My aerobars

Bella was kind enough to pick up my clip on aero-bars, the other night, and today I was all ready to get them on the bike.

cheap and easy aero addition for a road bike

If you have read my bike repair stand post you will know that I am not the most mechanically inclined.  Against my better judgement, I opened the box and to a peek at the directions.  I figured that they could only help me right???

guess I really do not need these

Evidently, the installation is so easy that you really do not need pictures or much in the way of directions.

This is where I was about 15 minutes into the process, and you are probably thinking

hard to ride aero with one bar

"Rod, there is only one bar...you can't ride like that."  My response for you, "You are very astute...impressive."  Turns out one of the screws threads are worn and will not grab when I try to mount the other bar.  The result, the bar will not stay in proper position and I have a problem.

gotta love the bed head...that little screw was loose

Now I am sitting in my PJ bottoms and awesome Bucs shirt, have bed head and am frustrated with PB for making me have to deal with this situation.  I assume that I need to get dressed (not going to Walmart, so current outfit is out), get in my car (was not in the plan today), drive 40 minutes to Tacoma (I am a slow driver...I once saw a Yugo running on 2 cylinders pass me),

I do not believe I need to really add anything...

deal with the actual people at PB (not in the plan for today), and hope that they can replace the screw...I do not want to take off the, already set, .5 aero-bar and return the whole thing.

Made the phone call, and PB told me I did have to take of the one aero-bar.  This is not shaping up like I wanted.

I made the drive out, exchanged, drove back, ate lunch, installed aero-bars, changed into official cycling gear, and hit the road.   The plan was to preview the TT course, again, then do the climb twice.  Because of lost time I only did the climb once, but I hit it pretty hard and earn a new PR for my efforts!

Back to the aero-bars...Not the most comfortable.  I know I should move my seat forward and up, but I do not want to mess with something that is dialed in when I am not using the aero-bars (99.99999% of the time).  I was very happy with my time, and how I paced myself.  I think I will improve more on the day of racing, due to being able to chase a carrot the whole way.

My goal, which would make the aero-bars worth the cost, time and effort, would be sub 16 minutes.  If I can hit 15:30, I could be looking at a podium for the TT...How sweat would that be?  A guy with nothing aero, other than some cheap clip on aero-bars...Take that you TT bike sporting fella's!

The competition I will be facing...definitely meant for straight line speed