Never Decide between Road and Aero again, with Switch Aero System

While I agree with anonymous, I also think this could be a neat tool to just show some road riders the benefit of a forward pos. There’s no way it could be ideal though.

My ideal road saddle is either the dash stage9 or the adamo breakaway. The adamo lets me get in both positions on a road bike. It’s really helpful on a long pull or, (no pun) a breakaway. You just have more positions to switch to. I find that on a long power push I can inch up to the tip and recruit muscles that are not cooked yet. Of course you can do this on a regular saddle like an antares, but I think the dash and adamos allow this even more.

This saddle mount is not new. It has been used on cheetah bikes (from swizerland) for years already.

@Anonymous: Since when is a quick release not safe? I am not sure about you, but my wheels are fixed to my bike with quick release skewers for as long as I remember…

Concerning the rotation around a circle, if you look closely then you will notice that the tilting section is tilted slightly upwards, which should result in to a rotation in the circular motion you are referring too.

Finally you comments about the non ideal positions, saddles, etc. Obviously no serious triathlete is going to trade in his dedicated bike for this piece of kit. However, for those of us who don’t have the cash for two separate bikes this can be pretty ideal.

From the article, “Made from 6061-T6 alloy, the seatpost is a claimed 60g heavier than a traditional post.”

OK… To me, a Thomson Masterpiece is a “traditional post”; is this thing a “claimed 60g” heavier than that, or are you talking about some 350g post from FSA.

What a great solution for the enthusiast who likes to ride the occasional different disciplines with a quiver of one.

P

To repsond to “Anonymous”
The quick-release mechanism is super secure (same general principle as the quick-release on your wheels). In addition, there is a secondary safety mechanism whereby the “skewer” is spring loaded into a channel in the mount. This keeps it from being able to slide off even if the clamp lever is completely loose. In order to slide the bars off, you have to pull up on both sides of skewer/lever assembly and then slide the bar horizontally. We’ve actually gone for entire rides with the clamp completely loose.

You’re absolutely correct, there may be a small difference in bb-to-saddle height for very short or tall people, but the difference is on the order of a millimeter or two which shouldn’t be noticeable for most riders. The power loss related to a slight difference in saddle height will be substantially outweighed by the aero benefits of being able to get into an aero position.

We’re targeting athletes that are trying to make the most out of their road bike, not necessarily people who are trying to duplicate the exact setup of their Tri/TT bike. There’s a lot of value in being able to access an aero position on a road bike. There are many age-group triathletes who compete on road bikes in a standard road setup. Or with clip-on aerobars but no forward seatpost setup. If you can afford a Tri/TT bike and you’re able to focus your training, a dedicated Tri bike would be a better solution.

While swapping a saddle or seatpost is not a huge operation, it’s a hassle for a rider who wants to be able to alternate the kind of rides they’re doing with any regularity. And the ability to change positions mid-ride opens up a lot of functionality.

Interesting idea but not so easy.
Anyone who has had a bout of neurosis with dialing in thier fit can attribute that moving the saddle forward by 30+mm will also require cleat adjustment, typically moving them back toward the heel. (anonymous taps into other problems with this design as well)
Furthermore the stack and reach of the said riders road handlebars could need to be altered greatly considering you now rotated the body forward to be supine and rest on said handlebars.
So again, not so easy…especially if we are talking about the purpose of the product-convienience.

I like it. I would consider it for long distance commuting.

Now if we can get some system to quickly switch out the rider from a triathlete to a road rider, the bike will be suitably safe to ride in a bunch.

@RCSpeed

Your point is valid. This product is not meant to replace a properly-fitted dedicated tri bike.

What it does offer riders is a significantly improved aerodynamic position on their road bikes at a fraction of the cost of a tri bike. In addition, you get the flexibility to choose the right setup for the right portion of the ride.

Well done Redshift. I know several riders in my area that go from group ride to time trial, and vice versa, day after day. All of which they do on the same bike and go through the hassle of taking their aerobars on and off for every necessary occasion. Obviously it is naive to think that this would turn a road bike into a well fit TT/tri bike. But for those that need a bike to do double duty, this is a great way to make it better.

I wish aerobars would go away forever.

buy this thing and make sure you will never leave the start line of a TT using a UCI gage check system, good luck… simply not uci compatible

Redshift Sports- Dont be discouraged by the insane over thinkers like anonymous and john who dont see the value in this system and who its designed for.

The travel in the video looks like there is more rearward offset than forward offset. Is the 16mm/34mm backwards in your comment above?

@ Will,

If you look at the animated gif on the KS site, hold a piece of paper inline with the center of seatpost. Then watch the gap between the paper and the center mount bolt.

The gap in the rear position is shorter than the gap in the front position. I think his numbers are correct.

Triathlons should combine downhill MTB, wild boar hunting with dogs (take the boar with a knife, not a gun or bow and arrow), and whitewater kayaking or rock climbing. Not running, swimming, and road biking.

Do people not understand the gist of this and the intended target?? It’s not to replace a true Tri bike and obviously may not be UCI legal. Again that is not the target audience. This is a GREAT alternative for enthusiasts who can’t afford or may not want to spend on a tri bike but like to ride a tri once in awhile like me. I’m a road cyclist and own three road bikes and just sold a cervelo p3 simply because found myself not riding it much. I mainly rode it because I liked riding in a tri aero position. I was not a triathlete by any means. I miss that type of ride and the quickness of putting on and taking off the aero bars seems a great alternative and idea.

This is a really interesting idea for me. There are nearly straight shot low traffic sections of my regular transportation riding as well as mixed city traffic and climbing and I’m also in the triathlon dalliance stage. Being able to get around a tiny bit quicker and train the triathlon position without committing to it in city riding would be really neat. However, for the former use case, the distances are short and time savings wouldn’t be much, and for the latter, I do these things infrequently enough that manually adjusting isn’t such a headache.

So my thoughts center now around real time saddle position adjustment. I gather right now you coast and grab the thing with one hand to bring back or forward? Sounds less than great for a klutz like me. It would be inelegant looking but incredibly sweet if you didn’t have to coast and reach backward a bit awkwardly, if there were a (mainly, obviously you’d have to unweight the saddle to bring it forward/up) cable based control mechanism that you could use to do more frequent, opportunistic change-ups. Thoughts around that?