Bicycle Mechanics - Removing road bars, adding bullhorns onto a road bike!!

I love the anonymity of this forum because I am going to ask a potentially ridiculous question.

I own a Cervelo Soloist, which is my only bike. I road race and do triathlons. For those who are not familiar with the Soloist it has adjustable geometry - the adjustable aero seatpost allows for a switch in seat tube angle from a 73 to anywhere up to 76 degrees for occasional time trials and/or triathlons.

In the past when I have wanted to switch to the tri position (which I was pro fitted for), I would add clip on aero bars, change out the stem, remove the spacers, and replace my road saddle/seatpost with a dedicated tri saddle seatpost.

Ok, here is the question;

For a half Ironman that I plan on doing this fall, would it be a major ordeal, to completely remove the road bars, and put on bullhorns/TT bars. The bike has campy components, and I guess I could do without having bar end shifters on the aero bars, just have them remain with the brake system - is this totally whack? Is this something I could do myself?

I hope I have not completely showed my A$$ by asking this. I have asked several of my bike friends, and no one could give me an answer.

I am going to cross post this in the tri section.

Thanks

You can mount Campy, or Shimano, brifters onto a bullhorn. May not be as easy as bar ends on the areo bars, but you can set them up like this without really changing anything except the bars. I have seen this set up on pro TT bikes.

...would it be a major ordeal, to completely remove the road bars, and put on bullhorns/TT bars...

Depends on your definition of major. Here's a quick blush on the steps you'll need to undergo...

Disconnect derail. cables
Disconnect Brake Cables
Unwrap bar tape
Remove Brifters
Swap out Stem/bar combination to desired combination
Re-Install Brifters
Run Cables (probably requiring new cables/housing depending on the new sizing for the setup).
Adjust Brakes
Adjust Shifting
Wrap bars

Is that a major ordeal? You tell me.

I recently saw a setup which took about 15 minutes to change over. The guy had a complete front end set-up for TT, ie bullhorns with brake levers and barend shifters. Both the road set-up and TT set-up had their own cables. It was a matter of disconnecting cables at the RD, FD and both brake calipers, unbolting the stem from the steerer and the whole lot was removed in one piece! Doing it this way, though, you can't use crimps on the end of your cables as you won't be able to pull them through - you could solder them, perhaps? Of course, you'd have to tune everything each time you change. Internal cabe routing would also make it quite fiddly. Hope this helps.

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Depends on your definition of major. Here's a quick blush on the steps you'll need to undergo...

Disconnect derail. cables
Disconnect Brake Cables
Unwrap bar tape
Remove Brifters
Swap out Stem/bar combination to desired combination
Re-Install Brifters
Run Cables (probably requiring new cables/housing depending on the new sizing for the setup).
Adjust Brakes
Adjust Shifting
Wrap bars

Is that a major ordeal? You tell me.

Another possibility is to get a set of cable splitters like those used on S&S coupled travel bikes. They allow the cables to be split anywhere you want and reconnected without removing them from the brakes or derailleurs. Bruce Gordon and DaVinci both sell them. Look at the S&S Machine web site (makers of S&S Couplers) for details.

You could have your road bar/stem/brifter set up and your cowhorn/aerobar/barcon set up and both would have the "front half" of the cables attached. All you would have to do is split the cables, remove one bar, install the other bar and reconnect the cables.

Bruce Gordon sells a bike called the "Rock and Road" which has both road and MTB bars set up this way for quick change over.

Doing it this way, though, you can't use crimps on the end of your cables as you won't be able to pull them through - you could solder them, perhaps?

I always silver solder my cable ends. I also polish any rough spots in the soldered tips with my dremel. Finished this way the cables will never unravel and they'll slip right through the housings.

I struggled with this decision myself, and finally went with bullhorns on my Sunday sprinter. I'm glad I put them on.
http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/litagebluff.JPG

I'm getting ready to do something similar to one of my bikes. My plan is to get a bullhorn with it's own brake levers, and use my Syntace C2 clip with the aeroshift add-on. The aeroshift is a pretty neat thing that allows you to attach plain old downtube shifters to the C2 aero bars. Like other have suggested, I will have two completely separate bar setups for TT and regular roading. Detaching and reattaching shift/brake levers is the most annoying thing in all of bike mechanics.

Detaching and reattaching shift/brake levers is the most annoying thing in all of bike mechanics.
Cable splitters remove much of the annoyance and greatly speed up the conversion. I have them on an S&S coupled travel bike and they work extremely well and are fast and shifting remains flaweless.

Yeah, they sound great, but I was referring to removal of brifters from the handlebar itself. Every time I do it I hurt my bars.

I always silver solder my cable ends. I also polish any rough spots in the soldered tips with my dremel. Finished this way the cables will never unravel and they'll slip right through the housings.

I struggled with this decision myself, and finally went with bullhorns on my Sunday sprinter. I'm glad I put them on.
http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/litagebluff.JPG


Assuming you ran aer0 or brifters previous to your switch. How do those TT levers compare in feel and in power to the former?

Yeah, they sound great, but I was referring to removal of brifters from the handlebar itself. Every time I do it I hurt my bars.

+1 - I hate doing it, but it's not hard to do. The issue is having other equipment. It is easy to swap when you are going to use different shifters and brake levers.

If you have to stick with one set of brifters might I recommend getting a second set of the clamps that the brifters are bolted to. I have in the past been able to swap brifters between setups without having to remove tape, re-position, etc by just removing the lever from the clamp and leaving the clamp in place on the bar with the tape still surrounding it.

Use the second set of clamps on the new bar.