The bike shop guy laughed at my pool noodle aero bars

I showed up to my first group ride with pool noodles taped to my handlebars for aero position practice. The shop mechanic said I looked like a floatie at a water park. Turns out he was right - the noodles flexed too much and I nearly swerved into a ditch at mile 3. I caved and bought real clip-on aero bars for $60 after that. Anyone else try some janky DIY fix before buying the real thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan59322d ago

haha oh man I feel this so hard. I tried making aero bars out of PVC pipe once and let me tell you it went about as well as your pool noodle adventure. The flex was unreal, I was basically steering with my elbows and praying the whole time. Honestly the shop guy was probably saving you from something way worse than just looking silly, that swerve incident could have ended real bad. $60 for real clip ons is a steal compared to what a hospital bill would have cost you lol. At least now you've got a good story for the group rides though.

blairstone21d ago

Oh man, "steering with my elbows" is basically my whole summer. I tried the pool noodle thing too, but I went one step dumber - I used zip ties to attach a cut up yoga mat to my top tube thinking it would give me grip in the drops. Yeah, that mat started peeling off at mile 2 and flapping in the wind like a sad flag. By the time I got home, I had rubber chunks stuck to my shorts and my handlebars were all sticky from the adhesive residue, took me an hour with rubbing alcohol to clean it off. It was a whole mess, but at least the group ride guys still bring it up.