Mountain bike question....advice please

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Hi All,

This is my first post as I have just started riding a mountain bike, I bought a Giant Boulder which I am pretty happy with.

I have a question about a part on road bikes, its the part that allows you to lean down with your forearms over the front of the handlebars. I know what drop bars are but I don't mean them. Anyway, are these available for mountain bikes?

Anyone know what I am talking about?

Thanks for any help, Tim.

Well after looking on the net I think they are called aerobars. Is this right?

Anyway, is it possible to get these for mountain bikes?

I have a Profile Design Century aerobar that I have used on my mountain bikes when riding on a Rails-to-Trails bike trail in the area, for longer rides. It clamps on the handlebar and fits the bars on my bike but has to modified some. The handlebars are too small in diameter for the clamps. I shim them with inner tube rubber strips wrapped around the bars under the clamps and it works fine. That way they don't mar the handlebars either. The handlebars are 1 inch riser bars and the elbow pad arms of the aerobar are too low to swing over the raised part of the bar. I bought longer bolts for the arms, and shimmed the arms up about 3/4 of an inch to clear. The rest of the dimensions on the aerobars are OK. The space from the outside of the left to the outside of the right clamp is 3 & 1/2 inches, and the space between the inside of the clamps is 1 & 5/8 inches. Each clamp is 7/8 in. wide. This clears the the stem clamp on the inside and is narrow enough to fit the Hadlebar before it starts to bend up. The Century bar, I think, is still made by Profile Design and not too expensive.

I've seen folks with similar rigs on big charity rides, so I know that it is possible.

We call them tri-athlon bars,as the tri athletes all seem to use them.As mentioned you have to open the attaching clamps a little to make them fit on the mtb handlebars.I fitted a set on mty mtb when we did a 6 day ride,It was perfect to hang the sleeping bag from.