Aero Bars

photogy said:

Can someone tell me the prupose of aero bars?

Sometimes on long rides I get tired of having the weight of my shoulders on my hands (my wheight is distributed around 60/40%, 60 on my seat, 40 on my hands), and feel slightly cramped. I think that aero bars might give me another position, although more on my elbows obviously.

Is there something that I need to look out for here? Back pain etc?

Well not to be a smart ass but the purpose is to be more aero... you get a little lower and a fair amount narrower when used properly.

As far as comfort goes, I have seen some people talk about that as a selling point. In my experience, they are only something I want to use for time-trialing and find them to be rather uncomfortable for my neck, etc. Probably depends a great deal on the set-up of the bike, but IMO they are for going faster only.

If you have a problem with weight on your hands, raise your stem.

wilmar13 said:

Well not to be a smart ass but the purpose is to be more aero... you get a little lower and a fair amount narrower when used properly.

As far as comfort goes, I have seen some people talk about that as a selling point. In my experience, they are only something I want to use for time-trialing and find them to be rather uncomfortable for my neck, etc. Probably depends a great deal on the set-up of the bike, but IMO they are for going faster only.

If you have a problem with weight on your hands, raise your stem.

Hmmm, boy sometimes focus on an issue can direct you away from the self evident...aero...more aerodynamic. Should have thought of that one!

As far as raising the stem goes, when my bike shop put a new stem on for me, that said that it already had spacers. I suppose the real issue is being cramped. I had a tough time fitting a bike (long arms and legs, short chest; kind of like an ape I guess). I would think that there is more room to raise it. It's about two and a half inches below the seat now. The old quill stems were easy to raise. Perhaps there is more room. How do I confirm this?

photogy said:

Hmmm, boy sometimes focus on an issue can direct you away from the self evident...aero...more aerodynamic. Should have thought of that one!

As far as raising the stem goes, when my bike shop put a new stem on for me, that said that it already had spacers. I suppose the real issue is being cramped. I had a tough time fitting a bike (long arms and legs, short chest; kind of like an ape I guess). I would think that there is more room to raise it. It's about two and a half inches below the seat now. The old quill stems were easy to raise. Perhaps there is more room. How do I confirm this?

Well you can't raise the stem per se once the fork is cut...you can however flip your stem or get one with a different rise. Also on my bike for TT I lower my stem by moving the spacers to the top of the fork, and then putting back where it was for general riding... of course you can't do this now, but maybe for your next fork you can have it cut a little higher and change the spacer placement if you want lower.

Mark Willis said:

Well you can't raise the stem per se once the fork is cut...you can however flip your stem or get one with a different rise. Also on my bike for TT I lower my stem by moving the spacers to the top of the fork, and then putting back where it was for general riding... of course you can't do this now, but maybe for your next fork you can have it cut a little higher and change the spacer placement if you want lower.

Thanks Mark!

Like Mark suggested, your best bet is to look into flipping the stem over. Sometimes this is already done, but sometimes it isn't. If your stem appears to be parallel to the ground, you can probably flip it over to get the bars a little higher. If the stem points upward slightly, then it is most likely already flipped. In this case, you can find out the stem angle (usually on the manufacturers web site) and see about getting a stem that would allow a higher position.

As far as aerobars go, they may cause more of a problem than you think. If the bars are too low as it is, adding aerobars will force you into an even lower position for the most part, as they will force your chest to be much more parallel to the top tube of the bike, rotating you forward on the saddle, and pulling you farther out onto the nose of the saddle. All these are things that should be taken into account in terms of fit when adding aerobars. Also, riding on them is not the easiest/safest of riding positions. The bike is much less stable when you have your elbows and hands that close together on the bars--not necessarily good for use in traffic or in group situations at all. In fact, most if not all groups will tell you to stay off the aerobars while on a group ride.

Hope this helps.

martin_j001 said:

Like Mark suggested, your best bet is to look into flipping the stem over. Sometimes this is already done, but sometimes it isn't. If your stem appears to be parallel to the ground, you can probably flip it over to get the bars a little higher. If the stem points upward slightly, then it is most likely already flipped. In this case, you can find out the stem angle (usually on the manufacturers web site) and see about getting a stem that would allow a higher position.

As far as aerobars go, they may cause more of a problem than you think. If the bars are too low as it is, adding aerobars will force you into an even lower position for the most part, as they will force your chest to be much more parallel to the top tube of the bike, rotating you forward on the saddle, and pulling you farther out onto the nose of the saddle. All these are things that should be taken into account in terms of fit when adding aerobars. Also, riding on them is not the easiest/safest of riding positions. The bike is much less stable when you have your elbows and hands that close together on the bars--not necessarily good for use in traffic or in group situations at all. In fact, most if not all groups will tell you to stay off the aerobars while on a group ride.

Hope this helps.

Prety clear then...aero bars are not the answer! As for my stem, it is already flipped. It is a new stem, that when I first put it on, felt great, and it is still 100% better than what I had (and longer).

In order to keep my chest open and my body not overly rotated forward I raked the handlebars back (break levers probably 45 degrees to the ground), which feels good, but still not stretched out. It appears that when I rotate the handlebars forward my chest closes. I am all arms and legs and short waisted, so bike fit has been a tough issue.

photogy said:

Prety clear then...aero bars are not the answer! As for my stem, it is already flipped. It is a new stem, that when I first put it on, felt great, and it is still 100% better than what I had (and longer).

In order to keep my chest open and my body not overly rotated forward I raked the handlebars back (break levers probably 45 degrees to the ground), which feels good, but still not stretched out. It appears that when I rotate the handlebars forward my chest closes. I am all arms and legs and short waisted, so bike fit has been a tough issue.

I have never seen one, but if you want to go higher it would not be difficult to machine a "lift"... a local machine shop could make it for you for not too much money.

It would need to have a lower section that clamped onto your fork (imagine just the tube section of your stem) with the other end machined to the diameter of your fork (probably 1 1/8) so that your current stem would just bolt right on. This would be an easy way to get another 2 " or so of height.

wilmar13 said:

I have never seen one, but if you want to go higher it would not be difficult to machine a "lift"... a local machine shop could make it for you for not too much money.

It would need to have a lower section that clamped onto your fork (imagine just the tube section of your stem) with the other end machined to the diameter of your fork (probably 1 1/8) so that your current stem would just bolt right on. This would be an easy way to get another 2 " or so of height.

With looking into, but weight will be a factor...I may just need to get used to what I have!

photogy said:

With looking into, but weight will be a factor...I may just need to get used to what I have!

Well additional weight will be negligable(it would be aluminum), but cost won't be... my comment about it not costing much was from the perspective of someone that has machine tools readily available to mess around on... upon further reflection a machine shop would have to charge you at least 2 hours labor (or more) which puts it well above the $100 mark... you could buy a new fork with an uncut steerer for that. I would just forget about my initial half-baked idea of getting it custom made (unless you can do the work yourself).

However with the fact that threaded steerers have gone the way of the dinosaur, you may be able to find someone that already makes a "stem extender" type of thing for a threadless application.

wilmar13 said:

Well additional weight will be negligable(it would be aluminum), but cost won't be... my comment about it not costing much was from the perspective of someone that has machine tools readily available to mess around on... upon further reflection a machine shop would have to charge you at least 2 hours labor (or more) which puts it well above the $100 mark... you could buy a new fork with an uncut steerer for that. I would just forget about my initial half-baked idea of getting it custom made (unless you can do the work yourself).

However with the fact that threaded steerers have gone the way of the dinosaur, you may be able to find someone that already makes a "stem extender" type of thing for a threadless application.

Just remember, some of the best ideas are half baked...somewhere between the sublime and rediculous is genious.

Thank for the help!

wilmar13 said:

Well additional weight will be negligable(it would be aluminum), but cost won't be...

Twenty bucks, and they don't look too heavy.
About 2/3 down:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/stems.html