One thought (or a lot of thoughts). A few years ago when I was focusing on the Kilo, I spent a lot of time, energy, and money fretting about aerobars. I bought maybe 6-8 sets, then made another handful of sets by mixing/matching bits from those sets, and even had a custom set built. Come to find out, I was never much of a Kilo rider, no matter what bars I used, hahaha.
That being said, I did learn
A LOT about them and I realized that they aren't a simple matter.
Some random thoughts:
- Aerobars are a means to an end. The end being putting your upperbody and arms in a position to either keep you from being a big parachute or move air over you easily. If you don't achieve this, you are receiving no benefit.
- Every time trial does not benefit from the use of aerobars.
- Some riders are faster with certain drop bars than they are on aerobars.
- Most riders (even experienced riders) require a significant amount of time in the bars to feel comfortable riding at race pace. A LOT of mental energy is expended focusing on staying up and steering. While you are doing that, you aren't focusing on your effort as a whole (pacing, breathing, pedaling, etc...)
- A lot of people don't know what the ideal aero position is for them or their event.
- Newer narrow sprint bars can have the rider in an aero position as good as aerobars. Even at the elite level.
- In elite world women's 500M competition, there seems to be a 50/50 split between drop and aero bars.
Anecdotal points:
- I rode the same PB kilo time (a sorry 1:15.x) in both aero bars and narrow drop bars.
-
Sky Christoperson (albeit not your normal Masters racer) rode a 1:06 in 35mm Scattos at 2011 Masters Worlds. To put this into perspective. Sky was in the 35-39 group. 1:04 would have been fast enough to win US Elite Kilo. So, if Sky were 10 years younger and riding the same Scattos, he probably could have won elites with his setup. Basically, the bars are fast if you are setup in them correctly.
- I like the 3T system of aerobars as an off-the-rack option. They seem to have the most options and are very modular.
- That being said, my kilo bars of choice were a mix of 3 different aerobar systems
Final Thoughts:
- If I were coaching an athlete for the kilo, if the rider has a killer start, I'd put him on narrow drop bars and focus on having the perfect start and top speed and then making his posture small and aero to be slick through the air afterwards.