Aero vs. Power
 

Has anyone tried very hard to determine what is faster, more upright on the hoods or in the drops (more aero). I have tried to determine what is the best by doing 10 mile time trials for a week and coming up with an average. I have tried to remove steerer shims from below stem to above stem to lower bars by 10mm.
It seams there is to many variables, (wind, weather, what I ate, what time it is, even how I feel that day).
I now have a new bike that I am trying to set up and can't decide how low to put bars. I guess I will just go trial and error for this summer until it seams right. But I would be interested in someone elses thoughts or experiments on this also. The Serotta Fit guy at the lbs is definately bias toward more upright. We have 2.5 feet of snow on the ground right now so I will have to wait to set up this new one for a while.

hoods or drops
 

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

This program should answer all your questions. There are many different situations you can enter into the program. How many watts does is required to go up a 6% grade at a speed of 13 mph into a 7mph headwind? This program will tell you that and more. Check out the speeds of the tailfaired lowracers compared to tri bikes and hands on drops.

Thanks lowracer1, I was hoping that someone else was interested in this also.
Thanks again!

No problem...... you can get lost for hours though trying different scenarios. This program seems to be very accurate from what I have found. Since I'm into HPV racing, aerodynamics is everything.

without getting too technical, there is scientific proof that it is far superior to be narrow than to be low.
so it is possible to be upright <to allow more air in the lungs> AND to be narrow <arms, elbows, knees in>

I just went through the same question on my new frame. Rode it for about a month before taking it back to the builder to have the steer tube cut. My old bike was a 56 cm frame, and I had a 10 cm drop; the new one is a 58 cm, with a 5 cm drop. (It's got 2 cm of spacers, and a -6 stem). At first it felt too high, but riding it a few weeks, and trying it a cm lower a couple of times, I finally decided the 5 cm drop really was better than my old "racer" set up. I found I'm using the drops more now, and it's also easier to come out of the saddle on roller hills. I'd say just make sure before cutting the steer tube.

Funny, I just read an article on the Rivendell site advocating a higher bar position so you can more adequately utilise the drops. Makes sense.

I'd advocate pretty much just ignoring aerodynamics unless you're in a timetrial. Look at your frontal area, then look at your bikes. You're better off being comfortable and have a good position than having handlebars down around your ankles or picking the frame with the teardrop downtube to improve perceived 'aerodynamics'.

I'm sold on narrower being better than lower, for the average joe.

I put a set of clip on bars on my bike a week or so ago but haven't had a chance to ride them untill yesterday due to the --- rain! I feddled with the adjustment for the first 5 or so miles before turning into a 15mph head wind. On the hoods I was making about 2mph slower, with the same perceived output, than on the clip ons. My bars are set about 1 inch lower than my saddle, and these are the Oval concepts slam bars that fit on top of your handle bars, so that means that my clip ons are almost level with my saddle. They where more comfortable than my drops and faster to boot. This was my first experence with clip on aero bars. I have read other posters comments on how badly they make a bike handle, but I had no problems at all? Maby this posistion is better at handling also?

hmm
 

yes, but on a road bike there is only so narrow and so low you can go.
I ride a lowracer and have way less frontal area than even the best timetrial bike and rider. In my opinion........lower is faster.

On our fast club rides, I outdistance the upright racers by over 2 miles on a 32 mile course. The country roads in which we travel especially late summer is very troublesome for them. There are lots of farm fields with corn. It tends to get very windy on these rides. The upright riders are stuck with their bodies subjected to the wind coming across the top of the corn. Guess what....... I'm two feet under the corn. So while they are fighting in a group to brake 20 mph......... I'm cruising along by myself at over 26mph. This is one reason I prefer lower. There are more reasons, but being lower is quite an advantage. You have to think about cross winds also when you start talking about it being ok to be taller and just stay narrow to lessen the frontal area. This is why HPV streamlliners also try to stay low..... when they are built too high, crosswinds kill them and make them very hard to handle.

You can get narrower using low Q cranks.

um lowracer...you take what you can get-as you've pointed out a low rider is 2 feet lower than an upright, since we can't get low, we get narrow.

you are correct lowracer. and getting narrow does little in a cross wind. if anything it adds to handling problems and negates any perceived gains.

i am not very elastic, so getting low is a problem for me.