Fred D Mentor Group - Part II (Page 92)

Wow...lots to catch up on....

Sweet bike Fred.  I agree with everyone that the black looks sick...and the red that they originally unveiled was...bleh...

Good luck to Chris at Orangeman

My running and swimming are making progress...my biking on the other hand...it had nowhere to go but down.  Starting to feel the effects of dropping from a big peak.

Yes. YES! Porn with Fred ridin' it hard and workin' T.I.T.S. !!!

Okay. I act like a teenage boy ... but I'm very excited.

IIRC, the fastest setup is a regular bottle mounted horizontally between the aerobars.  You want it to fill in the void between your arms and not be sticking up above (or below) your arms.  Ideally no one would even know it's there while you are in aero.  

I don't want to toot my own horn but you can't see the bottle between my arms in any of the race pics from IMMT.  I had it set so it was level with my arms and only a very small gap on either side of it between the bottle and my arms.

*Toot Toot*

Fred, I don't even have a triathlon bike, but it seems like most people on ST that are going bottle between the bars are just zip-tying a regular bottle holder between the bars.  I would probably get a cheaper carbon one just because they tend to look cooler and also seem to have a lower profile than a plain ol' metal cage.  In some of the pictures I've seen over there, you can't even see the bottle from side profile, sometimes even the front if your hands are close enough together.

Hopefully you'll get a more informed opinion than mine.

ETA: Sweet!  Looks like I'm close.

Torhans claims their 20 and 30 bottles are faster than a bottle between the arms.

I would bet that the Torhans is a little less aero but with the "pull out of cage, drink, put in cage" and moving around to do so, it's a wash.

I like the Torhans. I set my Garmin to beep every 7.5 minutes, it beeps, head goes down, drink 4oz, head goes up.

OK - late to the game on Fred's new bike, but didn't we agree about 80 or 90 pages ago that there would be no more black bikes in the group? I swear we took a vote and decide that white was the new black.... but given the choices, black was the way to go, even though the red has been definitely tested to be faster.

I too dig the new bike Fred, and it is awesome that you are killing the strava KOMs on it - definitely going to be some motivated roadies around Happy Valley...

I am in the camp that says zip tie a cage between the arms and be done with it, Fred - no way I would let ANYTHING hang  down in front of that frontend. You bought one of the slipperiest around - don't eff it up. If you want to get overthink it and get really fancy, use a XLab sidekick. They are made to use on small bikeframes that don't have a lot of clearance to get a bottle in and out, but they work great as a torpedo cage as well - holds the bottle tight, but much easier to load/unload from the side. They come in both left and right hand models, so you can get one that favors your predominant drinking hand. Not sure, but I think Arundel also makes one, but knowing what a slave to fashion you are, I would definitely go with the XLab - it is much, much sexier - I mean you can see the carbon weave in it and everything!

ETA - I also use the XLab deck from their torpedo mount because like Arend just plain zip ties did not feel solid enough to me. I used zip ties on the deck-thingy instead of the dumb velcro straps. As a bonus it is fancy carbon also!

A picture is worth a thousand words.
 
I’ve been running a bottle on top of my aero bars pre 08’.  I have tried other setups but have always gone back.

Well you can’t see the bottle in the last pic.  I guess that’s the point.  So here is a pic of me starting my ascent up the wall at Savageman 2012.  This pic doesn’t show the grade on this hill.  Notice I even climb aero.

Next pic on the "Wall".

This pic shows the grade.  Good form huh? 

Nice setup!

Your bottle sits much further forward than mine.  I have mine so the base of the bottle is back near the back of my arm pads.  My computer is mounted in front of the bottle.  I'll see if I have a pic that shows the bottle.

Thanks!

The bottle butts up to the front of the stem.  My computer (Garmin Edge 305) is on my stem. 

Arend - I would like to see exactly how you have that. Here is my setup (like James'). You can see (or actually not see, except reflected in my face shield) the bottle up front. In the second pic I think the head position is caused by my computer being mounted on the stem instead of out in front of the bottle. I know I duck my head a bit each time I look at my computer because of this. That is a problem I have been wanting to solve for a while now. Happy to take advice on the fit from any who offer it - this was set up 4 years ago and I have not touched a thing since then. Will probably go back to my guy this spring to see if there is anything I should rethink - but going to be off the TT bike and on the roadie for the most part until then so not a rush. Like some of the others, these are obviously race pics (Lake Placid), so not optimal views, but on the upside this is really the way I ride - not faking it on a trainer. And I think my helmet sticker looks pretty damn good.

And while it is not a new bike, I have some more shoe porn (yeah, I know - I have a "thing.") These are the shoes that I have been knocking around in since the end of July after Lake Placid: 

 I started wearing them just walk around in for about 6 weeks before I began running in the Newtons, just to get the calves and tendons used to a lower drop from heel to toe. This week I was cleared by my doc to start trail running again, and these are the shoes I am trying out:

Innov8 X-Talon 212. Basically the same shoe as above (Innov8 F-Lie 220) but with a much more aggressive and sticky lugged sole. 7.5oz with 6mm of drop. I ran in it for the first time today, and I gotta tell you - if you run trails and can deal with an unstructured shoe, you should definitely give this one a whirl. It had a tremendous amount of grip in sand, gravel, rock, and mud - it never gave an inch. And it was incredibly stable due to the low-slung heel. And if you believe internet propaganda, there have been more X-Terra world championships won in this shoe than any other. So long as I am not laid-up tomorrow with a bout of achilles tendinitis, this may be my new favorite trail shoe.

And if that is not of interest, for the golfers in the group I also picked up a new pair of Vivobarefoot Hybrids: