Long story short:
I want to give some aero bars a go on my road bike in preparation for first Triathlon (Sprint) this september.
They need to be cheap(ish)
They need to cater for my slight lack of flexibility* (*read: fat gut)
The choice out there is bewildering, anyone got genuine real world experience?
Aren't you about to give up possibly the best excuse ever to buy a new bike? You NEED a tri/tt bike.
ebay - and keep the listing for when you sell them again the day after the event.
They are the work of the devil and (seriously) it took me quite a while to get confident on them, so it's leaving it a bit late to fit some for a race in september. They all seem expensive to me and unless it's a proper flat easy course you'll almost as well off using the drops on a sprint course.
For your first tri, I'd concentrate on getting the transitions right and gaining experience.
Then you'll realise that you really do NEED a proper tri bike for next season 🙂
Profile Century is a sound entry level bar. Mrs Stoner is very happy with hers and worked with Andy Sexton at http://www.bike-science.com/ in Bristol to get her Planet X SL carbon into a TT poise. She has been making the transition from champ marathon runner to tri, hoping to go for a national rating in V45 next year. Her swimming and running (natch) is very good, but her bike time was letting her down. The work with Andy and lots of training whilst she's been suffering from planar fascitis has really brought her riding times on well.
Soon enough she'll be fast enough to justify looking at race wheels and upgrading her TT bars to lighter ones.
Just get some cheap clip-ons that go under the bar, they'll be heavy and you want be all that aero but it will give you an idea. Can flip stem or buy a cheap negative rise one if you need to go lower - I TT'd fine on clip-ons on my normal road bike though (fine as in my fitness was stopping me placing top 10's rather than my position).