- You can spend almost as much money as you want
on making your bike more aerodynamic
but fundamentally, it's actually your body
that is the biggest drag holding you back.
Actually, for most of us,
our bodies just hold us back full stop,
but anyway, let's gloss over that shall we?
The single best thing that you can do
to make yourself faster then,
is to buy a pair of aero handlebars.
Now, they're not going to make your bike more aerodynamic
but they will make you considerably more aerodynamic.
Now of course, they're not legal in mass start road events
but for ultra endurance events,
for time trials and for triathlon,
they make a really sound investment
but which ones do you choose?
(light music)
You have two basic choices to make,
firstly, so called clip-ons,
that bolt on to traditional road handlebars
and then you also have something more like these,
which are a full aero handlebar,
and more at home on a traditional time trial bike.
Now you don't need a specific bike
but to use these you will need different gear shifters,
different brake levers and therefore
a full re-cable every time you swap
from a traditional road handlebar to a full aero bar
and basically it would take an experienced mechanic
about an hour every time you want to do that job.
(light music)
Let's start with clip-ons first, shall we?
They bolt onto the central section of your handlebar,
as you can see, some of them, like these from Profile,
will bolt onto the top of your handlebars,
therefore raising your elbows up slightly
and making your position a little bit more upright.
Some, however, will mount below the handlebars,
therefore dropping you down a little bit.
Now which ones you choose, depend on, firstly,
what type of riding you do, but then also
how low your position is as a starting point.
So, for some people doing, perhaps, ultra endurance events,
where aero is gonna come secondary to comfort,
then being a little bit higher up
is probably a good idea, however,
if you want to get really aero,
the chances are that you may well want
to go a little bit lower and, in fact,
in those cases you might even want to consider
dropping your stem as well, or perhaps swapping it entirely
for one that drops you even further.
You'll also want to look at having adjustable pads
so that means both for height,
independently of your handlebars,
and also the width, because some people will find
that they're more comfortable
with wider elbows and wider hands,
which other people will want to be narrower.
In terms of which one is more aerodynamic,
it is, unfortunately, not very clear cut
because it very much depends
on the width of your shoulders.
Sorry about that one.
And the last thing you need to think about
is the shape of the extensions themselves.
These ones, the T2+'s, are actually my choice
and they keep your wrist much, much flatter.
They feel faster, although I've never actually tested them
in a wind tunnel so I don't know how it affects my position
but you may well find that if you're on the bike
for longer periods of time, looking at you
ultra endurance athletes, that you might want
an extension that kicks up a little bit more at the end.
Then, one last point to mention, actually,
is for triathletes, those of you
that are doing draft legal races, need to bear in mind
that the end of your extensions need to finish
before the maximum extent of your brake levers,
so these need to be a lot shorter
and they also need to be joined in the middle as well.
(light music)
What about full blown aero bars then?
Well, as I mentioned, if you are considering buying
some of these for the first time,
you also need to factor in that you're gonna need
specific brake levers and also gear shifters as well
and they do tend to be significantly
more aerodynamic than road handlebars,
so buying the most aero ones you can find
should probably be something
that you want to factor in to your buying decision
as is the fact that you want them to be UCI legal
if you're doing UCI sanctioned events, of course,
and by that I mean they need to conform
to the three to one ratio of width to depth,
so on the base bar here, you can see that does meet it,
but it is significantly wider than it is deeper.
Now, a full blown aero bar probably has less adjustment
than the clip-ons but there is still plenty to play with,
so, you'll be able to move the width of the pads out
and then also on these Profile ones
you can actually increase the stack,
so increase the distance between the base bar
and the extensions by up to 10cm.
(light music)
Remember, that actually setting up your aero bars
is one of the most important parts of actually buying them.
If you just throw them on your bike you may find
that you don't actually get any more aerodynamic at all.
You don't need to invest in a full on bike fit,
although if you're relatively inexperienced
then it might well be a good idea
but definitely put your bike on an indoor trainer,
either in front of a full length mirror
or a video camera and just check out
firstly your position, and your frontal area,
which is one of the most important parts of aerodynamics
and indeed, how changes to your setup
will change your frontal area.
There are golden rules, generally,
your power output and your comfort
should be more important than your aerodynamics,
so maintaining them as opposed to adopting
a super extreme position that looks more aerodynamic
and then also bear in mind that as you lean further forward,
your hips will rotate and that means
that you will want to push your seat
a little bit further forward as well
so I've swapped out a seat post
to an inline one here and knocked the saddle
correspondingly further forwards as well.
Aero handlebars then, are definitely a secret
to being able to go faster,
just make sure that you spend a little bit of time
choosing the right ones and indeed setting them up.
Now, make sure you have subscribed to GCN,
it's completely free, it's very easy,
all you've got to do is click on the globe
and then, if you're after some more content,
I have a couple of very relevant ones for you right now
including how to fit and setup clip on aero bars,
see, told you it's relevant.
That is just up there.
Or, to see how to get more comfortable
with your road handlebars and adjust the fit on them,
then click just down there.