Amateur Looking for Aero Position Critique

My first thought is that you need to raise your seat....ALOT, but it looks like your leg is almost completely extended on the down stroke.    I doubt you're going to get any more aero on that bike anyways though.


Oh....and not to sound harsh, but for me, aero got WAY more comfortable when my gut started disappearing.   

I knew that was going to happen. It's my shirt not my gut. I do have a belly but it's not that bad. Thanks.

your aerobars are pretty much doing nothing for you.

Take a picture of yourself in the drops, a picture of you on the hoods, and a picture of you on the tops.

Put them side to side with these pictures. You'll see what I mean when I say the aerobars are doing nothing for you..

A pro fit should be upgrade #1 on your list... followed closely by some tighter fitting clothing.

Raising the seat would make it possible to get a flatter back (and thus, probably, more aero), but look at his knee angle in the first picture!  Granted, the crank arm is not parallel with the seat post, but I think that would actually make the angle more obtuse.  I don't think that there's much if any room to raise the seat, and quite possibly OP needs to lower it.  (And I tend to keep mine on the high side so I'm pretty 'lenient' about a high seat.)

To OP:  If you said that this position was super-comfy, then I'd say try to lower the front end.  But since you can't hold it long, you shouldn't make it even more aggressive, IMO.  Instead, see whether you can 'train yourself into' holding this position for the expected duration of your races (or more).

Yes, it is normal to ride towards the front of the seat, but it does look to me like there is room to move your seat forward.  The angle at your elbow is well bigger than 90 degrees.  Also, the pads appear to be quite close to your elbows -- it looks like the aero extensions could be pulled in (towards the stem) a bit to help there.

CAVEAT:  This is free advice from an interested non-professional!

So the pads should be more near your forearm and not your elbows?

I would say find a fitter. Even a guy who will just adjust your seat height and bar rotation for $50 would be money well spent.

Typically, for the most aerodynamic position you want to get your body rotated forward as far as possible. On road bikes, that's hard to achieve without a different (forward) seat post.

Get your seat as far forward as possible. It's obviously as high as it can go, and might even need to come down a half inch. You might also want to tip the nose of the saddle up slightly. Speaking as someone with limited flexibility, and I suspect you are too, tilting the nose up *slightly* actually helps you slide back in the saddle to avoid nose-riding (the thin part of the seat).

Those aerobars look super high. Like, they're doing more harm than good. Without a windtunnel, it's hard to say definitively. I'd say flexibility is your limiter here, not necessarily the bike.

-Jason

You don't have enough stem drop at your disposal, nor any room to raise the seat to make that bike an aerodynamically efficient tri bike. Especially since you're uncomfortable (I could see why...that looks like you'd be sliding off), I would recommend getting rid of the aerobars. As Leeegocrap said, your position will not change enough that it will matter.

Instead of editing, I'm going to quote myself with a caveat.

If you can find a stem with a longer reach and something in the neighborhood of -20 degrees of drop, it may work. I wouldn't try it though.

I think the bar height is the limiter here.  Without going to a smaller frame, you're kinda stuck.  You could rotate the handlebars forward slightly - get the shifter levers pointing straight down, that might get your position down a bit more.

Edit: do this when it's off the training block in the front so your tires are level.

Edited by spudone 2010-09-21 7:12 PM

More free non-professional advice:

I recently put aero bars on my road bike and faced some of these same issues. I would try to slide the bars and/or pads toward the saddle more. The further away from (larger) than 90 degrees your arm angle is, the more your muscles have to work to stay in the aero position. The more your muscles have to work, the more energy is expended. This is bad in endurance sports. As previous people said, it doesn't look like you are gaining much on the aerodynamic side, so I think comfort and skeletal support (not muscular) should be your main focus for now. Once you get comfortable in the aero position I would work on being more aggresive. I took a few spacers out of mine and put in a different stem to drop the bars lower. It is a road bike and not a tri bike.It will probably take some $$$ to get a good areo position on it. You gotta decide if it's worth it, or if you should save a little more and just go get a tri bike. It may just be psychological, but I feel faster when i'm in the bars.

I hope this helps.

So you think I'd be better off just in the drops until I can get a real tri bike and get fitted?

Exactly. As others have said, you may also benefit from moving your seatpost down a bit. Look at Chris Lieto's leg angle (ignore his definition as it will likely make us all jealous)...it's in that 30-ish degree range of flex with his foot (just a bit past) the bottom of the stroke. That's what you want your leg to look like for maximum efficiency.

Unfortunately your bike doesn't look terribly adjustable.  That looks like a quill stem, and there don't tend to be too many good options for quills anymore.  Definitely not like there are for standard stems.

To me that bike looks like it's on the small side for you in terms of frame size.

Well, you've gotten some slightly conflicting advice (raise the seat, lower the seat), and here's some more:  I don't think that bike is too small for you; it's too big. That's why you can't get the drop from the seat to the bars large enough to get your back flatter.  By the same token, you've already said that even this position is too aggressive to hold for long, so probably the fact that the bike won't let you get more aggressive is not a tragedy.

It isn't obvious to me that your position in the drops would be better (or worse) than it is in aero.  Your forearms look fairly long, and if I eyeball them going down to the drops, I can see your torso possibly even rising a bit.  Plus, you will be exposing more of your arm to the wind, and possibly bringing them outside your shoulders (but maybe not -- looks like you have broad shoulders). 

Yes, in general the pads should be a few inches inside of your elbows.  In general.

Notice all the 'possibly's and 'probably's and 'in general's?  I agree that seeing a fitter is a great idea.

I totally disagree that the seat needs to be raised. Look at the first picture! His knee is almost at full extension. No way that seat needs to be raised.

What it looks like to me is that the top tube is too long for you, especially with the aerobars. Honestly, just take them off. They arent making you more aero in that position.

I also somewhat disagree with the people telling you to go get a professional fit. Unless you have money for a new bike, I really dont think its going to do a heck of a lot of good. The fit needs to come BEFORE you buy a bike. Ideally, the fitter will take your measurements, translate them to bikes that will be ideal for you, and then adjust the ideal bike to the ideal position.

Getting a fit on a bike that doesnt fit you to begin with isnt going to do much.

What I would do, is slap the bike on a trainer, and start adjusting. Start by moving the seat forward as much as you can.

Sure, that's the ideal situation, but a good fitter will know how to make the best of the situation.  I still think it's a good option for OP.   (I went to a fitter last year who told me what I already knew -- my bike is slightly too large.  OK, fine, I can't buy a new bike, so where do we go from here?  He was able to get me quite a good fit on the bike.  Not 'ideal', but quite good.  He was even able to tell me, roughly, how to make it more aggressive once I was ready for that.  At that time, I would not have been able, on my own, to achieve what he did for me.)

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I'm starting to feel like I'm golfing with my bowling shoes on here. Am I trying to make a tri bike out of a road bike that is simply not designed that way?

Yes, that is exactly what you are doing.  Lots of people do it.  I did it a while back.  The degree of success varies, and depends on a lot of things, many of which have been mentioned in this thread.  It isn't ideal.  In some cases, it isn't recommended.  In other cases, it can work quite well.

Best of luck to you!  Keep hacking away however you think is best and you'll find a solution that works well for you.

How long have you had the bike? Not long?

I say, go ride the tires off the darn thing and dont worry bout dem aero bars. Its a road bike... keep it as a road bike. If you really get into the sport and want to "invest" (i use the term loosely) in a tri bike later, do it. In the meantime, just ride as much as you can.

I bought the bike for less than 200 when I began training for my first tri this past July. So far I've ridden her in three tris and have put over 700 miles on it since June. I am now hooked on this sport and have been saving for a real tri bike. Looking to maybe make a purchase at the end of the season. But while I was trainig I got the aerobars for free and slapped them on the bike.

Did you read the second part of my sentence?

I admit I missed it. Sorry -- normally I'm a careful reader.

Well the price was certainly right.  Nothing wrong with that bike for what you paid.  Personally I'd maybe try to find a cheap forward seatpost to get a bit further up.  Other than that I wouldn't sink a lot of money into that bike.  Ride the tires off of that thing and get your money out of it, though!

Bike is too big! Sorry buddy. You are definitely going to have to look into getting a smaller bike.