I’m a former swimmer so I have somewhat broad shoulders and I find that with my current aerobars I can’t get wide enough to be comfortable. I have a Profile Ozero base bar with T2 extensions and from the center of the pads they are about 10.5 inches or 267mm wide and that is as wide as they get.
I’ve been searching for a while now and saw that Hed and Zipp both make pad extensions for their aero bars but I don’t know how much wider they would be. Does anyone have any experience with them? How wide do you think they could get?
Also I really like the Felt Devox bar and the Zipp pad extensions are supposed to fit that too so that would be an option since the hed or zipp clip-ons will be around $300 and the alloy Felt bar is under $400 so it won’t be that much more. Plus it looks really cool.
I would also like to get ski bends or something that is more comfortable than the s-bends so I figured by replacing the aerobars instead of the base bar I could kill two birds with one stone.
you might find that ski bends, or a slight change in tilt allow you to be comfortable without going super wide.
experiment with slight tilt adjustments, but don’t go lower than parallel to the ground
x2
Other aspects of your position can manifest themselves as strain in the shoulders. If you’ve got prior injuries, it’s even more important to be more accommodating.
Comfort is worth taking time to find the proper position for you.
FWIW, when I’m too cramped on my bike I always wish my pads were farther apart, but when I’m a tiny bit more stretched out, I’m extremely comfortable with close arm pads.
you might consider a ‘stoker’ bar. you can get them in 44 and 47 and move the extension out pretty wide. i think they only come in 26 but someone else may sell a 31.8 - or you could use the shims. You can pick them up pretty cheap on ebay. This is a cheap alternative to experiment and fine tune you position. often people feel they need wider but then after training for a while find they can get quite comfotable narrower. good luck
Does anyone know the width of the felt aerobars?
With the Zipp extensions and the pads at the widest setting they can get 229mm wide at the mounting bolts for the arm rests. It is difficult to say exactly where the “center of the pads” would be measured and where you’d rest on them as each pad shape is different. Of course the arm rests can be set up with offset and they are designed with 50mm of offset possible on our line drawings. That would make the total distance 279mm wide based on the drawings.
I think the range of adjustment would not be significantly wider with the stock arm rests. I wish I could say it was and sell you on a new set of Felt Bars. Wider spacing than 280mm is going to be difficult to source. 3T’s Mistral and the older ITM carbon bars may be your only option.
SD: Just took deliver of my B12; Love it! Except the aerobar arm pads are too close together…What are my options for gaining about an inch more space between the pads? Thanks.
SD: Just took deliver of my B12; Love it! Except the aerobar arm pads are too close together…What are my options for gaining about an inch more space between the pads? Thanks.
Zipp Vuka pad extension kit. You can get one on our website or at any Felt or Zipp dealer.
SD: Just took deliver of my B12; Love it! Except the aerobar arm pads are too close together…What are my options for gaining about an inch more space between the pads? Thanks.
I know SuperDave is posting here but I wanted to add an end user’s experience too.
I’ve got a 46" chest and a Felt B12. The Zipp wings work great and I’m coming up on my third year of using them without issue. If I used the B12’s aerobar pads stock I cannot breathe basically but with the extenders it’s great. BTW, I don’t even have them set to the widest, I believe I’m in the half way set of screw holes in the wings.
