900704	1140

aero.bars.900704

Yesterday, I found the aero bars I  bought weeks ago and installed them on 
Brink's bike.  Found a set of wheels, tuned it up, went for a ride.  It was 
the perfect day.  

The bars are pretty damn great.  There was a gnarly wind out through El 
Sobrante and on the Dam Road.  I felt invisible to the wind, even invincible.  
Powered along pretty quick.  

They are not perfect, they take away the tops of the bars where I normally 
ride more than 50% of the time.  And they are even in the way when I am 
on the brake hoods or the drops. I intend to look at other setups.  Plus, you 
are 2+ seconds from your brakes instead of 1- seconds.  Noticably less 
stable and not so fine a control of position on the roadway.   There is a 
tendency to take broad swerves and to sort of fish-tail down the road.  

A complete pleasant surprise is that I can climb in the aero position.  I get 
pretty good leverage and can torque along, kind of like standing up on a big 
gear, only you are down out of the wind.  The gears I used are 53-42 and a 
12-21 cluster.  Got up the dam very comfortably in the 42x21 into the 
stiff wind.

Today, I rode with Elaine and Cindy.  Elaine is off form and crabby.  I got 
down and worked a couple times in El Sob and she just dropped off.  Cindy 
hung on.  I climbed Baby Bear aero.  It was hard, I could use smaller gears.  
But I definitely got there first.  Elaine challanged, but fell off.  We skipped 
the Brazilian Room sprint.

I tend to overexert, stay aero and crank it.  Maybe it will be good for me!