
My guess is that it really depends on what you are replacing. If you have a narrow position, round extentions and you are trying to mash a BTA setup in there, the mono bar is going to work well for you because you are smoothing the leading edge of the bike/rider package and creating less turbulence. On the other hand, if you are just closing off the front end and trying to force the airflow down and away from your torso, it probably won’t work well because you are increasing frontal area and creating a low pressure area behind your elbows.
I have a p5-6 with the 3T Aduro basebar. I currently use the low mount which doesn’t allow any sort of super extensions to be used(can still use D2Z poles but doesn’t quite work how it should). I ended up using some expanding foam to fill in the gap between my USE poles I had, then shaped it to look like a giant mono pole and skinned it with a carbon kit I got off Amazon. It looks cool and serves zero structural support because the existing poles were already there but I kept reading in similar threads that my “creation†could be deemed a “fairing†and according to IM or USAT results all fairings are prohibited… there’s PLENTY of fairings on today’s bikes like TriRig delta cover, or the magura brake cover that comes factory on my bike, or the trek speed concept rear brake cover that looks like a fin butttt it got me worried enough that I picked a different route for my cockpit. Not that I’m fast enough or place well enough for a ref to look or someone to protest my bike but never the less it scared me into a different direction.
that particular mono bar has been redesigned and now tests faster.
and in response, the Speedbar will now have a piece of carbon connecting the two extensions and that will bring the drag down on the Speedbars you tested, even further. Running CFD now to finalize the shaping of that connecting piece.
Can say that I’m confident that Mangus and Skipper would not be using their mono cockpits if they weren’t faster.
I am writing this sitting in a plane about to take off from Valencia where is spent a week testing 9 riders and a bunch of cockpits. I can safely say, it’s not the cockpit, it’s the how the cockpit allows you to fall into position.
Things that “should have been faster” (on paper) were not
I would argue that it is, in this order, position and then bars. If the position is spot on, and the bars are optimized in their shaping, that will be most aero
That’s quite interesting. Speedbar has always been a clear advocate of having split bars (he mentions it in multiple Dutch podcasts) because they’re faster. I guess marketing comes into play here too.
Interestingly, in the original post. Vincent Luis is used as the example of a mono bar. This year he is running twin Watt shop bars. (Though he is sponsored by them, but so is Joe with Evolve).
Have to imagine there is not much CDA difference between the 2 setups. Maybe mono if faster in an ideal world when setup prefect. But adjustability of twin is likely to be better in 90% of cases.
