Ok so i put aero bars on my bike.
Road bike with aero bars vs tt bike.
First in my series of real world tests comparing my tt and road bikes.
For many people it would be a better choice to use road bike with tt bars because there will be less fatigue on the body and it will deliver your body to a better shape.
The question tri bike vs aerodynamic road bike with clip on aero bars however it is a very interesting question.
Road bikes are more versatile than dedicated triathlon or time trial bikes and adding quick release aero bars lets you take full advantage of a single bike.
Flexibility and strength will determine which bike you use as the relative fatigue of a tt bike is higher than a road bike.
Clip on aero bars the key difference between a tt bike and a road bike is in the angles of the frame and components.
Both are slender road bikes with aero bars designed for performance.
As with everything there will be a balance between quality and price.
In collaboration with boardman bikes and anton sport sykkeldelisk i will test it out in the spring.
We will build up a boardman air road bike w clip on with identical measures as my current boardman tte tri bike.
In fact at first glance they look identical.
Handlebars with aero tops are nothing new and many brands realised long ago that you could save a few watts buy optimising yet another leading edge on the bike but it s not the frame it s.
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To emulate the benefits those angles provide a pair of clip on aero bars is an inexpensive modification to achieve a lower more aerodynamic position.
Take the aero bars off a tri bike and you have a bike without the speed of a tri bike and without the handling of a road bike.
If you put a triathlon bike side by side with a time trial bike it would be hard to tell the difference.
As above an aero road bike will be faster than a traditional road bike on the flat but not as fast as a dedicated tt bike all other things such as wheels being equal.
Stay tuned for our next post in this series where we ll explain why you need to change up your saddle position.