The choice to ban using aero bars and extensions among the many elite males’s and girls’s racers at Unbound Gravel 2023 has led riders to search for different methods so as to add consolation when adopting a extra aero using place.
Over the 200-mile course of the elite occasion, aerodynamics play an necessary position and, in earlier years, aero bars or extensions have been de rigueur among the many prime racers, with final 12 months’s winner Ivar Slik equipping his Wilier Rave SLR with extensions customized 3D printed to suit the bike.
Dylan Johnson has headed to the wind tunnel to quantify the benefits that aero bars can present and got here away with a 41-watt saving from getting lengthy and low on the bike. That’s an enormous acquire that gained’t be obtainable to elite riders on this 12 months’s race.
However pack racing has largely changed solo efforts on the pointy finish of gravel races, so Slik, for instance, says that he spent round 15 per cent of his time on his bar extensions eventually 12 months’s race.
The ban implies that riders are on the lookout for alternative ways to cut back their frontal profile and so enhance their aerodynamics when using the Flint Hills.
That’s led to a number of bikes that we’ve noticed within the run-up to tomorrow’s race being tailored in order that riders can undertake the “pet paws” place extra comfortably, with their forearms resting on the bar tops.
Though the UCI banned the journey place final 12 months, gravel racing continues to be exterior the UCI’s attain, in order that riders will not be topic to the UCI’s ban.
Listed below are three variations to the tops that caught our consideration.
Innokenty Zavyalov’s Lauf Seigla
Innokenty Zavyalov has tailored his Imaginative and prescient Metron 4D bars with additional tape and padding in the direction of the stem. Curiously, as is now frequent with aero profile bars, the outer part of the tops is untaped, regardless of the additional vibration that can be transmitted from the gravel when using along with his arms on the bar tops.
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Dylan Johnson’s Issue Ostro Gravel
Dylan Johnson has gone additional, with the Black Inc one-piece bar/stem on his Issue Ostro Gravel absolutely taped regardless of the doubtless lack of effectivity for his aero profile tops. The central part has been closely over-taped although, to offer some additional padding when resting his forearms on the tops.
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Kerry Werner’s Kona Libre
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Kerry Werner has purpose-designed safety on the Coefficient RR Carbon bars on his Kona Libre. You possibly can’t see within the pictures, however the Coefficient bars not solely have a 12-degree backsweep and 7-degree flare to the drops, additionally they slope downwards by 15 levels by the tops. There are two positions on the underside of the tops by which wired Shimano satellite tv for pc shifters will be sited.
The bars’ slope offers an aggressive aero place within the drops, however Werner has additionally fitted Coefficient’s rubber prime grips to his tops. Though these are primarily designed to offer grip when holding the tops in moist climate, they need to present some additional consolation when resting his forearms on the tops.
Variations for using pet paws are among the many extra modern hacks we’ve seen on bikes at Unbound Gravel lately.
We’ve obtained a rundown of different tech to count on to see to assist riders squeeze a couple of additional watts out of their bikes and perhaps the successful edge.
