clydes who ride aero, help!

I'm 5'-7" with a 46" chest and 29" inseam, not exactly the prototypical triathlete physique in the magazines.  I started out at around 230lb and am now down to about 195lb.  I currently ride a Cannondale CAAD road bike with aerobars.  I'm fairly upright with my seat and aerobar pads set at the same level.  My fitter widened out my elbow pads to make sure I wasn't restricting my breathing and then angled my forearms in so my hands are fairly close together.   My current set-up is very comfortable and I ride in my aerobars about 90% of the time.

I'd like to eventually get a dedicated tri bike, but have wanted to wait until I lost enough weight and upper body mass to enable me to get into a more beneficial aero position.  It's been a couple of years since my last fit, so I'm planning to go in during the off season and try taking out a spacer to lower the front end a bit to see how that feels. 

Some tri bikes are more accomodating to upright aero positions than others.  In particular I've been looking at the Specialized Shiv.   As mentioned in an earlier, post a good fitter can help in both selecting a bike and coming up with a good fit.

Good luck,

Mark

Improving your aero position helps at any speed.   I think the issue here is that if a rider physically can't get into a reasonable position on the aerobars, then it negates the advantages of buying a tri bike. 

Mark

You definitely don't want the gut as an obstruction.  That just uses additional energy.  You will have to raise your bars enough to avoid that.  A fitter should be able to help you.  If you are really big, you may just be out of luck until you lose it.  You may just have to sit up.  Even semi aero is better than nothing.

I agree with the getting a good bike fit comment.

I'm a clyde that is about your size (an inch taller) and on my QR what we ended up doing was raising the cockpit and putting the seat a little higher than normal. I've got a fairly steep stem and that got me into where i can stay in aero without my knees coming into my chest and it's reasonably comfortable (as aero can every be). His point was that it wasn't the most aero position, but if I can stay in it, it's still better than a traditional road position aerodynamically and if I can stay there that is what is most important and then as I lose weight we can lower the cockpit and adjust the seat more.

My $0.02 worth is that a tall cockpit might be what you need, but a bike fitter can tell you for sure with the rest of the way your body works.

My bike fitter told me that bikes with a longer head tube are easier for guys like us as well as ones with a traditional stem configuration (as opposed to an integrated setup). He told me that QR, Cervelo, and BMC are all good choices (at least they were for me). (I have a BMC TM02 and I'm currently on a QR CD.01 (my current race bike)).

Hope that helps. Just adding on that it can be done!

Good luck!!