Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Been looking for a while now but unsure about whether or not to buy a set. On the spin bike at the gym the benefits, cadence wise, so does this translate to the road? Also, as they won't be used when racing, but on the open road, are their any safety issues when using with drop handle brakes?

Just be sensible about when you use them. They are designed for long solo rides with no traffic. When you are riding around in traffic and need to reach the brakes stay on the hoods/drops.

Check out the oval aero bars. They attach to the stem so are easily removed without losing your settings. I did a review of them in the reviews section a while ago as I love mine. As they replace the stem, there are no issues with using with carbon bars

Walsh95 wrote:On the spin bike at the gym the benefits, cadence wise, so does this translate to the road?

I assume with a spin bike at the gym using the aero bars changes your body position allowing you to pedal at a higher cadence.

Aero bars are used to get an aerodynamic advantage, and the best body position aerodynamic wise does not always lead to a fast pedalling style

on my TT bike with aero bars my cadence averages around 80

on my road bike with standard drop bars my average cadence is over 90.

Walsh95 wrote:on the open road, are their any safety issues when using with drop handle brakes?

it is not only brakes it is total control of the bike, with you hands in close it is harder to steer the bike

__PG__ wrote:Just be sensible about when you use them. They are designed for long solo rides with no traffic. When you are riding around in traffic and need to reach the brakes stay on the hoods/drops.

+1

I do commute on my TT bike for practice, for the first 5km of road, my hands are always on the brake hood. Then I get 32km of PSP and my hands only come off the aero bars for the two intersections and when passing other riders or pedestrians. Once I hit the city it is 100% on the hoods.

I would only get aero bars if I was racing time trials (I am), triathlons or doing long rides on low traffic roads at speed. Others, get your bike set up properly so you can ride at your preferred cadence and learn to ride on the drops, you get a big aero advantage without the loss of control

honestly, don't bother. if you are just using them to ride on the road it is not a great idea. when using them you have less control as you dont have access to brakes, so you are slightly more of a hazard to traffic/other cyclists. you are much better getting a good bike fitting, this will improve your comfort/pedalling efficiency much more than adding aero bars.

I crashed my old Repco (over 20 yearsago) when riding on my Scott aero bars. Riding home at night from a mate's house, not wearing my glasses...not concentrating...and a parked car just pulled out of nowhere right in front of me

Tried to grab the hoods and brakes and swerve around it and ended up falling and grazing my thigh and elbow.
Learnt a good lesson that night!

I still used the Scott bars for another 10 years or so, and they were excellent on long solo rides. I think I might get a very small set of clip-ons for my new bike (e.g. http://www.visiontechusa.com/products/5 ... ip-On-Bars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) but I wish someone would make some Cinelli Spinacci bar replicas with a 31.8 mm clamp diameter.