Prototype 1 and 2

Well I had previously mocked up a 22mm copper tube of aprox 40cm length, bend at 8cm to 50ish degrees, 22cm of pipe after the bend.

During a 45min recovery ride on the turbo, I swapped out the left hand bar and tried it out.

Thanks to a new bracket made by a friend (many thanks Tim), I can also get the pads on my Use Tula bars closer, within 4mm of each other.

Trying the bar I found I needed to push the pads as far back as possible and the bars were a little short.

10mins later the pads had been pushed back (picture to come of the bracket and pads) and I made up a second extension.

The same angle but with an increase of length before and after the bend. 14cm before the bend and 34cm after the bend.

Excessive to my needs but it allows me to pushg the bar back and forward as well as raising by hands up and down.

I found that pushing the bar forwards. The bend is 4cm in front of the entry point into the bars rather than as close as possible.

It does mean though that my pads need to be further forwards, i put two different pads i had to mount onto 22mm pushed together and angled forwards (like an egg cup).

The only problem being that my upper arms are now not perpendicular to the group so some stress on my shoulders, unless i go onto the noise of the sadle.

I think though this will work well.

My next session I am going to photo and document the options to aero test.

Anoyingly there is a lot of wind at the moment so i can't aero test!!!!!

Oh i've also noticed I need to put an extra set of holes in the bracket made by tim to make it more secure. i think its a design flaw with the use tula's really as the pads are secured by only one screw and do move around!

, my upper arms were not straight though slightly f

Praying mantis

Well I've mad the decision to switch my position to the praying mantis hand position. I've done the following

1 - initial aero tests on Dolan tt bike that showed a 9.6% reduction in cDa

2 - intervals done on the Dolan tt bike in position. 12x 360-380w for 1 min. It looks like I can still hold power

3 - made some mock up aero bars for my cervelo p3 out of copper to do simple aero testing. Watch this space!

4 - as I can't get the pads close enough on the cervelo I've found someone to make a bracket for me . Again watch this space!

Next steps
1 - ensure I have my current tt position
2 - adjust the cervelo so that it will stay in a suitable gear for aero testing or that I can easily remove the shifters

3- wait for a decent day to test

Need to get this going ASAP!!