On longer rides, I just plain run out of places to shift my hands to, and often find myself doing the 'make believe aero' position with forearms on the tops. This gets old fast.
I'm curious to hear how those stubby little aero bars are. For example, there's that Cinelli plastic one, and a Profile Design that uses two little stubby ones, etc. I wonder if this would give good relief, as well as a slightly more aero position (although it's obviously not an aggressive position, nor necessarily the most efficient one).
Aztec - I'm currently using a set of Cinelli Spinaci Lite bars on my Teschner road bike, and in my opinion they are excellent for the purpose you have described.
Although they don't give you the same full aero profile dedicated tri bars do, they do allow you to move your hands and arms around a bit more for comfort, and they've got plenty of ways in which they can be adjusted on the bars.
I've also looked at the Profile Jammer bars, but found the hand positions available on the Cinellis were more to my liking. For an extra bit of comfort, I've wrapped mine with bar tape, just for a little padding.
IMO the Spinaci bars are fantastic without going for the full tri position. 🙂
I used these Spinaci's too, and afterwards the same type from other mark which included armpads. But in 'aero' position, my arms leaned on the handelbar/armpads too much halfway my underarms, instead of near the elbows, not very comfortable. So I removed them, and would prefer some real aero bars for more comfort, but with my normal riding I don't need them. But if you are really in need of more arm positions, and don't really need (and expect) the posibility of a really good aero/comfortable position, they offer some extra positions on your handelbars.
