Using a road bike for Time Trialling

By John Swindells 09 May 2013 | Comment
| Share:

Bikes customised for time trialling are great. They are designed from head to toe with a focus on aerodynamics and comfort, making sure that you stay in your 'tuck' position as much as possible. However, there can be very good reasons for reconfiguring your regular road bike for occasional time trial use.

In my case, I have acquired a very nice road bike - the Ridley Noah 1303am - and it is so comfortable to ride that I have decided to try using it for time trialling. My main priority is to put tri-bars on and to get their position as low as is (comfortably and legally) possible. Here's what I've done:

  • Used a handlebar stem with as much stem angle as possible - 12 degrees or more.
  • Mounted the bar stem as low as possible on the steerer tube.
  • Positioned the chosen Profile tri-bars so that they toe-in towards each other, allowing for a more natural handling position.
  • Used an iPhone arm-band to fix my iPhone inbetween the arms of the tri-bars.

The end result is a reasonably minimal frontal area, extremely comfortable and aerodynamic riding position, and easy viewing of my iPhone for tracking my progress. The only downside is that the gears aren't immediately accessible, but that should discourage me from excessive gear-changing anyway - the dreaded 'gear fiddling' that can set in on a tiring, long event.

Share:

Comments

It's quiet in here...Add your comment

Get more out of your power meter!Free sign-up now

Related Reading

About the author

My name is John Swindells and I'm a keen recreational cyclist with a preference for long one-day rides. I've also previously dabbled in time trialling and cyclo-cross. See more of what I get up to on Strava!