TriRig Alpha: Installation and F.A.Q.

 Aug 1, 2013 article & images by Nick Salazar

Alpha is here! Get yours in the TriRig Store
Alpha: Aero Starts Here.

The do-everything, purebred triathlon aerobar has arrived. This is Alpha, and aero starts here. It's the first thing the wind sees, and perhaps the most important part of the fit equation. Other than that, there's really nothing left to say. The Alpha Story has been described in great detail in previous articles, so please refer to them for more information on what the Alpha is all about.

But now that Alpha is finally available to purchase, it's time to let you in on all the tech specs of the bar. The purpose of this article is to provide detailed technical information on the Alpha that will make it much easier to install, adjust, and fit the bar. It also provides a lot of insight as to the significant engineering effort that went into creating a highly functional, but highly elegant and simple-looking piece of hardware.

Please enjoy the supersized image gallery (and some fairly detailed image captions), and complete installation instructions. Thanks for reading, and when you're ready, you'll find Alpha right here!

Alpha Installation
  • Please refer to the image below for part names on the Alpha, which we will use in the installation instructions below.



    • Compatibility Information:
  • Alpha is compatible with any 31.8mm OS road stem. We recommend the TriRig Sigma because that stem makes it easy to find your fit, and works well with the Alpha to preserve a low frontal area and superlative aerodynamics. However, any OS standard stem will work.
  • The Alpha can accept any 22.2mm standard aerobar extension. It can be purchased with our own TriRig Gamma extensions which allow a variety of different positions to be achieved. However, it can also be purchased without any extensions so that you can use your own. Any standard extension may be used. Some older extensions use a 22.0mm diameter instead of the more common 22.2mm standard. These undersized extensions may be difficult to tighten down, and we cannot guarantee fit. However, we have successfully tested some 22.0mm extensions in the bar, and they fit well. So if you have a favorite extension in the 22.0mm standard, there's a good chance it will work in the Alpha.

    • Installation Procedure:
  • Begin by installing the Alpha's Base Bar into your stem, following the instructions of your stem manufacturer.
  • Installing the remaining hardware onto the Alpha Base Bar is very simple, and revolves around the notion of a modular stacking system. At the top of your stack are the Arm Cups. At the bottom of the stack is the Clamp Nut. In between the two, the Extension Clamps, Spacers, and the Base Bar itself can be put in any order. The parts nest into one another, ensuring a good fit. Finally, you take the appropriate length Thru Bolt which runs throughout the entire stack, pulling the Arm Cups towards the Clamp Nut and locking everything into place. During this process, leave the extensions themselves aside, they will be installed last.
  • Alpha comes with four sets of Thru Bolts, of varying lengths. The appropriate Thru Bolt to use will depend on how many spacers you have used. This doesn't include the Extension Clamp or the Base Bar itself, just the total height of actual Spacer pieces you are using:
    • 0-5mm in Spacers: use 45mm Thru Bolts.
    • 10-15mm in Spacers: use 55mm Thru Bolts.
    • 20-25mm in Spacers: use 65mm Thru Bolts.
    • 30-35mm in Spacers: use 75mm Thru Bolts.
    Use 4 Nm of force on each of the Thru bolts. Note that this is much less torque than is used on most other aerobars. Alpha's simple design allows us to use far less torque and still keep everything together. This is an easier, safer design, and also reduces the possibility of damage during installation from a stripped screw, etc.
  • Please refer to the graphic below for a demonstration of how the parts come together.


  • Finally, slip the extensions into the Extension Clamps and tighten the two M4 screws to a torque of 3 Nm. Note that this is relatively low torque compared to many other aerobars. As with the Thru Bolts, we designed the Alpha's Extension Clamps to provide a stable, secure grip without the need to resort to high torque.

    Note that you can access the Extension Clamp bolts at any time. There is ZERO bolt occlusion on Alpha, meaning that all bolts are accessible at all times, and are never covered up by other pieces of hardware. All you have to do is remove the velcro pads, and you've got access to the Thru Bolts and Extension Clamp bolts. This is true no matter how you have set up your Alpha. Even if you are running very narrow arm cups, the Extension Clamp bolts remain accessible through the holes in the Arm Cups.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the gallery below!


Tags » aerobars,  alpha,  alphainstall,  extensions,  supersized,  tririg

Complete Aerobar 

  • TriRig Alpha: this is our complete aerobar, and to us, it's everything. We designed it to provide the perfect fit and superlative aerodynamics at an incredibly low weight.
  • From the top view, it's easier to see just how deep the aero chord is on the Base Bar.
  • From every angle, this bar is gorgeous.
  • Complete Aerobar
  • From the front, there's pretty much nothing to see.
  • It takes very little hardware to bring the Alpha to life.
  • By changing the order in which the parts are stacked up and bolted together, it's very simple to set the extensions up UNDER the base bar, as shown.
  • This is about as low-stack as it gets. The arm pads sit level with the top of the stem clamp! There's nothing on the market that's lower.

Base Bar 

  • The Alpha base bar is incredibly simple. It's just a solid carbon fiber form, finished in beautiful unidirectional carbon and subtle graphics. The brake grip areas are textured, so you can use them without bar tape if desired.
  • From behind, you can see the extra-large cable port, which makes for really easy routing.
  • Because of its huge airfil, which makes for a large internal cavity, Alpha is probably the easiest aerobar you've ever routed cables through. This housing didn't need any fussing at all -- just feed it through the back, and it pops out the brake grip, no problem at all.
  • Even with housing in place, there's tons of room to route Di2 cables. And you can route them in any order, because ther's so much space to play with. NO need to plan things out like a military operation just to get your cables routed.
  • Nothing to see here. Which is everything you wanted to see.
  • Simple, elegant, and beautiful. That's Alpha in a nutshell.

Specifications, Details 

  • Alpha is comprised of very few parts, all of which are shown in this picture.
  • Some basic measurements of the bare Base Bar.
  • The lateral adjustment of the Arm Cups allow a wide range of stance width options.
  • The Arm Cups have twelve available positions for finding the perfect reach and stance width.
  • This graphic can appear confusing at first, but just describes the effective pad reach at each of the three reach offset positions on the Arm Cups. That effective pad reach would get added to the actual reach at your stem clamp to give you actual pad reach.
  • We struggled with how to best illustrate the wide variety of stack options on the Alpha, but hopefully this graphic does the trick. Because the hardware stack is totally modular, you can put things in ANY order As long as the top is an Arm Cup and the bottom is the Clamp Nut, you can do whatever you like in the middle. You could even flip the Extension Clamps to broaden the stance width of your extensions, Taylor Phinney style. And there's no extra weight or complexity involved in ANY of it. That's the beauty of Alpha.
  • Assembly of the Alpha is very simple: the top piece is always the Arm Cup, but bottom piece is always the Clamp Nut, and the rest is up to you. The remaining components (Extension Clamp, Base Bar, and any Spacers) can be stacked up in ANY order. They all nest into one another perfectly. This means you can mount the extensions UNDER the Base Bar without using any additional hardware. You just select the appropriate Thru Bolt based on how many Spacers you're using, and tighten everything down. It's that simple.
  • The Extension Clamp is the heart of the Alpha; this little 27-gram part is what makes the Alpha light in weight, immensely adjustable, and absolutely minimal in its frontal profile.
  • It's deceptively simple in appearance, but the Extension Clamp has a lot of engineering going on to coordinate the various aspects of Alpha's mechanics.
  • There is zero bolt occlusion on the Alpha, meaning that all bolts remain accessible at all times, regardless of your setup. Here you can see that even when setting the Arm Cups at very narrow stance widths, the Extension Clamp bolts remain accessible through the other holes in the Arm Cups. They were spaced at 15.5mm apart precisely for this reason.
  • The Clamp Nut is the last component of any Alpha installation. The Thru Bolts start from the Arm Cups, go through all the intermediate parts in whatever order you've installed them, and thread into this part, the Clamp Nut. This simple design is what gives Alpha its modularity, and enables the under-mount version to be achieved without the use of any additional parts.
  • And for the Weight Weenies, this shot is sure to impress. With a pair of TriRig Gamma Carbon extensions trimmed to size, this bar comes in at an absolutely scant 557g (that weight will vary slightly depending on how long you cut your extensions -- the uncut, extra-long 450mm Gamma Carbon extensions bring the bar to 599g as shipped). The TriRig Alpha is up to several HUNDRED grams lighter than its primary competitors.

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