martialman.45

I'm thinking of getting some clip-on aero bars for the bull horns, what is the favorite?

Carbonfiberboy 

You have a photo of bike, stoker with forearms on the cowhorns?

Homeyba

I've seen that done. That's a pretty common setup for long distance racing. Most of the ones I've seen are home made jobs. I'd guess that you'd want something like a Syntac C2 with set-in-place forearm pads. You'd want straight not curved bars like the Syntac bars are.

merlinextraligh

The problem is room. We couldn't find anything to work for timetrialing. So we use can creek speed bars.

Problem with areobars set out wide on cow horns is that it like not as aero, as simply tucked in narrow hands next to stem, or in the drops, or speed bars.

In an endurance race situation it could make sense however, as a more sustainable position.

martialman.45

I'm talking about the little ones that just drop down from the middle of the stoner bars. Seen some pictures on here of some.

merlinextraligh

I think you may mean the Cane creek speed bars. I can post a pic when I'm not only iPad.

martialman.45

That may be it. I will try to google.it. are they the only "speed bars"?

Homeyba

These are the kind that I thought you were describing.

martialman.45

I cant see the picture, too small. ITs the cane creek that i'm talking about. I would have orderd some but everyone seems to be out of stock. ANyone know who is selling them right now? It would have been a cristmas present but after trying to find them online for 20 min I gave up.

merlinextraligh

Here's the pic of the Cane Creeks on ours.



I think it's a more aero set up than out on the bullhorns because the stoker's position is narrower, but it doesn't offer the same support.

So IMHO better for a one hour TT. Maybe not so practical for an endurance event.


and yyeah it does look like they're out of stock most everywhere.

martialman.45

hmmm, I may run some clip-ons up front first and get the stoker bars later when they are in stock. How many watts are saved at around 20mph with aero bars up front?

Homeyba

I don't think anyone has done any wind tunnel testing with tandems? What are you wanting them for? If your looking at 40km TT's and shorter I would think that Merlin's thinking is sound. The aerobars up front is the first logical step anyway. That's where you're going to have the greatest impact.

martialman.45

just looking for a little more speed for cheap. We do medium paced group rides and I feel much safer pulling the line so almost always up front. We will do time trials when ever possible too. Don't know of any Texas TTT.

DrMarkR

With the captain on aero bars, and stoker either tucked on tops or on drops, you're pretty much as aero as you'll get. The clip ons pictured above aren't going to buy you anything but stoker discomfort, imo. The captain is already deflecting the flow away from the chest/"balloon" of the stoker, which is advantage to aero bars in the first place. If someone has a hypothetical advantage, or knows of actual wind tunnel data, to a different hand position for the stoker than those available on drop bars, post up. I'm interested too.

Dean V

I have installed some of the old Scott drop in bars on our road tandem. These are the type that Greg Lemond made famous in the late 80s early 90s and are like a regular drop bar but with a turned in portion at the bottom. They seem to work ok and do give the option of a low and narrow hand position if you want.

merlinextraligh

We time trial with the speed bars, and it definitely appears to be faster than the stoker in the drops. The reason for this is the width of the stoker's arms. The stoker's bars on a tandem are going to be set up wide enough to clear the captain's hips puttining the stokers arms and a portion of her torso into the wind more than with the cane creek bars as set up on our bike which gives a more narrow position.

In other words the stoker's arms draft the captain's legs with the speed bars, and don't with conventional drop bars.

I'd guess it's worth half a mile an hour in the mid to upper 20's compared to just riding on the bullhorns. Admittedly most of that is from being lower. I would guess that being comparably low, but narrower on the speed bars would be more in the .1mph range.

When Garmin gets there pedal based power meter to market I'll be able to test the guess.

merlinextraligh

As for stoker comfort, there's not a significant difference between a similarly low position in the drops, although the stoker has to get used to a bit narrower position.

And yes you can get the same position with the stoker grabbing the tops next to the stem and deeply flexing their elbows.However that position gives less support than using the cane creeks with a less severe elbow bend.

Dean V

Here is pics of the aero bars on our TT bike and the Scott bars on our road bike.