Dialing the PERFECT Front-End

Have you noticed that aerobar setups are getting more and more busy, with more and more … things up front? Let’s break down a modern setup, and talk about why YOU might want to add more stuff to your aerobars.

At TriRig, we’re always looking at this sport from a functional technological perspective, both looking at current trends of how athletes are using their gear, as well as what might be on that distant horizon and potentially coming next. Sometimes, a trend is just a fad and it’s headed for the dustbin of history. Sometimes new ideas offer a huge benefit and can cause a revolution in how we approach our sport.

Today we’re looking specifically at front-end hydration, and why these ever more crowded aerobars are such a popular choice right now. This particular bike has been built up with our Alpha One aerobars, our BTA Elevator, our Multi-bottle Extender Rail, our 3-in-1 Polymount computer mounting system, and our Kappa and Kappa Saddle carbon bottle cages. What’s the point here, are we just trying to fit as many TriRig logos on this bike as possible? Well … no, not really. If you take a look at the top riders from Ironman Hawaii or any other pro race, you’ll see really similar setups. Pros are adding multiple bottles between the arms, and those bottles are tending to come up and in some cases backward, from the more traditional spot of burying them between the rider’s arms. So what’s up with that?

Well, the crowded front end serves a couple important purposes. First, riders are finding HUGE aerodynamic advantages by filling as much space under the torso as possible. Ten years ago, we discovered that filling the space between the arms could be helpful, and the BTA bottle started to become a popular choice. More recently, with the benefit of modern aero testing and the evolution of positions coming up and forward, we’ve found that filling even more of that space comes with even more aero benefit. The less of a cavity you create behind your hands and below your torso, the easier time the wind has slipping over your body and the less drag you’ll be fighting as you ride down the road.

The second benefit of multiple bottles is … that you have multiple bottles! It turns out that weight is a couple orders of magnitude less important than aero drag, and even a tiny improvement to aerodynamics can have a greater effect on race times than a massive increase in weight. In the case of bottles, it’s not even remotely close. Even if adding that second bottle to your aerobars was aerodynamically neutral, it STILL ends up being a savings because it prevents you from coming out of aero to get that on-course bottle. Just the act of sitting up, potentially slowing down a little bit, sticking out your hand, grabbing that aid station bottle, finding a spot for it on your bike, and then finally getting back into aero, that process distrupts the airflow around your body in a significant way. And it may take the wind quite some time to settle back down again. We see this all the time in wind tunnel testing. If a rider comes up to fiddle with something, then gets back down into aero, it can take 20-30 seconds before the sensors in the tunnel show a steady state of drag again. Avoiding even ONE aid station is more beneficial than reducing the weight of your bike by 10-15 pounds – and that’s not an exaggeration. So the one or two pounds of fluid in that bottle is something you can completely ignore in terms of your race-prep calculus.

Okay, so multiple bottles are great, but how do we rig them? There is only ONE off-the-shelf solution to easily adjust the stack, tilt, fore-aft position, and number of bottles on your aerobars. And that’s the TriRig setup you see right here. The heart of this setup is our brand new BTA Elevator. This is the only product on the market with stack and tilt adjustment, borrowing some concepts from our award-winning Alpha One aerobars for a rock solid setup with a massive range of adjustment. On top, we put our Multi-Bottle Extender rail, again the first product of its kind, but a pretty simple one. You mount this rail anywhere you mount a standard bottle, and then it just gives you mounting points all over. Crucially, you can mount a bottle on the top OR BOTTOM of the rail, giving you a huge range of options in terms of what that front end looks like. Some athletes prefer two bottles front to back. Others like Ironman World Champion Patrick Lange ride with one bottle above and one bottle below, which can be nice especially if it sortof follows the curve of your torso. The ability to adjust the fore-aft position of the bottles and their angle is key to getting them in the right spot for your particular position.

The TriRig BTA Elevator with the Multi-Bottle Extender rail is the only product which offers total granular adjustability of all of these aspects. And we love pairing it with our Kappa and Kappa Saddle cages. Critically, we love using the Kappa Saddle cage for bottles mounted on the BOTTOM of the extender rail. It puts the retention tabs on the underside of the bottle, making it easier to get bottles in and out, and also meaning that gravity works to keep the bottle IN the cage, rather than working to pull it out. Those same Kappa Saddle cages are also really handy in behind-the-saddle setups, which is how they got their name.

So, is this the kind of setup you’re already using on your race bike? Or have you been waiting to see whether it was right for you? Until now, most pros have set these things up with really janky DIY setups, things strapped or welded together, because there was no easy way to do it. But now there is, and it’s in stock and shipping. Check out all our hydration products in our online store.