So when the arm pads on my aerobars were starting to show the tell tail signs of many miles of an XL triathlete resting on them. I took the challenge and decided to make my own.
A replacement pair from Profile is relatively inexpensive, less than $25.00, But, I thought I could build a pair for less than $5.00 for the set.
So first stop was the local hobby store to purchase a few sheets of 2mm craft foam and some adhesive back hook and loop strips. Total investment for a sheet of foam and the hook and loop strips. $3.96.
You can make pads to match your bike or your racing kit.
Let your imagination run wild.
First step is to cut a sheet of foam into 4 strips as shown above.
Then coat one side of each piece with contact cement.and sandwich them together.
Clamp the stack of foam sheets between a couple of boards or place
a board on top of the sheets with some sort of weight and let the
cement dry per the manufacturers instructions.
(I usually let mine dry for several hours before unclamping.)
Once the cement is dry, unclamp and you should have something
which looks similar to the lamination above.
I take one of the arm rests off of the aerobar
and trace it's outline with a permenant marker.
Make sure to press the foam firmly into the concave
surface of the arm rest while tracing to make sure it fits.
Take a utility knife or scissors and cut out the pads just outside
the line you traced.
Sand the edges of the pad to the lines.
You may omit this step if you are very neat cutting
out the pads. I'm not, so I sand them to clean and smooth
the edges.
If your arm rests do not have hook and loop fasteners, place the
hook side on the arm rest as shown above.
And place the loop part of the fastener to the pad as shown.
Finished product.
One of the features of these pads is, you can make these pads as thick or as thin as you desire.
I personally like my pads to be about 3/8" thick.
Until next time,
Train hard, race even harder!
Very cool!! You could make Red and Blue ones for Team Aquaphor and take orders!!!!!
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