Aero Bars

The Original 2016 set up

I used a mix of aero bar extensions and mounting pads, made up from what i had already. I used brackets that hold the bars above the handlebars, as putting them under the bars reduced clearance between front roll and wheel. I also packed the arm rests up about 4mm, with some aluminium washers i made up. This raised them a little and made them more comfortable.

With the aerobars mounted, I now had no spare handlebar space for my Garmin, lights etc, so I cut up an old set of road bars, salvaged the centre 31.6mm section (not all bars have this section long enough), and drilled it so that it slid over the aero bar extensions. My light mounted inbetween the aero's and my Garmin mounted on the outside. I never worried about plugging the ends, as the front roll meant I was highly unlikely to ever get a body part in the way (for a potential core sample!) in the event of an off. This piece of bar just sat in place. The strap that tied front roll up to bars ran over it and it just wedged itself down into the bend in the aero's.

The grips on the end of the aero's are the old grips off my bike. easy to get off if I needed to remove the light holder bit etc.

I liked this set up, but I could never ride for extended periods of time on it, and found i would be flicking between aero and standard bars regularly. I put this down to some previous shoulder problems, but it turns out that it was actually that the bars were too low for extended comfortable use.

As a side note, I have done a lot of riding on aero bars, in TT's, Triathlon etc, and I am reasonably flexible. Depending on how much stretching I am doing at any given time, I can at least touch my toes, and can usually get the first or second knuckle on the ground. The less flexible you are, the higher you will need your aero bars, for comfort.

















The Late 2016 Setup

When I got the Procaliber, I was worried about mounting aerobars onto the carbon handlebars, and then loading them up with the strap around the front roll. The Procaliber had approx 20mm of spare steerer and I was thinking along the lines of a Fred Bar. Then an old stem caught my eye, so, rather than spend $150 on a Fred Bar, and then maybe find I didn't like it, I used the short piece of old handlebar (used as a light mount above) and mounted the aerobars on that. It felt great, but put the elbow pads too high (my back and hips never changed position when I went from bars to aero). So I swapped the mounting arms and turned them upside down. This dropped the pads about 10-15mm and worked well, just hard to adjust because the bolt heads were in the wrong place now!

The other bonus, is that I could mount the bars a bit wider, which was kinder on my shoulders, both of which have "frozen" in the last 10 years.

Its a little hard to see, but the photo below has this set up. It was a better setup than my 2016 original and i could now ride for extended periods, with comfort, on the aero's. I still felt it needed to be just a little lower tho', but couldn't figure out a way to do it.

The first generation of Aerobars on the Procaliber

The Current Set Up

Generation 2 aero's on the Procaliber

The next improvement came about after a visit to the Profile Designs tent at Challenge Wanaka in February 2017. These Profile Design Legacy bars mount a little differently. The bars come out in front of the handlebar, rather than sit above it, and so the bars and pads sit lower as a result. They now feel GREAT. The cross bar at the front, with light and Garmin on, is the plastic pipe that the Legacy bars came mounted on, with ends handcrafted (hacksaw and sand paper!) to suit the shape. An 8mm cable tie holds it onto the bars. The extra width between the bars, also means i can get both my Garmin and Light mounted on the cross bar.

Stage 2 is to mount the cue sheet holder - cut out of a 2L ice cream top and wire tied onto the bars. Cue sheets held on with 2 bulldog clips. Also, I'm looking for a shorter stem, to bring the bars and arm rests back towards me a little.

Another bonus of having the aero bars mounted this way, is that it leaves the handlebars free to mount a Blackburn or Specialised style bracket mounted front roll harness.

I also mount my feed bags on the upper stem, which raises them up enough for my twin drink bottles (mounted on the downtube) to be able to be positioned so that they clear my knees, the fork when turned and the feed bags.