Profile Design Aeria T2 AL aerobars review
Profile Design’s brand news aluminium Aeria T2 aerobar – in its most basic guise (base bar, armrests and extensions) – weighs a very competitive 773g, putting it within sight of some of the priciest full-carbon set-ups. But when you factor in the brake levers that are included (and add a further 122g to the scales) the Aeria T2 becomes a great value package.
This weight will increase as soon as you add any of the Aeria T2’s risers and their associated Allen-key bolts (also included). The risers come in 5, 10, 20 and 40mm sizes and can be combined to increase the stack height from 55mm all the way up to 135mm. The test configuration, with two 40mm spacers, four 60mm-long bolts and the brake levers weighed 993g.
Assembling and adjusting the Aeria T2 is easy; all that’s required is a 5mm Allen key. There’s 100mm of length adjustment in the S-bend extensions supplied and 35mm of width adjustment on each armrest – easily enough, in combination with the risers, to find a comfy position.
You can also add an Aeria stem to the package, which adds £99.99 to the price and 167g to the weight. But doing so is a little tricky because getting the sleek, 17° stem’s faceplate around the base bar’s tubular clamping section isn’t easy. The reason for the difficulty is the ‘Lip Lock’ design it uses to get away with having just two 4mm clamp bolts hidden underneath. The lip has to slide inside the stem and brace against its body but its length makes it difficult to get the rest of the faceplate around the base bar. It’ll fit around the bar but it takes a worrying amount of brute strength to get it in place.For the most part, the set-up is great, especially the pads, which are thick and firm, and don’t get slippy when wet. The same goes for the thin yet grippy Aerobar Wrap (sold for £19.99), which lacks the bulk of most other tapes and manages to feel tacky without being sticky.
The extensions’ S-bend means the flat ends naturally fall into the palms of your hands when you’re down in an aero tuck. Their shape keeps your wrists sit in a nice, low-profile position while still providing you with the leverage to easily shift mechanical gears. And if you have to come out of a tuck and the saddle to climb, the base bars form a rock-solid, flex-free platform to pull on.
Yet there are a couple of issues. The minor one is the brake levers, which have a V-shaped profile that can bite into your fingers when you pull hard on the anchors. The more major one is that there’s some play in the extension clamps that no amount of tightening appears to remedy.
Verdict: A couple of niggles but otherwise a great value adjustable and light set-up 82%