Performance Optimization...For Your Bike?
Co-founder Chris Bagg's front end, pre-Josh
Here at Output, we are mostly about optimizing YOU, that is, helping put you in a position that is comfortable, powerful, and aerodynamic. That doesn't mean, though, that we ignore other areas where we can gain some time. After all, any watt saved on the bike is a watt earned, either for your time trial, or for your legs if you're planning on running off the bike.
Josh is undoubtedly the neater of the two co-founders at Output, and I think he looked at the front of my bike with a mixture of pity and fear, the two emotions that the writers of Greek Tragedy pursued. "You know," he said one day. "I think we could clean all of that up quite a bit and make you a little bit more slippery in the wind." I'm definitely one of those "grip-it-and-rip-it" riders, and I tend to put power production first and aerodynamics second, so having someone else offer to make me faster was a no-brainer.
One of our big challenges was getting enough stack height to hit the Pad Y number (the height from the bottom bracket to the top of the armrest in a vertical line). As I've talked about elsewhere, I've been battling some low-back and left hip discomfort for some time, which is why I sought out Steve Merz in the first place. The fit we arrived at called for a good amount of stack, as you can see from the upright stem and spacers above. We knew that Profile Design's new aerobar, the Aeria Ultimate, had a good amount of adjustability, so I ordered one of those and put Josh to work. "It was like open heart surgery," he reported later, but here are the results:
Better, right? Sure, it's a lot of spacer, but it's the same amount of stack. Even better, all of that bird's nest of wires is gone, with the junction box for the Di2 cleverly snugged away in the nose of the stem. He heat-wrapped all of the cables going to the rear of the bike, routing them smartly into the downtube. Here's what the wind sees:
Josh is something of a wizard when it comes to this stuff, hiding cables, deploying junction boxes in different spots, and it's another service that we offer at Output SpeedLab, where we're in the business of making you faster. Want your bike Pimped By Josh? That's something we can do for you after your fit, if you so desire. Details are available over on our Service Course Page.
