I’m running Enve SES Aero road bars that are 37cm at the hoods and they’ve been great for my regular and longer rides (5x 100 mile rides last year for example). My longest ride has been 112 miles, but I have a personal goal of doing a solo ride this year that’ll be 200-220 miles depending on the route.
I’m going for a bike fit in a few weeks so I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to invest in some clip on aero bars and have the fitter help set them up. Enve makes some that match my bars but they’re not cheap
I’ve never ridden in aero bars. People often talk about the advantages of having multiple hand positions on long rides and they can certainly help with speed. I wonder if there are alot of fit compromises though since it seems like people want to be farther forward when using aero bars alot and that may affect the normal road position. I’d realistically only use these bars on long solo rides.
The other possible issue is that I’m 6’5" so I don’t know if these types of bars will be too short. I remember some old podcasts where Nate was talking about fit issues with aero bars but I don’t know how much of that was due to the equipment itself or UCI regs.
Well set-up, the gains can be significant. In addition, the extra hand / body positions can be very welcome on such a long ride.
If you are going to do it, and have a fitting scheduled, it is definitely worth getting them before the fitting. A good fit for them is critical and it can take some adjustment to get used to them.
But yeah, the ENVE extensions for the SES bars ain’t cheap!
I was going to use them for Unbound last year, but could never get the fit right. I already have a low and stretched out position on the bike and getting my HB to a position where I could accommodate clip-ons entailed too many compromises to my regular position.
But again, I am already very low on my bike and not your normal use-case scenario.
ETA - I have a lot of experience with aerobars, having raced tri’s for about 7 years during the 2010’s. I was very aero on my tri bike, so it wasn’t an adjustment issue for me. I can sit in my aero bars for hours on my tri bike with no issues.
I was just experimenting with a set of clip-on aerobars I was using years ago (13 years!) for doing TTs on my road bike. The tops of my regular bars are 10cm below the top of my saddle. With that, the clip-on aerobars I have are really too low for me for long rides. I’d want them to be significantly higher, but a quick search for clip-on bars didn’t show any that were significantly higher above the bars than what I have (Deda Elementi).
Increasingly seen in ultra endurance events. Not so much for aero purposes (though they aid that) so much as preventing nerve damage to hands or neck issues.
For your distance you’ll likely see a mix of those using standard drop bars only, and those with aero bars added.
A lot of good advice already. One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is shifting. If you can’t shift from the bars you may find it less helpful. There are options to address this, but it adds additional cost to the setup.
eTap AXS Wireless Blips | EC-BLIP-B1 | SRAM either taped to extensions or some fancier ones have slot for them. Haven’t looked whether Shimano or anything else has something comparable.
Running 12 speed Ultegra Di2 right now so I’m not sure what the shifting options would be. I probably wouldn’t worry about it unless I really end up liking the extensions. This is all uncharted territory for me
The route in question is reasonably flat so I think moving to the brifters periodically to shift wouldn’t be too terrible.
Yeah, it may seem so but don’t know, never had dangerous situation due that during solo rides. Sudden gusts of side wind have been more an issue but with experience, even that does not bother anymore.
When starting using them, you might have initially issue with neck muscles and looking constantly high from low position, eyes get tired but this goes away in couple weeks. Also, you might lose some core/triceps conditioning. For this reason, I actually switch twice a year – using extensions during spring/summer when doing very long distances and during autumn using bars when doing more sweetspot and threshold stuff.
Haven’t used clip-ons for seven years or so, but thinking about using them for long rides on my TCR when it gets warmer.
How important are they? Well no one should be thinking they must have them for a 200 mile ride. But once you’ve learned to use them and get comfortable, well then they can become really useful. Do a lot of testing and trials before a long day out, I hurt myself pretty bad just pootling outside my house testing them out.
I’m not sure how I’m going to feel going from the comfort of a well fit TT setup I’ve used for years, back to clipons. I suspect there will be back pain involved…
I’ve looked into this a bit because I’ve been hesitant to throw clip ons onto my bike because of the bar height thing. Evidently profile design sells spacers that be used to put clip ons higher. I haven’t tried it yet but if I end up doing duathlon or tri relay with my wife I may consider this move
I run this exact setup and they’re great. Beware that you basically are trading the tops position for the aero bars.
If you need angles or risers, the wattshop interface works with the bolt spacing.
12 spd di2, you can easily run the satellite shifters with an extension cable. I forget the part number for the bit that connects two 12 speed cables. I do not run them through the bars because it’s a one off event setup for me.
Yeah. I did see those big Profile Design spacers. They have some that are 70mm. IDK if they’ll work with my Deda bars or not wrt screw spacing and size. I might get a set just to try them.
Yeah, I used them at almost every gravel race I did in '24 after missing the podium at Unbound by 1 spot in '23 because I decided not to run them (over 8 hours solo that day).
I’ll never line up at a gravel race again without them when the rules allow. It’s just too much of a disadvantage when others have them. And I’d argue it makes for more interesting racing. Without aero bars, if you get dropped from the podium group in a long gravel race, there is basically zero chance of getting reconnected solo if you don’t have aero bars. It’s road race tactics at the pointy end. And getting dropped in a road race is basically the end of your day. What’s the fun in that?
The only race I debated not using them last year was Rule of 3 (which has hours of single track sections). I was definitely in the minority at that race running the bars, but they were a huge benefit on the road and gravel sections and I got a solid result.
And for the folks who are more focused on completion rather than competing, aero bars can make the day much more enjoyable with extra hand positions and a little less suffering to get home (particularly if solo, wind, etc.).
Racing bikes shoulder to shoulder at high speeds on loose technical terrain is inherently reckless. There are a bunch of things that could be done to make it safer, but removal of aerobars isn’t one that moves the needle (in my opinion). I’d argue that races that ban aero bars become more dangerous (at least at the pointy end) because people switch to the “IAB” approach and just rest their forearms at the center of the bar without holding onto anything. I guess you could ban that also, good luck. I’ve never seen anyone in a group cause a wreck from riding in aero bars. People aren’t generally riding in the aero bars in the pack or on sketchy sections, they are used when pulling on the front or chasing off the back. I’m sure there are plenty of solo wrecks where aero bars might have contributed, but do we really need to protect people from themselves at a bike race? The only reason LIfetime banned them for the pros in the Grand Prix is because some of the pros were complaining it wasn’t fair, spirit of gravel bs, etc. So, now the pros do IAB instead. Not a good move for safety IMO, but opinions vary.
I have the Enve Clip on for the Aero Road Bars. I haven’t gotten them fully set up yet, but a couple observations, some that I didn’t expect.
I don’t see any easy way to space them up with the Enve Mount.
There’s no way to Angle them Up without Angling the bar up which changes your drops, and you’d probably need to move your hoods to account for that.
I’m going to be working on my fit with them this winter (need to get on it) but I guess you could call those design shortcomings for the Enve Clip on, when dealing with the profile of the Aero Road Bar.
If anyone’s been through this specific setup, would be interested to see where you ended up as I’m just getting started.
