I have got some clip on aero bars for my road bike to do my TTs this year and was hoping for some advice on what I should change bike fit wise from my road position to get the best from them. Thanks
After using my clip-on aero bars for a few weeks I ended up buying a new saddle that was titled down more at the front, as I was losing feeling in an area where I really didn’t want to be losing feeling 
It was actually the only upgrade for my bike that my missus has signed off straight away 
My other advice would be to perform your next ramp test using the aero bars (don’t worry about a slight decrease in FTP), then try and perform as many of your subsequent workouts as you can in aero.
If you’re using the road bike regularly without the bars then there’s only so much adjustment you can do, unless you want to be swapping out spacers and stems etc every week.
So the main things are perhaps moving the saddle forward a little and tilting it down, so you can get more power out in the aero position.
Then adjust the fore and aft of the aero bars so that your elbows / forearms support you comfortably and your hands are at the end of the bars. And adjust the width between them so your arms are as narrow as possible without being uncomfortable. This part is really just experimentation, go out for a ride and see if it’s comfortable and adjust accordingly.
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Check this out.
If you have a 27.2mm seatpost, I highly recommend the Redshift Dual Position seatpost. It allows proper road and TT setup and switches in seconds on the fly.
Yes, it is quite fantastic. I have seen a couple of fitters, and both of them thought the RedShift Switch did a really good job of putting me in the right position both ways. Maybe not perfect but well enough to do a 70.3 bike leg!
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I got one in their original Kickstarter. Been rock solid for 5 years of use. They make reliable stuff.
The fitting aspect is great for people who want just one bike for road and tri use. The quick release aero bars are awesome too. So fast to install and remove.
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I hate to run an infomercial, buuuuuut… my favorite thing about the aerobars again goes back to fit: you can line them up with a fitter (pick the right width, pad placement, angle, and so on) and then maintain that fit even as you swap the back bike and forth between roading and tri use. I don’t know if they’re still unique in that particular way, but when I bought them ~3 years ago they were - everything else I’ve seen has you reposition them every time you put them on.
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Yup, I’m kinda a Redshift junky too. Being a fitter and designers, I really appreciate their designs and the pure functionality.
I think they are still the only ones with the QR bars, which is crazy really. Such a good idea. Beauty is that you can also buy additional bases, install on another bike, and use the same bars on different bikes easily.
I don’t mean to hijack this thread and if I am, please delete this. Just curious what difference, if any, do people notice between the budget option for aero bars on Amazon ($25) vs higher end aero bars >$170?
To be honest I don’t know but, from what I’ve seen/experienced: less frontal area and less weight from the more expensive ones.
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My main concern would be fit. How much can you adjust height, width, bar angle, etc.? An expensive bar won’t necessarily be more adjustable to your position but cheap bars will probably have less options for tweaking.
I got some pretty cheap alloy aero bars (~£30) for christmas and fitted them last night and I’m really impressed with the adjustability.
The bars themselves have everything you would need apart from stack height adjustment but that could be done by adding/losing headset spacers.
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Assuming that I will be stuck indoors this spring Or riding solo outdoors, are there any suggestions for a reasonably priced aero bar I can order online for a road bike? Doesn’t need to be a budget option but I don’t need Zipp or equivalent bars. I just want something that can be adjusted to work on aero position. Don’t worry, I won’t break them out for the 2021 gravel season.
I’m a big fan of the RedShift Sports system. If you have a single road bike, with a 27.2mm seatpost, this setup is super handy.
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