Triathlon - How to Get Aero

I have a Schwinn Traveler Single Speed road bike. It has drop handle bars, a fairly decent road/race seat, and has cages on the pedals.

I have a triathlon this weekend and was wondering how I could position my bike to make it more aero. I think I need the seat above the bars and slanted forward... Just not really sure. I'm not ready to mess with it all unless I know exactly what needs to be adjusted and if it will really make that much of a difference on a 16km ride for my first tri.

Any tips/suggestions is greatly appreciated

Thanks

Generally speaking, it is a very bad idea to change / do something different before an event. Changing equipment, bike setup, running shoes, nutrition, etc can and has caused numerous problems. IMHO, I would ride it as you trained on it. Best of luck!!

agree with above but generally you would want to move the seat as far forward as possible, however the time loss of you not being able to pedal as well will overwhelm it. and assuming it's a non-aero bike, put a water bottle in the downtube cage. try to make your body in the most aero position with the angle of your elbows as close to 90 as possible.

BTW get a real bike, singlespeeds will lose their appeal the better you get.

siriou94- a REAL bike???? I'm hoping that you are not trying to make fun of singlespeeds! During my race i blew past a bunch of bikers, especially up the hills on my "fake" bike.

I'll try to suggest this in the most non-pejorative fashion possible...

If you really want to improve your cycling efficiency, get a bike with gears before worrying about whether you're "aero" enough. If money is an issue, look for something used.

Yes i am trying to make fun of singlespeeds and a. i bet you could improve further with with the use of gears, and b. I would be willing to bet that in a race of you verses a decent biker with gears, he or she would win.

siriou94- a REAL bike???? I'm hoping that you are not trying to make fun of singlespeeds! During my race i blew past a bunch of bikers, especially up the hills on my "fake" bike.

A singlespeed ?? Dude, you should have done it on a fixie !! :D

FWIW I don't think a single speed on a flat course is the worst thing in the world. I do a weekly group ride and there are a couple of guys riding fixies that I've got to really bust my butt to keep up with.

On a hilly course it puts you at a disadvantage because even if you can hammer up hills pretty well, you don't have the big gears to fly down the other side.

Anyway, as far as aeroness goes I wouldn't mess with your setup at this point. You're right, you want the bars lower than the seat but you then you may have to slide the seat forward so you don't loose power. You probably don't want to tilt the seat down. That's going to put weight on parts of your body you don't want weight on.

There are other little aero tricks that I can't remember now. MIT has done some studies. Even the way you put the race numbers on your bike can make a difference.