Several years ago, a good friend shared with me an idea that he had for a bicycle product. His idea was a clip on aero bar that would use a detachable faceplate stem as the point of attachment, rather than clamping on to the bars. Maybe he should have actively pursued the idea at the time, because he recently sent me a link to this product review on SlowTwitch.com for the Oval Concepts clip on aero bar system, which is based on the same idea. Slowtwitch has some good pictures of the system, which appears to be quite cleverly designed. To get a good overview, you can also download a poster of the bar, stem, clip, extension, and accessory options from the Oval Concepts website. This system looks very clean; in fact, I would say that it is the best solution for installation of an aerobar that I have seen. I haven’t used a clip on aerobar on any of my bikes in quite some time, but this is one that I wouldn’t mind trying out. I already have an Oval Concepts stem with rear facing clamp bolts on one of my fixed gear bikes, so I am half way there.

The Profile Lighting Stryke is another stem mounted aerobar design that looks very nice. This one mounts to the body of a special profile stem rather than mounting to the front of the stem using the clamp bolts. The Lightning Stryke appears to also be a nice design, but I think I would still rather try the Oval Concepts system, which is modular and offers more options for setup.

This may be deviating a bit from design content, but I can’t wrap up this post without adding a few Tour de France links. Specifically, I want to point out a few of the sites that I have been using to follow the tour so far this year. Of course, I have been checking the big cycling sites like Cyclingnews, Velonews, and Pez. I have also been following the TdF blog coverage daily as well as the blog coverage on Masiguy, Cyclelicious, Biking Bis, Spare Cycles, and several others. I have enjoyed checking the Polar Cycling site occasionally to see live heart rate monitor data from selected racers during each stage. Just click the “live race data button” on the site to see that. I have not really had great luck with streaming video feeds, but Steephill.TV is a good source for updates and video links. It is definitely worth a visit; let me know if you can access any of the feeds from the US. Finally, I have been listening to the daily tour podcasts from the FredCast, which are uploaded pretty quickly after each stage. Download them from the site or subscribe with iTunes for a great audio recap of each day’s racing.

Photo credit: Slowtwitch.com