Not taking advantage of aero

Probably a choice agreed upon with the group to NOT ride aero for safety reasons.
Or were not concerned with a time trial day.
Makes sense to me.

Were they racing?

I will sit up off the bars when I am riding with another person for safety reason and by myself if I am doing an easier effort. You can't really judge what anyone is doing so why bother?

Maybe you caught them at the .2% of the time that they were'nt in aero.  And as far as the group of two goes...the trailing rider should not be in the aero position.  Aero is usually a no no when in a group.

Sometimes I ride aero and sometimes I don't.  If I'm just out for a fun ride, I like to sit up.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

99.8?  Good for you, but I don't undestand the assumed superiority of spending more time in aero than anyone else.

Yea I have to do that to get to the next play list on my iPod.  I also sometimes have to stear with my feet.  Thats not very aero at all.

Don't forget doing your online banking, investments, and purchases.

Nah, do that aero. That way you can use both hands

If i don't ride aero, I can usually make up the time difference if I just blow through a couple stop signs

Yeah to each there own I guess, if they pay the money for the bike they can ride it anyway they want. When I'm out there I'm not out there for fun persay. Yes it is fun, but I mean by fun it with the fam on the mountain bike towing the kid, that is what I mean by out there for fun.

But anyway in the two months I've had the bike I've seen about 15 tri bikes out there on the path, and only 2 people in aero. The trail is almost 100% flat as it runs along the city drainage creeks. The only time there is anytype of slope is when you go under a road or bridge. Not busy on this stretch either. I can understand why the one in tow wasn't in aero, but on my 10ish mile short ride I only saw a total of about 8 people on bikes, and 3-4 walker/joggers, so plenty of time for aero, its out in the wide open so you can see for miles so to me not really any reasons to come out of aero.

On one of my rides there is a section of "Bike trail" which I think most people call a multi-use trail. For those 4-5 miles, I never go aero because it is multi-use. I slow down a little bit and ride in a way that allows me to stop and not have to yell at people to keep safe. I also run that section and hate to be yelled at by people that are traveling 25 mph while I'm trying to navigate around dogs, strollers, and the occasional pile of poop.

If your path is so seldom used that you can use it as a private track, good for you, but that isn't the case in my area. Most people that are seriously training will be on the bike lanes or rural roads.

Just my opinion.

Is this your first time on the internet?

Would this be any dif than owning a road and tri bike, and only racing on the tri bike? For a lot of people sitting up can be more comofrtable, provides a MUCH safer platform to control the bike, etc.


For me personally, my bike is more comfortable sitting up unless i am riding hard, then i use the aerobars. I'd guess i only use them 40% of the time, all climbing, or fairly easy riding, recovery between intervals, and the first and last 8 miles of ALL my rides, are done sitting up.

I'm new here...What does this button do....

Edited by bryancd 2010-11-03 10:47 AM

Here are a few pics of the trail. It usually looks empty like this when I am out there as well, so yes it is a muti use trail, but you will usually only see bikes on it unless you are within about 2 miles of the trailhead. The particlar section in the second picture I have done several 10 mile rides this summer, one of which I didn't see a single other person on the trail that day, it was hot an humid lol. Usually traffic is really low, just like the pictures, I can do a 28 mile out nad back ride where I will see, if I'm lucky, maybe a biker every 2 miles or so, and only runners/joggers in the first and last 2 miles, and within about 2 miles of the turn around, plenty of space to do whatever I want. I guess when I use mutiuse trail most of you are probably using clogged up busy trails, while I'm used to nobody being out there other than me and the trail ahead.

Regardless why would you care about what anyone else is doing?

That's why I come here...to judge others

Might wanna be careful about being so judgemental.  Somebody might point out that your seat and aerobars are about the same height and it doesn't look like you can get very aero on your bike something that you might not like.

I wonder if the OP expected this thread to turn the way it did.

No I didn't expect it to go this way, yeah I know my bike is not setup to be as aero as many of you are, it has actually changed since the pics, but not much. I'm just out there doing the best I can do with what God has giving me body wise, I have a negative sit and reach and it is hard for me to get down as low as many of you. My hips are jointed funny which does allow me to sit with my knees flat etc. So I'm just doing the best I can with what I have. In my family basically everyone on my dad's side has had hip or knee replacement surgery because of this, including him just in August.

The thing I do find funny though is, some of the people posting in this thread saying they don't always ride aero or sometimes take a break, I often see in other threads the same people saying why would you not take advantage of this, or do that. Yet here they are saying they don't always do it themselves, so that's kind of funny.

So i guess I will ask the same question they are asking people in the other threads concerning wheels, wetsuits, aero helmets, etc. If you are telling these people they should be taking advatage of it if they can. Well that was kind of my same thoughts as well when I started this post about the ones I saw. If you have it why not use it?

I'm just here trying to make a diference in my life, down from 218 to 193 this morning in the 3 months I've been doing this stuff. So sorry if I'm such a newb for judging other's, I've seen several other threads here criticizing people for not riding aero so I guess I was just taking the lead of what I have seen others post.

The comments I've seen in other threads are in regards to using things on race day.  Why would you not wear an aero helmet on race day?  Or use race wheels?  They're free speed obviously.  Same with riding aero on race day, which obviously requires practicing it as much as possible in training. 

But some people like fun rides once and a while.  There's nothing wrong with going out for a ride that isn't a hardcore training ride or with sitting up once and a while to stretch, eat or do whatever. 

What I don't understand from you is your criticism of folks who aren't riding are.  Congratulations on being disciplined enough to ride "99.8%" of your ride in your aero bars, but your OP sounds like "everybody look at me and how much better I am than all these folks who dont' even deserve to be called triathletes because they aren't riding aero."  That may have not been your intent, but that's how it came accross. 

They never do