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Best option for hydration system...

trigirl1203trigirl1203
in General Training Discussions

So a few years back I had my aero bars cut down for comfort purposes...I'm short and it was quite the stretch to reach the shifters.  Yet after getting my joule this year I regret it doing that...because the joule is so big that I have no space for my aero bottle I had always used.  So now I am trying to figure out my best option for a new hydration system...my aero bars are pretty short and the joule takes up a significant amount of space.  Any advice would be great....thanks!

Comments

  • William JenksWilliam Jenks
    If you can't put anything between your bars (aero drink, torpedo, etc), then just be sensible. Downtube/seattube where it's designed for your bikes probably the best first spot. I am convinced that my particular rear mount too-dad is huge aero drag just based on qualitative observations of speed when I have it on or off. So for racing, if you HAVE to have one, keep it as much as you can in wind shadows. That may take some experimenting, unfortunately.
  • matthewbwardmatthewbward
    I use the Profile Design Razor bottle on my downtube and have a love/hate with it. The love is the aero-benefit. The hate is that I can't refill it easily and the cage can't accomodate another bottle. I was racing HIMs with it and putting 500 cals in it but now I've switched to on-course nutrition and am just constantly refilling my Torhans 20 with sports drink while keep a regular bottle for water to wash down the gels.
  • manconamancona
    Check out the Torhans 20 bottle with the integrated computer mount on top of the bottle. My guess is if anything will fit it will be that.
  • penlynwilsonpenlynwilson
    What about a speedfil for the downtube?
  • jhpiiijhpiii
    The Torhans looks like a solution for me. Any advice on where to get one? Just order directly from their website or are their better ways/deals?
  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030
    Posted By Penny Wilson on 08 Jun 2012 01:48 PM

    What about a speedfil for the downtube?



    This is why not...

  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030
    Posted By John Peterson on 08 Jun 2012 02:40 PM

    The Torhans looks like a solution for me. Any advice on where to get one? Just order directly from their website or are their better ways/deals?



    John, I ordered one directly from their website.  I rec'd it in four days or so.

    I figured it would be easiest to use the Torhans 20 with my new hydration/nutrition strategy of using Perform only (no longer using concentrated Infinit).

  • jwpicciottojwpicciotto
    @Bob - can you translate that into a decrease in MPH for the average rider profile?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]

    @ Bob: Sorry to disagree, but I'm a little skeptical of those numbers given that it was produced by Torhans
    . Also, I think drag depends also on how the system is setup (ex. length/position of straw, position of bottle on bike, etc). There are a whole lot of external variables that make the drag numbers coming out of a lab not so clear cut.

    I'll disclose that I do have a Speedfil though . I like it because it does a good job of holding ~2 bottles worth of liquids. I also have an Aerodrink bottle on my aerobars, but I usually only use that for longer rides if I need an extra ~bottle's worth of fluid.

     

  • trigirl1203trigirl1203
    Thanks for all the input-I went to several bike shops today and it looks like Im not going to be able to fit anything on my aerobars-how bad is having the waterbottles behind the saddle? I figure, for race day I can still just use my regular seat tube bottle mounts since aid stations are so frequent.
  • Dino SartiDino Sarti
    For training, go crazy. Put bottles everywhere. More drag = weight and work. I heard somewhere work is speed entering the body. Then for race day when you tripping on aid stations, your bike, sans all those bottles, will feel light and fast....

  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030
    Posted By Anson Lam on 08 Jun 2012 06:00 PM

    @ Bob: Sorry to disagree, but I'm a little skeptical of those numbers given that it was produced by Torhans
    . Also, I think drag depends also on how the system is setup (ex. length/position of straw, position of bottle on bike, etc). There are a whole lot of external variables that make the drag numbers coming out of a lab not so clear cut.

    I'll disclose that I do have a Speedfil though . I like it because it does a good job of holding ~2 bottles worth of liquids. I also have an Aerodrink bottle on my aerobars, but I usually only use that for longer rides if I need an extra ~bottle's worth of fluid.

     

    Torhans testing methodolgy is on their webiste and it's pretty transparent: www.torhans.com/aerodynamics.html and they even made concessions to testing the Speedfil because of it's asymetrical shape.

    forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi

    ^ Worth the read and there's a link to an independent study... which also says the Speedfil sucks.

    @ John P. - someone does some math in the ST link.

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