Riser bars? They're everywhere! And now, they're MOAR AERO!

http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/06/gallery/gallery-new-specialized-venge-spotted-at-tour-de-suisse_374360

As an added benefit, however, if you team these bars up with your usual neo-roadie Nazi-salute stem, you can get a REALLY upright riding position on your shiny new crabon fribe golf clubs sportiviste weapon. 🙂

That is an abomination

Looks like Batman’s gimp

The integration is very cool, the cables obviously go through the stem.
Guessing the dip in the bars is to get the front end as low as possible.

Is the rear brake in that strange bulge at the back of the seat tube under the seatstay?

If it was a tad wider, I’d be guessing the dip in the bars is to allow that bloody daft aero “wrist dangle” that the pros do when they think the cameras are on them

Looks all kinda horrid IMO.

I know it’s all about AERO, but hey Cav, grow a backbone will you 😉

Guessing the dip in the bars is to get the front end as low as possible.

Yep, lower front end, even with the riser, is still MOAR AERO! So, you can build a smaller frame, which has less overall drag, while retaining the same ride position.

Still no-one integrating the garmin mount into a pocket in the stem then, or is that against the rules?

Still no-one integrating the garmin mount into a pocket in the stem then, or is that against the rules?

3T have done that.

IIRC someone also did an integrated mount for the (thankfully!) short lived Mavic computer range.

Those bars look spot on for old stif sciatica sufferers like myself.

I think it looks cool tbh. Mean.

It might be more aero but i’m not convinced those bars are going to be stiff enough for sprinters. Apparently Sagan had the new bike and stem today but with regular bars, i dont know if the bars being flexy is the reason though!

i’m not convinced those bars are going to be stiff enough for sprinters.

Cav is well known for liking his front end stiffer than a pronstar on a viagra overdose, regardless of sponspor requirements. So, if it’s on his bike, it’s stiff enough.

What looks less pro: These bars, flipping the stem the “wrong way” or using some spacers?

I thought they could only ride equipment that’s for sale, rather than “soon to be available” ?

(assuming TdS is a UCI event)

Stuff that appears in a WorldTour race has to be made available for sale within 9 months of it’s first appearance.. SRAM are going to have to pull their finger out with their wireless electronic groupset as they’ve only got 2-3 months left I think..

fugly

Where’s the bell?

Stuff that appears in a WorldTour race has to be made available for sale within 9 months of it’s first appearance.. SRAM are going to have to pull their finger out with their wireless electronic groupset as they’ve only got 2-3 months left I think..

just has to be available for sale

Me: Hello is that SRAM, id like to purchase a Wireless SRAM Red setup
SRAM: Yes of course sir, that would be £1.5m please

same with all the daft British Cycling track stuff, all available for purchase, just at ludicrous prices no one would pay, see wiggins 3d printed to bars as a recent example

Apparently Sagan had the new bike and stem today but with regular bars, i dont know if the bars being flexy is the reason though!

looks like he is?

The integration is very cool, the cables obviously go through the stem.

real world where fat bluffers are buying and using these new golf clubs, and don’t have a team mechanic to maintain it for them I just see problems with “integration”…

As for the aero drop riser I just don’t see the advantages to the rise, and why is it taped so far inboard?

real world where fat bluffers are buying and using these new golf clubs, and don’t have a team mechanic to maintain it for them I just see problems with “integration”…

yawn

whats wrong with integration?

killer bike.
wire-free too.

As for the aero drop riser I just don’t see the advantages to the rise,

Did you bother to read the thread?

Yep, lower front end, even with the riser, is still MOAR AERO! So, you can build a smaller frame, which has less overall drag, while retaining the same ride position.

Tape? Well, different riders tape their bars in different ways. I suspect Mr Cavendish is more than capable of choosing his own taping preference. He might know a thing or two about how he likes it. Apparently, he’s quite a handy rider….

I think the new Madone 9 does a better job of integration, it’s the rise on those that looks gopping!

Frame looks good though.

oh dear god noooooooooooooo !

Did you bother to read the thread?

No I read the armchair aerodynamisits guesses above, I just don’t buy it.

I think it’s simply that “riser drop bars” will be getting pitched at the punters by next summer and some pictures of everyone’s favourite Manx cyclist using said product will help override any descenting suggestions that they do sweet FA…

Does Cavendish spend much time holding on an inch and a half either side of the stem? I can’t see why else you’d add so much tape…

I actually quite like it, it’s grown on me a bit. Clever integration, nice to see some genuinely new designs and it’s definitely the way to go. No external cables. All it needs is hydraulic brakes (rim or disc) and it would be cable free altogether.

Internal electric shift wires and hydraulic brake hoses, zero maintenance, clean looks and aero.
Only downside of course is the completely proprietary package: bars, stem, forks that you can’t get as spares!
Be nice if the Garmin mount was cleaner too.

I just don’t buy it.

So, you’re putting out an armchair-aero guess, then?

Smaller frontal area has less drag. That’s a simple fact.

Oddly enough, “riser drops” are already on the market. Saw a chap with some while out for a lunchtime spin today on the lanes around North Hants! He didn’t look like a Manxman, though.

Only downside of course is the completely proprietary package: bars, stem, forks that you can’t get as spares!

Indeed. However, as far as I know, Trek, Canyon and Spesh are all at it. I wonder if there might be a “standard” for integrated aero kit.

Interesting times. I still think that much of the aero here is utterly useless for most riders, but for racing, anything that can help is surely a good thing. And yes, that means having a smaller frontal area and reduced drag. So, a smaller frame and risers! 😉

1,2 for the aero crew

But different bars on Sagans

looks like he is?

He has the stem but not the bars

All of a sudden, those calipers on the Canyon look woefully out of date! After seeing what Trek have done with the new Madone (if that’s what it is going to be called) and then looking at some of the trickery that Magura have coming out these days, and the stuff on that Spesh.

Road bikes are, for a large part, stuck in the early 20th century still.

Road bikes are, for a large part, stuck in the early 20th century still.

And that kind of what I like about them.

Interesting taping divergence in the Cav – Sag photo.

Is there a caption competition for the photo by the way and can I suggest Cav (in what always sounds like a Scouse drawl to me) is saying “yeah I know, but sometimes you just gotta ride what they give you, I mean Spesh have a couple of million of these bars to sell”

Tape? Well, different riders tape their bars in different ways. I suspect Mr Cavendish is more than capable of choosing his own taping preference. He might know a thing or two about how he likes it. Apparently, he’s quite a handy rider….

He is quite a handy rider but he is also quite a handy marketing tool. Tape on the tops of an aero bar isn’t as aero as the same bar without hence the question I guess. Also, the position with the “riser aero bar” could be achieved with more spacers or a flipped stem. Aero but not so pro looking or marketable. I strongly suspect that Cav will be on something similar to Sagan during the Tour whilst the aero riser will give the “Sportive” riders something to get a reasonable looking fit on an aero race bike.

The tape and high tops section is for when Cav is climbing in the autobus in the big mountains. Low drops are for him to get as aero as possible when sprinting. I guess Sagan doesn’t have the same requirements and hence normal bars are fine for him.

Except the drop between the tops and the drops is no more with those riser bars – the only difference is where the stem joins. I’m with the theory that it’s something inflexible sportive riders can use to fit on a racy looking bike and it’s only being used by the pros in order to sell it to them.

I see it but don’t see the point when a stem with positive rise would achieve the same fit.
I’m more interested in whats going on with Sagans barnet, looks like Pat Sharp.

If 21st century road biking is about increasing prices for:

1. concealed cables…
2. attendant crap shifting and braking plus more hassle setting it up,
3. new proprietry caliper brake systems/standards with calipers in really stupid positions

all to achieve a few watts aero – that won’t matter to most of us let alone the golf-types the OP loves to slag then: