Notes
Great first ride of the season for the Malocchio. And my first real ride with aerobars. Went great! Granted, it was the perfect environment, a flat straight smooth rail trail devoid of traffic. But it gave me a long opportunity to get used to the bars.
Not that bad at all. I practiced a lot of getting into and out of the bars. Which was needed anyways in order to be safe near people and at crossings. It was pretty easy to switch back and forth. And also surprisingly easy was control of the bike. I could steer the bike easily enough. The same countersteering principles apply. Steered with my hips too which helped. I was even able to shift while in the bars, reaching my right hand down to the bar end while keeping my left on the aerobars.
A few things I noticed that helped and hurt: high speed and high cadence helped to stabilize things. A light touch and looking ahead, hallmarks of any vehicle control, translate here too. Conversely, lower cadence made the bike more "rocky", and lower speed removes stabilizing gyroscopic forces. If my pressure isn't evenly distributed when shifting, I can easily put too much pressure on the bar end and steer the bike unintentionally.
Other things: I noticed my knees were pretty darn close to the arm pads, and standing to pedal I have to be careful not to make contact. Keeping my head up for extended periods of time is difficult. I will either need to get used to this or raise the stem more. Which I would do in a heartbeat, except it will involve me unwrapping my bars some to get more slack into the brake cable. I'll do it at some point but sort of a pain.
Next steps with aero bar practice will be real roads, curves, and hard efforts. With real roads there is much more variety in road surface condition, to put it kindly. And of course traffic, and elevation changes. There is a real spectrum of risk that needs to be considered and appreciated. I will be out of the aero bars anytime there is traffic, more than a slight downhill, and any blind corners. "Being aero" is not as important as safety. But at the same time I need to build a large reservoir of comfort and confidence on the bars in a variety of conditions. So things like bumpy roads, curves I can see through, and downhills that aren't steep enough to present a ton of risk, I should work to build confidence and bike handling skills in. I started today with some neighborhood riding for curves. Not bad to start but I have more work to do. I also inadvertently started with crosswind training today, he. It was constantly windy.
And as for hard efforts, I want to see what the differences are between easier riding and effortful riding while in the bars. This will give me a better sense of what to expect in a race situation. I will want to put all these skills together (hard effort, real roads, curves, etc.) before I get on the bike to race. Which will be Crank the Kanc in May! I am excited to join Mark for this sufferfest.