Old 05-01-24, 04:45 PM
  #2  
Carbonfiberboy 
just another gosling
 
Carbonfiberboy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Everett, WA
Posts: 19,615

Bikes: CoMo Speedster 2003, Trek 5200, CAAD 9, Fred 2004

Mentioned: 115 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3918 Post(s)
Liked 1,982 Times in 1,414 Posts
Here's my guess: Bars are the width they are now and have always been for a reason. One changes what works at one's peril. In this case, the peril is losing control of the bike when the front wheel gets in trouble, which happens for a great variety of reasons. TTers use these narrow bars on swept courses. Another reason is that hand movement of any sort will result in great wheel movement, not always a good idea. MTBers use great wide bars w/r to road bikes because they have to fight greater forces and want more leverage. It's just a matter of scale. There are also issues of muscle fatigue. We like hand positions which are in front of our shoulders to reduce strain. Aero bars work because there's pretty much zero muscle involvement with the elbows resting on pads and there's lots of leverage. That said, being down on the 'bars is not recommended when negotiating even slightly technical terrain or riding around sharp corners.

You're better off being slightly less aero and uninjured. I've seen riders lose a whole season from front wheel disasters.
__________________
Results matter
Carbonfiberboy is offline  
Likes For Carbonfiberboy: