Advice on Aero Position
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bluebirdbiker posted 3 years ago.
Tri this:
http://www.tri-ecoach.com/art11.htm
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KenMierke posted 3 years ago.
1. And this is a huge one. My front tire is way to squirrely. I mean, I have like practically no control over it and waver quite a bit more than I did with the initial roadie store set-up for aero. Excluding the stomach cramps and bee sting, my entire focus during the 15-mile Mission Man course was not crashing. I've got to fix that. I think this occurred from moving my seat forward or back (I can't rememebr which!).
This is probably the result of not having enough weight on the handlebar. Moving the saddle aft will often cause this.
2. Maybe this is also part of #1, but my forearms are never in a comfortable postion on the pads. I think my arms are way too stretched out, but I'm afraid that if I move my seat forward I will #1, have even less control over the front tire, and #2, lose the great leg positioning I have at the moment.
Your elbows should be only slightly in front of your shoulders, with the upper arms almost vertical. This gives the best control, aeroduynamics, and shoulder relaxation. Get your torso lower by lowering the handlebar, not by moving it forward.
The aerobar pads should be set relatively narrow unless you are able to get your torso very low (few of us can produce power effectively from that ow a position). Go at least narrow enough that the outside edge of your arms is inside the outside edge of your torso.
Ken
Ken Mierke Ken@Fitness-Concepts.com
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4loren posted 3 years ago.
Hopefully someone else will comment on this, since I'm new to the Aero position too.
Based partially on Ken's comments, maybe you might want to try a shorter stem? This will reduce the amount of superman, stretched position. If you recently bought the bike the store should be willing to switch out the stem for free or on the cheap. If the it feels even worse then get your old stem back and return the new one.
I'm still in debate on my stem length and may switch out after I my first century in the Aeros.
4949
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1727 days
beads1985 posted 3 years ago.
Hey Tarheeltri, is your bike a raod bike set up for tris or a tri specific bike?
I had a Trek 2000 road bike and I did some tweaking of my own
and a little assistance from the bike shop.
The bike shop had no idea how to set up the bike for a tri.
I am now on a Cervelo P2 SL which is tri specific. Big Difference!!
I got fitted properly by someone who knew bikes
and specifically had been fitting tri bikes for 14 years.
He checked out how I was set up on my bike and showed me how it was set up wrong.
He pointed out how I could correct my road bike set up to work as a tri bike.
I would find a bike shop that fits tri bike and have them fix your set up.
Since they are not selling you a bike they will most likely charge you.
I ended up getting a new bike but he set up my old bike so I could ride it comfortable for training or use it as a backup.
Nothing to it, but to do it
2455
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1332 days
Triguy98 posted 3 years ago.
The biggest thing to remember with aerobars is that your arms should drop 90 degrees from your torso. You torso to leg angle is secondary. Too often I see roadies with aero bars on their bike set up totally wrong, often flying down the street with their arms stretched out like superman.
A tri aero setup is just that... for tris, and if you have a road bike, you WILL have to make compromises to your standard road position if you wan full benefit from aero. Such as shortening the stem, and getting a forward off set seat post. Also, the lower your bars are, the shorter your stem is gonna have to be. It might be worthwile to just get a pair of semi aero bars designed for road bikes, like the ITU pros use... such as the Profile Design Jammer
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sfricks posted 3 years ago.
Look at and consider adjusting the angle of your aero bars as well. Slightly down in the front is more stable but less aerodynamic. Tilted slightly up is ofcourse more aerodynamic but MUCH less stable. This may be your squirelly front tire issue. HTH - Scott
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1223 days
tarheeltri posted 3 years ago.
Thank you Ken and everyone else for your comments. I'm going to work on some of them tonight.
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themutt posted 3 years ago.
Suggestion that will cost some real money but will result in added bike speed and fresher legs for the run- find someone in your area that actually knows something about tri-fitting. Ian and Sarah @ Fitwerx in Waitsfield, Vt. actually understand aero fit. Their website is Fit Werx something or other and I'm sure they can steer you to a qualified technician. It ain't cheap but we all spend money on stuff we don't need and doesn't work. This works!!
To quickly summarize, I've only been on a road bike for five months, with aero bars for three months. Against my better judgement, I listened to the guy at the store (a roadie, rather than tri type store) and left the arm pads set wider than I believed they should be. After a single long ride, I knew I didn't like the positioning of the pads and moved them in, thus opening a huge can of worms because then, for some reason, the seat seemed too far back so, I messed with that. Then the seat height didn't feel right, etc., etc...
Here's what I like about my current position:
1. I've adjusted the seat height to one where my knees are bent slightly more than recommended. This benefited me in my recent sprint because it moved a lot of the work to my quads and off my hamstrings. I read this somewhere and I have to say that I had ABSOLUTELY NO tightness in any part of my legs transitioning from the bike to run. NONE. It was like I just started running first thing in the morning. And, I didn't do a single brick between Kerr Lake (June 4) and Mission Man (July 31). In fact, I never even ran the same day I biked.
2. My arms pads are as close as they can be on my aero bars. I'm totally comfortable with that.
Here's what I don't like:
1. And this is a huge one. My front tire is way to squirrely. I mean, I have like practically no control over it and waver quite a bit more than I did with the initial roadie store set-up for aero. Excluding the stomach cramps and bee sting, my entire focus during the 15-mile Mission Man course was not crashing. I've got to fix that. I think this occurred from moving my seat forward or back (I can't rememebr which!).
2. Maybe this is also part of #1, but my forearms are never in a comfortable postion on the pads. I think my arms are way too stretched out, but I'm afraid that if I move my seat forward I will #1, have even less control over the front tire, and #2, lose the great leg positioning I have at the moment.
3. To me, this doesn't make sense since I feel like my arms are too stretched out, but I feel like I am not low enough. I wouldn't mind at all if my face was like right over the handle bars.
Most likely, before Pinehurst (which is a huge race for this area and the North Carolina Triathlon Series finale) I will get to a shop and pay for some good advice. But, given that I have several months before the race, I'd like to toy with this on my own.
Any advice?
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