basebars with handlebar tape

They look cool:

Aero brakes

Based on Tom A's front brake (which is a Tektro rear mounted on the front and actuated as a centerpull, rather than a sidepull V-type brake), I am going to try and develop my own aero brake.

Surprisingly, bike companies haven't come up with anything good as far as aerobrakes go, since the 80's and 90's.

I actually had this idea for an aero brake when I saw the Specialized Transition bike 2 years ago, specifically, this picture:



That looked like a Ubrake to me, on a special fork built to hold a U brake. That fork is probably tough to get, but luckily ubrake adapters are sold.



Will this work? Brake-wise yes, it should work. Aero-wise...will it integrate well enough into the fork crown so as to become one with the bike/fork? Or will it stick out into the wind in unplanned ways?

Well, I get the brakes in two days and the bike in three. We'll see.

Before I plunked down the $30 to try it, I did some mockups in Photoshop:

First I laid two brakes that looked good to me on top of each other, to see which was smaller. The images were different sizes originally, but I resized them based upon the pivot bolts.



Notice the pink "Hombre" brake is narrower near the brake pads.

Then, I mounted them onto the Ubrake adapter:



Lastly, I mounted them onto a photo of a fork (I dont have the Jetstream fork as pictured, but it was the best photo I could find of a fork at the time):


The location on this last photo is an estimate, not sure how high or low the aerobrake will actually sit. We'll see...

Project Unicorn: Basebar mod 2

Thin and narrow = aero

I narrowed my Vision aluminum basebars by 6cm to 34cm center to center. The stock Vision basebars have so much round section on them, it's almost silly. Now, as you can see above, most of the bar is wing section not round section.

Potentially, this could be dangerous. While the last basebar mod of adding extensions to the handgrip area isnt so dangerous, this one kind of is. So dont try this at home.

I think it looks pretty cool though. Also, I have cinched down the faceplate of the stem and could not get the bars to budge, however, I will be drilling 2 screws through the faceplate and into the bar and wood to secure things further.

Internally, its oak dowel sanded to fit perfectly inside the round section of the Vision basebar. This gives some support to the halved bars and attempts to re-join the two halves. Also, by screwing into each side (as mentioned above) I will perfectly unite what was once one piece.

The right side is a little longer (sticks our wider) than the left. This is to accomodate my aerobars. It was symmetrical at first, but I couldnt resist narrowing the bar an additional cm at the price of asymmetry.



Now, I hopefully have a very aero set of basebars for little cost.

Also, I want to take this time to praise the Profile H20 stem. It gets a bad rap among tri-snobs, but I think this could possibly be the most aero stem out there. One reason for this is the width, or I should narrowness of the stem itself. The faceplate is about 4mm wider than a Vision stem. The way I see it, the stem's faceplate sees clean air (assuming a Landis type position) and thus, the narrower that faceplate the less drag created. Probably not much, but something. And little something's add up to something measurable.

Take a look at the pic of Levi below, now assuming he had an non-integrated aerobar, that stem would be hitting clean air, the more that clean air hits wing section the better off his drag "should" be.



Additionally, the only real way I could be able to do this mod is that my aerobars will take up very very little barspace. Stay tuned...

P3

About 4 minutes...

…That’s all that has separated me from the winning Eppie’s Ironman times over my last few tries.

My plan is to continue running throughout the winter, including some snowshoeing races! As well as buying a bike trainer and sweating it out in our apartment.

Also, I’ve been having a lot of fun planning out my bike setup for next year; I think I can take 2:40 off in bike gear.

 

 

 

Training Status

Been keeping up my running. Going about 3 times per week, with a longer type run on Sunday’s.

 

Only 23 days left to the Ollie 5 mile Road Race. My top end speed is pretty good I think, based on the track workouts I’ve done. However, when running tempo, its difficult to hold onto an 8 min mile pace. I’ll keep trying to drill some lengthy speed into my legs to prepare them for the race.

 

I know the race will give me some extra speed, what with nerves and excitement but my goal of a 7 min mile pace is looking lofty right now. But, I’ll continue to try and up the pace of my workouts to develop the aerobic endurance I’m going to need.

 

 

Project Unicorn: Basebar mod 1

Did some good work this weekend, modifying the VisionTech basebar to make it more aero----at least to the eye.

Cut off the upturns (this is basic) then added extensions to increase the hand grip area and so that the Vision levers could be mounted inline with the basebar itself (like the USE Tula bars below).



Then, I drilled a hole in the front of the wing section to allow the brake cable to pass through. With the brake levers mounted sideways like this, the cable makes less turns than it would if the upturns were cut but the levers were mounted in their standard position.














Here's an example of what a typical Vision setup would look like:



Those upturns really look to create a lot of drag. Considering, MOST of the time you should be in the aero tuck, the wind is flowing over these upturns. Also, a standard lever, like those above are wider and bulkier than the Vision brake levers.

I'm not done with the basebar though. My ability to extend the grip area on the Visions has inspired me to do something even crazier to these bars. Stay tuned.

Another Track workout

2 weeks ago I did my first track workout, yesterday I did my second. And in those 2 weeks, I got faster!

On 7/29 I ran 6 x 400’s and averaged 1:30 per lap. Yesterday, I ran 7 x 400s and averaged 1:26 per lap.

Bonus is that, yesterday, I ran with a heart rate monitor, so I can use that HR data the next time I do this workout to see how my body responds to this kind of pressure.

 

 

Project Unicorn

So, got the tubing today for the center extension from onlinemetals.com and its the perfect size. A bar end shifter fits perfectly inside! I needed to make a plastic shim to fit the Deda clamp, which took about 5 minutes.

The Deda clamp is 95g
Deda bar and clamp weighs 277g
My bar and the Deda clamp weighs 194g

The clamp itself is pretty heavy (1/2 of the weight of the whole set up). Other than it being plastic or carbon fiber, I cant see a way to lighten it any more significantly. Obviously weight is of very very little concern to me compared to aerodynamics, but, lighter weight is a nice thing too.

Everything will be mounted to this single center bar: bar end shifter for rear, twist shifter for front, water bottle and a 3rd brake lever to scrub some speed. edit: and a wireless computer!

The 3rd brake lever, I just picked up off of eBay for $27 shipped. Such a good deal for this Vision lever.



I still need a 40cm Vision basebar. Trying to grab one at a great price, thus far nothing has shown up.

If this project turns out to be 3/4's as awesome as I think it will be, I will love it.

I've spent $63 on the clamp and extension.

Project Unicorn

My last post about skier's tucks is the result of a lot of research I've been doing into the Landis and Preying Mantis position that has become popular lately.

I'm currently in the process of semi-inventing my own aerobar; called the Unicorn Project.

Garmin 305 is here

I used to train with the Garmin Forerunner 205 and I really liked it. It measured my HR, distance ran (biked or cycled), had stopwatch features, calculated real time pace also. It was pretty large, but I liked it. I sold when I took a hiatus from working out.

Now, I just bought its younger brother the 305. Same basic functionality, in a smaller package, and I think some upgrades in so far as connecting to satellites faster, etc.

Amazon has it for $160 shipped, I got it off Slowtwitch forum for $100 shipped.

running up that hill