Removing road bars, adding bullhorns onto a road bike!!

[~shadowfax~]

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 ***** 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 bike mechanic section.

Thanks

[cslone]

Yes it can be done. Just slide them on the bullhorns like you do the regular drop bars. IMO though if you aren't going to put barend shifters on, I wouldn't worry about it. Just readjust like normal and put clip-ons back on. Having the bullhorns with STI really wouldn't save you any time becasue you still need to reach to the outer bars to shift.

[~shadowfax~]

Ok ... so what if I do want bar end shifters, is this an issue, is this something I could do?

Basically what I am asking is, am I going to look like an idiot going to my LBS and asking them to do all this for me!!

Thanks for your reply though :)

[caloso]

You mean like this?

http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/images/05vueltaSt1/$file/2.jpg

Just tell'em Gilberto sent ya.

[~shadowfax~]

YES, you all rock. I did a search after I posted (oops), and found that picture along with who I think is Tom Danialson with a half and half.

Anyways, know I have the seed planted in my head

Thank you!

[caloso]

I'm going to do the same thing myself for an Olympic later this summer. There's a guy on my Saturday ride who did it just because he discovered he never rides on the drops anymore. He said he had to add a bit more cable housing but otherwise it was a completely simple change.

[mwmistak]

Doesn't this require bending the cables to come out of the opposite end of the Brake levers?

Do you have to take a notch out of the bottom of the lever hoods to accomplish this?

[caloso]

That's a good question. Simoni has Campy levers, like the OP and it looks like they just taped the cables in parallel along the bars. But you can't tell if they had to notch anything.

The bike I saw here had Shimano brifters and he had just looped them out into space rather than taping them along the bars. That doesn't look as clean but it avoids kinking the housing.