Seattle Forrest

I found they made me less stable. Never crashed because of them, but I didn't like it. Normally, riding a bike that handles the way you think it should is a coming together of man and machine. Aerobars get in the way of that for me.

Campag4life

Glad its just you and not me or pro's who sometimes choose to race and train with clip on aero bars including on the biggest world stage at the highest speed.

I have no problem with them nor do ten's of thousands of riders.

https://www.velonews.com/stages/2016...rance-stage-18

torger

Heh, I'm new to this forum and just learning how the culture here works. Some forums have a friendly culture, others accept unnecessarily negative comments as normal. If it's the latter it's better just letting them pass, ignore them, as you can't single-handedly change the culture, especially if you are a newcomer. Reacting to them will then just add more poison to the mix for no use, and it just drains energy.

Regarding the original post question, that about if it makes sense with clip-on aero bars on a high endurance bike, I'd say that the general answer is that you will get aero gains regardless of starting position. High and narrow is more aero than high and wide. If one is worried what the local style police will say, there may be some trouble from those that think aero bars only belong on time trial geometries, but this combination is as far as I know not that uncommon in ultra distance racing where a high position is necessary due to the time spent in it and the small aero gain is worthwhile in the long run. Indeed someone mentioned it in a post further back in the thread.

Some also just like the special "tucked in feel" you can get with aero bars. For amateur riding it's not only about performance, it's about what we enjoy too, so if one likes it, why not? I personally don't use them as my balance is not the best so I feel unstable with them, and indeed I don't like the aesthetics but that shouldn't decide what others should do. Regarding stability there's a big difference if you combine with deep section wheels or not, aero bars combined with deep section wheels and crosswinds is of course tougher to deal with than with shallow wheels in no wind. If you cycle on open roads where big trucks pass by closely the draft caused by them can be a bit unsettling, a problem I've heard about many times in my local cycling community. The original handlebar is always there though so if it gets nasty one can get back to the normal position, and just as our FTPs vary, our balance and bike handling abilties vary too, to many stability is not a problem. I'd say if one is the kind of rider that regularly cycle with no hands to put on/off the rain jacket rather than stopping when doing it the aerobars probably won't be a problem. If cycling with no hands feels a bit unsafe then maybe aerobars will too.

Fox Farm

Even if you are not doing Tri events with this bike, clip on aero bars on a road bike will give you more hand positions to be in, allow for more comfort for longer rides, and some aero advantage, but I would not make the last of those three reasons the deciding factor for getting them. I used them on my road bike when I lived in Michigan where it was relatively flatish landscape and they allowed me to be in more then two or three positions on the handlebars. I also find that they rotate your torso in such a manner that you are looking up the road better. I also used them when I lived in Utah where yes there are some epic mountains and canyons to ride up and down but again for longer hours on the bike, they were comfortable to rotate in and out of. I liked the Syntace clip ons as the arm rests were behind the bars and comfortable. IMHO....

Seattle Forrest

If it makes you feel better, I have 49 bike miles so far this year. But 302 ski miles, with a little more than 30,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. I'm planning to do more hiking this year, which will leave less time for cycling. It's ok not to ride all the time. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Seattle Forrest

Wow, you deserve a cookie and a gold star.

Somebody asked what's not to like, and I answered the question. It's ok that we don't all do this exactly the same, that shouldn't make you feel threatened. This is a bike forum, we come here to talk about cycling, sometimes the differences in how people approach it are interesting.

Dean V

The references to the aero bars being used by endurance cyclists is not a completely valid comparison.
They are doing looong rides (eg RAAM), usually alone, and in a hurry.
Somewhat different to going out for a 60 miler.

Homebrew01

MOD NOTE.... We've had enough of personal bickering between a few members.

burnthesheep

DrIsotope

What are people doing to feel unstable using clip-ons? I feel no instability at all, and I run the longest bars I could find to accommodate my orangutan-like forearms.

If I'm somehow cheating or taking shortcuts to higher average speeds for rides, so be it. I don't race now, I have no plans of ever racing, and will take whatever aero advantage I can get.

Most of the posts in this thread border on the asinine. The simplest response remains the best, which is "try them and decide for yourself." In terms of cost benefit, my aerobars have been the best $70 I spent on the bike, all things considered.

Fox Farm

the biggest thing with clip ons on a road bike with standard geometry will be that you are stretched out a bit vs a TT or Tri bike geometry.

Sy Reene

This is what I was wondering, having never tried aero bars (clipons). Most recommendations are that for the position you'd be riding in, also mentions that you move your saddle forward -- meaning that you can't comfortably just move back n'forth from the regular bars to the aero since your saddle would be optimized for one or the other?

burnthesheep

With the geometry on that bike, yes, he'd probably be fine. Buy and try. Just be aware the geometry of that bike plus the stack of clip ons means you will be "sucking wind" sitting up that high relative to an actual Tri/TT setup unless you buy a stem and take out spacers to lower the stack. You'll also probably have to get that stem with some extra reach. You'll also want a Tri/TT saddle. Rotating forward puts pressure on the private parts with a road saddle. ISM, Fizik Mistica, etc....

For me, I messed and messed with it and couldn't get comfortable. The rotation forward to get into position was, uhmmmm, ouchie.

If this is for comfort on long rides, I'd think about a general road bike fit first. Reach, stack, saddle type, glove padding, bar width, etc..... You should be comfy riding that far with or without clip-ons.

The setup I have shown below, that was OK for about a 10 mile TT. It was a decent aero setup, but not very comfy. The TT bike setup is light years more comfortable, stable, and powerful. That pic, I ended up moving the pads/reach back after seeing the picture and have put a couple hundred miles on the setup. With a pair of 2 hour nonstop rides. No stops, grab a drink and keep getting it. No issues. No "sitting up". Next in line is shorter cranks to aid hip angle/rotation even more so.

torger

Stability is improved with longer bars, wider placed, more weight over the front wheel, more trail on the bike, and it helps not having deep section wheels and avoiding wind or being passed by big lorries and trucks. The rest is up to the rider's balance. All these factors differ between bikes, individuals and context. Some handle it without problems, some feel uncomfortable. Both experiences exist, and I'd say feeling uneasy with them is relatively common, or least from what I've heard.

Common or not, not all have the same skill/experience/talent/fitness so there will be diversity in replies. I think that is both good and interesting. Sure the "right" answer is almost always "go out and try for yourself, *end of message*" but then we could just shut down the forum today.

torger

There are some aero bars fitting ideas from the ultra distance cycling community too that could be interesting. Here's one example:
https://torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2...aerobar-setup/
They set it up a bit differently than for time trialing, and I suppose that type of setup could work better with an endurance bike, depending on what the goal is.

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​Who thinks you're cheating? As long as there's no motor, you can turn effort into speed any way you see fit. If it's not cheating to ride with a tail wind, I can't imagine anyone getting bothered over adding inert things to a bike.