Aero bars and biking

The Aero bar is a necessary addition to any cyclists kit list. Small.. compact... taking up no unneccesary space and enabling the cyclist to go further and faster..... I have just added this to my kit and took it out for a test run this afternoon... a quick spin to see if  it helped my cycling ability at all.


With New Zealand in mind... it may be dificult to replicate the exact version but testing it was a necessity. The result...... more speed but more weight added......


This is an aero bar

Oh you meant the aero bars I attached to my handlebars to give more hand positions and to lower my profile when cycling into a headwind all day??

You meant these??



Ahh well in that case...
It took a few minutes to get used to transferring the hands and resting the elbows on the pads but once I had done so it was surprisingly comfortable and definately too all the pressure off my hands. Most of my short ride this morning was into a headwind... no surprise there then, and wether it was purely psychological or practical.. it did seem to be less effort and consequently I managed to keep up speeds of 16-18mph with little trouble.

The downsides... my neck started aching after a bit due to the angle it's held to keep an eye on the road ahead... which you have to be a bit more vigilant about.. due to the fact that to get anywhere near brakes and gears.. you have to come up from the aero bars. Fine if you are familiar with where the lights and junctions are but a bit trickier in unfamiliar surroundings.

All in all I was pleased with them and they will be coming to NZ with me. I can see that on long stretches of flat (dreaming again) ... okay short stretches of flat they will be a welcome change and hopefully even short usage of them throughout the day will help prevent the numb fingers that I suffered with last time... got to really... I go back to work the day after I land!  

I hope to get more practice before I fly out and still have to schedule in bivvy set up practice... in January... in the cold... hmmmmmm

More updates coming your way soon. For now .. Keep Smiling and Go With The Crazy

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