Road bike aero bars...good, bad, and ugly???

My basic rec would be to get the flip-up kind. I didn't spring for them, so I end up taking them off altogether when tuoring.

I raced with a Trek 1500 last year with Jammers. They worked out great. I have a Tri bike with T2's now and they would be too long for a road bike.

Mark

Have Profile Design on my 1990 Trek 1200....the arm rest flip out of the way so you have access to the entire drop handlebars.

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Shop recommended the Profile Aerostryke when I bought my bike this year. Adjustable length. The negative is that it eats up most of the bar so for long range cruising it is pretty much in the drops or on the hoods.

I do like them, don't have much else to compare them to though.

I just spent the weekend riding with T2+'s - almost 200 miles with them. Really the first extended experience with them. I didn't miss having access to the part of the bar that they rest on. I never really used that part of the bar anyways - I preferred to either lean on the hoods or the drops. I really liked being able to just plop my elbows down without having to deal with flipping the pads around. I was very comfortable on them. It was easy up and down when I wanted aero going down a hill and getting off them to climb up the next. The T2+'s are easy to install, and there wasn't much of a weight savings over the carbon ones - I think Profile says the Al T2+'s are 510g and the cf are 492. You can save some money there.

If you use the flat part of your bars, you might want to spring for the flip up ones. If you don't (I never did - just didn't feel "right" to me), then spending the extra dosh on the flip ups won't make sense.

On the whole, I've been pleased with the T2+'s but don't have experience with any others.