Aerobars on a road bike?

I added clip ons to my road bike and love it. Vegas is very hilly and coming downhill in aero is a gas.  I do have to adjust my sitting position so I can actually breathe, but I swear I go faster.

Mostly I got them for an additional postiion to give my wrists a rest on long rides, and it did take some time to be able to relax, but now, I love it.  I stretch out and concentrate of form and away I go.

Along with the aero bars I added a Profile Design Fast Froward seat post.

http://www.modernbike.com/itemgroup.asp?igpk=2126176272&TID=367

IF they're fit properly, aerobars make you faster. Period. Fancy wheels, aero frames, etc. shave seconds, but a good aerodynamic position on the bike lops off minutes. No joke.

I start with that big "if" because just throwing some clip-ons on a road bike will often leave you really stretched out and too high. It's important that you increase your effective seat tube angle and shorten/lower your bar. This will roll your whole body forward a little bit and change you from a giant air scoop to something a bit more aero.

So, if you're looking for aero on a budget, I'd say get a Profile Design Fast Forward seatpost (basically a funky-looking bent seatpost that's designed to mimic the geometry of a tri bike) and, at a minimum, lower your stem. If you have a spacer or two in there, take 1 or 2 out depending on how tall your aerobars are. Then practice, practice, practice, because the bike is going to feel different.

I guarantee you, though, doing these couple things will get you so much faster on the bike you'll be amazed. If you get and stay in a good, comfortable, aero position, you'll slash time off your bike split. Then you'll get all speed-geeked and start shopping for aero frames and wheels and helmets and what not.

(incidentally, an aero helmet is probably a distant second after a good position, but lots of aero bang for the buck because they're not super expensive).

Good luck!

Another word on position... Now remember, I'm no aero master or anything, but here's a pic from one of my fastest bike splits ever. It's a little hard to see because of the angle, but my stem is short enough and my body is far enough forward that my shoulders are almost directly above my elbows. This is pretty much where you want to be with your bars. If your elbows are too high/too far forward as they are with a lot of road bike+clip-on combinations, you may get 1-2mph faster from the aero when you could really get 2-3mph faster, because if you're too stretched out your position becomes less comfortable and less powerful.

Notice also that my back still isn't flat. I have a ways to go with core strength and flexibility, but this is where my body is right now. If I try to get lower I'll be more aero, but my back will hurt so bad I won't be able to focus on hammering as hard as I can. Hope that helps.

If nothing else, I find them to be much more comfortable than riding in the drops or on the hoods.  I might be a little lower than I am in the drops, and probably more aero even if it's the same back position, because the arms are in tighter.  But for me, the biggest benefit is comfort.  I also feel like I am able to get more power to the pedals, whether I am or not, I have no idea.

I actually like having aerobars on a road bike right now, because on steep descents, I have the option of going into the drops instead of aero, so that I have more control over the bike, but am still able to get fairly low.

I just ordered a pair of clip on aerobars for my road bike and they should come this week.  I finally determined after riding last week that I needed to get more aero and especially narrower.  My elbows really seem to fly out when I'm on the drops and cause wind resistance.

I was sort of practicing a bit on the trainer the other night.  After riding about half the workout on the drops like usual, I kind of leaned forward with my elbows on the handlebars in a position I would imagine is similar to what I'll have with the aerobars and rode like that for a bit of time.  I couldn't do this for a terribly long time obviously because it's not real comfortable on the arms without the pads. However, it seemed like I had more power in that position when I did.  I was able to pedal more easily in the highest gear and was seemingly about 1 mph faster for that period of time.  Is that possible? Does the aero position, such as it is, on a road bike provide more power, apart from the gains related to reduced wind resistance?  Or was it maybe because my legs were somewhat fatigued from working out for a period of time on the drops then switching to the aero position allowed me to work portions of my legs that were fresher?

Just my $0.02, but I think it's impossible to say from what you mention here. Being on a trainer for a short period and doing a quasi-aero position you may have been in a more powerful position or you may have been enjoying the placebo effect of pushing a little harder because you're trying something new.

In general, having discussed this with the power meter geek crowd, people's FTP (functional threshold power) is usually lower when in an aero position vs. normal. Everyone's different, though, and I'm sure there's someone out there who can put out more power when aero. The key is saving more energy with the aerodynamics than you lose by cramming yourself into the new position.

i'm glad you posted this because i'm looking into adding aerobars to my road bike also. when i did my sprint recently, the folks flying by me on their aerobars looked much more comfortable than i was hanging on my hoods with numb hands. my LBS doesn't really cater to the triathlon crowd as much so i'm a little worried about obtaining a proper fit with the aerobars. guess it will just be a function of trial and error. one extra question - my bike (a fuji 3.0 newest - big time entry level) has brakes on both the hoods and on the straight part of the handlebars. will i still be able to put aerobars on it with that set-up? 

(sorry if i hijacked the post )

Where in NC are you? I know there's one very well-regarded tri bike fit guy in Southern Pines, where I'm moving next month. And if you're really a vascular tech, keep me in mind if your practice is looking for a moonlighter.

Ok, I put some clip on aerobars on my road bike and took it out with them for the first time today so I have some actual numbers.  Take it for what it's worth, a sample size of 1 with other possible factors.  Anyway I rode a route today that is exactly the same as one I rode 3 weeks ago without without the aerobars, a 25 mile ride and I was 0.6 mph faster today with the aerobars.

Some other factors to consider:

The wind conditions were about the same each day.  Moderately breezy.  So that's a wash.

I am probably in a bit better condition today than then, which might account for a small speed increase today.  But again we're only talking 3 weeks later.

I was only on the aerobars for less than 50% of the time.  The conditions aren't favorable for being on them alot there.  Curves, somewhat hilly, lots of car traffic.  But mostly I wasn't confident enough in my handling with them yet to spend a ton of time on them, but I got more comfortable as the ride went on.  If I spent more time on them (and had more flat road) that 0.6 increase would go up even more.  When I was on them and not going too much uphill I could definitely notice a difference.

The route is a 6.25 mile loop around a metropark (I did 4 laps).  It has rolling hills throughout.  A good workout really. Not steep hills but you're never too far from having to power up another uphill.  Anyway one direction is more uphill than the other.  3 weeks ago I rode the same direction for 2 laps, then reversed and went the other way for 2 lap so a net slope of 0.  Today I went the direction that is more uphill for all 4 laps.  So the 0.6 mph increase is even better given that.

I did not change my road saddle position.  I finally have it the way I want it after much tinkering and don't want to mess with it anymore.  I was able to ride on the bars in that position fairly comfortably though.  With that being said, I probably don't have the seat position set up to get as far forward and low as some others might choose to do it.  So someone who alters their position enough to get more aero could yield even more results.

My legs feel way better today than they did that other time.  Some of that could be improved conditioning, some could be that I wasn't working as hard fighting the wind today thanks to the aerobars.

Anyway you add all that up and certainly I would say one might be able to up their speed by 1mph with the aerobars perhaps a bit more if one can alter their position enough to get lower and forward and still generate enough power.

I am going to present a different side of things.......

I had a road bike with aero bars and loved it. Then I got a tri bike. Took me a while to get used to the aero position on the tri bike, as it is VERY different from aero on a road bike. Long story short, I pretty much ditched my poor little road bike and only ever road my tri bike .......

Fast forward three years and I decided to bring my road bike with me on a summer family vacay. I HATED the aero position on my road bike. I felt like a question mark....it just felt all wrong. After my first ride, I took the bars OFF my road bike and spent a week happily cruising around without them.

I am now in the market for a new road bike since all I do is cycle now. No way am I going to put aero bars on my new bike.

Now....keep in mind that if I did not have a tri bike, I would probably feel very differently.

Happy riding!