Setting up bike for Time Trials

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Ball

Active Member
Location
Hendon, N London
Has anyone here had any experience of setting their bike up for time trials?

I'm using a standard road bike with clip-on tri bars.

The bars are completely new to me and I took them out for a very short spin today. I found that when using them, I felt I wanted to sit much further forward on my saddle, and that my saddle could be a lot higher!

Wouldn't adjusting both of these things not really work though due to the geometry of a road bike?

Has anyone faced similar problems and how did they deal with them?

Thanks
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
I used to TT on my road bike with tri bars. I didn't touch my normal set up to be honest - just used to shuffle forward on the saddle.

If you are using the bike for dual purpose, either don't touch it, or make sure you mark both psoitions. Ideal TT position is further forward and slightly higher, but I wouldn't worry about it - get comfy on those bars first.
 

Blue

Legendary Member
Location
N Ireland
When I used my road bike with tri-bars to TT I dropped the bars a little by shifting a spacer or two at the headset. It was easy to shift them back and forth depending on my use of the bike.

Do be aware that it will take a bit of time to get used to the new tri-bars.
 

R600

Über Member
Location
North Scotland
i've set my bike up for TTs. all i do is add aero bars 5-10 mins and i bought a second seat post and an old seat and swap them over which is only a couple of mins. also i have fitted the new post 180 degrees around which pushes me forward nearer to TT geometry.
 

caesar

Senior Member
For triathlon I used to use a Profile Fast Forward seat post to change the seat tube angle and a very short MTB stem (40mm), fitted lower than the road stem, to get my elbows closer to 90 degrees. Position was OK and I didn't find the steering too twitchy but I am around 14 stone.
 
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