Aerobars generally fall into two categories: adjustable chunky ones and less adjustable but sleek ones. Oval and Hed fall in the first category, FSA and Easton in the latter. Zipp’s Vuka bars are their attempt to make an aerobar that’s highly aero and somewhat adjustable, and it is quite stunning.
@##=#<1,L>@##=#The most notable feature of the Vuka’s is the collet mounting system for the extensions. The extension sits at an angle inside the collet, giving you 2.5 degrees of adjustment over 360 degrees. If you use s-bend extensions (Zipp calls them chicanes), you end up with a huge range of movement. Zipp has an animation that explains the system quite nicely. The best thing about this mounting system is that it adds very little extra frontal area to the bars.
In practice, the collet system proved to be a bit of a pain. It’s pretty difficult to get the two collets set at the identical angle. Compound that with the fact that you have to match the angle of both extensions within each collet, and you can see you’re in for a bit of a headache. Every time you miss you’ll have to knock the collet out with a soft mallet and start over. It took me about five tries to get the extensions to match closely enough for my anal retentive side to succumb.
The elbow pads have three mounting holes for some lateral adjustment. Extensions can be purchased to increase the range of movement from a spread of 8 1/2″ to having the pads touch. The pads are very comfortable, with rounded finished edges.
The handgrips on these bars are excellent, by far the most ergonomic of the bars I’ve tried. They provide a bit more surface area and comfort, and have a shape that seems to mimic the feel of brifter hoods. The integrated brake levers are simple and minimal. I also like the position of the grips, a bit more aft compared to FSA. One slight nitpick: the textured rubber non slip pads on the grips have sharp raised edges. I say nitpick because this is the last thing you’ll be thinking of when your legs are screaming and you’re throwing up in your mouth.
@##=#<2,R>@##=#The chicane extensions have a slow, gentle curve close to the shifters, similar to Heds. Oval and FSA extensions are more like straight extensions with an elevated end. I prefer the Zipp/Hed shape with it’s more ergo feel.
Cable routing is internal throughout. The bars come with brake cables installed since there are no guides inside the wings. Simply slide the housing over the cable and push it into the wing until it stops. Should you need to replace a brake cable Zipp suggests attaching a wire to the old cable before you remove it, then using the wire to reroute the new cable.
The cross section of the wings are a low speed specific airfoil that’s claimed to “show almost no increase in drag at pitch angles as high as 5 degrees”, according to Josh Poertner at Zipp. Aerobar drag is a tiny component of your overall drag, but it’s still nice to see someone make an effort.
Time for Hate
Part of me finds a $1200 aerobar obscene, while the other part can’t help feeling grudging admiration for a company that will stop at nothing to make a better product (dimpled hubs, anyone?). The Vuka is a no compromise aerobar that covers all the details, almost as aero as FSA’s but far more adjustable. But for a few pieces of hardware, it’s made entirely of carbon. Josh says each bar costs about as much to produce as a carbon frame and fork, and if you examine it’s complex shape carefully that’s not surprising at all.
So where does that leave us?
The initial moments of the first ride gave me goosebumps. The front end of the bike felt light and agile, which doesn’t make any sense to me, since the Vuka is just a few grams lighter than the bars they replaced. Down on the pads they did a good job muting vibrations over bumps. Out of the saddle they were nice and stiff. Most importantly, I was able to get myself in a nice aero position, and the bars were comfortable enough for me to hold that position. In other words, they do everything a set of aerobars are supposed to do, with a little extra je ne sais quois thrown in.
Finally, these things are just BEAUTIFUL. If you’re a sucker for aesthetics like me, these babies will make your nerdy knees go weak. Aerobars are the visual vocal point of a TT bike, and these transform any bike into a work of art. Whether that’s worth the $1200 price tag…
Sexy equipment. I especially loved the sleeves that allow rotation of the extenders without effecting the bend angle – very smarty pants! Nice quicktime stuff too. How appropriate <quicktime> – 1200.00 bucks is pretty criminal though. Thanks Andy.
Josh on pricing, from slowtwitch forum, if it makes a difference to you:
The basebar is actually made by a frame factory in Taiwan and takes slightly more labor and cost to make than a carbon frame, when combined with all the other carbon parts (everything on this bar is carbon) and the aluminum parts which are all made in the USA, the manufacturing cost is equivalent to that of a very high end carbon frame/fork, so we end up selling it at a pretty low margin just to be able to sell it at all, the $1200 is the lowest we can sell it at and make money.
Dude, thats all BS. The price is $1200 because there are plenty of suckers that will pay up. Has nothing to do with manufacturing costs. If all bike components were priced solely based on production costs we’d be paying a fraction of what we pay now.
Zipp seems to be garnering a rep. for releasing crazy expensive components. Sexy they may be but for a first time foray into stuff like carbon cranksets and carbon stems and now this bar, they sure do ask for a lot of dough on pretty much unproven equipment. Much more than carbon components from different companies. The stem for instance (ITM 4 ever) is lighter, almost 200.00 less, and not carbon. I love zipps initiative but if they want to put products on bikes that race, it seems like they’re going to run into difficulties. Pro-tour teams are pretty frugal as well. So Andy, whats the customer service like with zipp. I dont own anything from this company – just curious.
I’d assume that given my little soapbox my customer service experiences would not be typical. So I can’t say.
Tony, you may well be right. Some things to consider: this is a brand new product, with lots of initial r & d costs. They probably didn’t make a whole lot of them (can’t sell that many of them, right?). If you look at it side by side with, say, Oval or Hed’s carbon bars, there’s no comparison in the complexities of the shapes.
Does a 5 degree angle get you to your landis position, or do you need to angle them more?
That’s more like 20 degrees. Can’t bring myself to turn up these beautiful bars that much. Wind tunnel testing with K Armstrong showed that the Floyd wasn’t any more aero. Second part of that article is coming up.
Not more aero because her shoulders didn’t lower and move in so her frontal area didn’t decrease? I can wait for the full article.
Joel
if the cables come out all is not lost. You can use a vacuum to suck a thread out of the hole and then tie the other end to your new cable.
$1200 is pretty steep for bars. I don’t doubt that they cost just as much to make as a frame does. I’m sure the actual cost to make is a small fraction of the $1200 price. But you need to take R&D into consideration. Engineers don’t come cheap. At least not the good ones. Then consider that the market for these bars is not that big, so you don’t have that many bars to absorb those costs.