[Gman59c]

So I’ve been taking part in my local club time trials this year and have been doing quite well in them. It was suggested that clip on bars might give me an extra boost in speed, so i got a cheap pair to try them out. I am a bit perplexed though about how they should be fitted.

Can anybody give me the benefit of their own experience or point me towards an online tutorial???

Topic

[truffy]

At least one manufacturer
At least one manufacturer (name of which escapes me) states that not all of its handlebars are suitable for clip-ons.

[joemmo]

The advantage of aero bars
The advantage of aero bars over drops is that with your weight supported on elbows your upper body is more relaxed so it’s less tiring.

To echo other posters you can get a starting position by riding on the turbo but you’ll probably start to get a feel for the fine tuning after you’ve done some road miles.

Also, depending on which bars you have and how your bike is setup you might need to adjust the stem height as well.

[giobox]

As others have pointed out,
As others have pointed out, the real benefits of aerobars are only realised with a saddle position you can’t get with a standard road setback seat post. A zero setback post would be an improvement. Without moving the saddle you can’t really get a much faster position than you would just using the drops.

There’s a pretty nifty seatpost from a company called redshift that can instantly move from a road position to a TT/tri one, haven’t tried it myself but DCRainmaker reviewed it last week and really liked it. A lot easier than switching posts and moving saddle too!

[SteppenHerring]

When I used to use my road
When I used to use my road bike for TTing, I had a zero-setback seatpost so I could move up and forward. Horrible to ride down steep hills. Then I got a Planet X TT bike and realised that the problem was actually that I am fat and slow.

Setting up on the turbo is all very well but you need to take it out on the road and be confident with the vagaries that the British road throws at you. So yeah, set it up on the turbo and make sure you can pedal, breathe and hold the position but do take it out on the road and make sure you can pedal, breathe, hold the position and cope with potholes.

[Gman59c]

glynr36 wrote:It’s not just a

glynr36 wrote:

It’s not just a case of bolting them on, you need to ‘refit’ the bike to yourself, a TT fit is different to a ‘normal’ fit.

That’s pretty much what i wanted to know. I know seat position will need to move forward etc. i was thinking more of where should pads be positioned, what kind of angle should they be set at etc.

Would it be an idea to set up on my turbo and see what’s comfortable?

[glynr36]

It’s not just a case of
It’s not just a case of bolting them on, you need to ‘refit’ the bike to yourself, a TT fit is different to a ‘normal’ fit.

[Gman59c]

I walked into that one I
I walked into that one I suppose =D>

[NeilG83]

A couple of bits of sticky
A couple of bits of sticky tape should work 😀

[Author]

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