The eternal bike question

JohnBee

I hate to ask but sometimes nice to hear answers anyway!

I am an aspiring middle of the pack sprint distance triathlete. My Giant Defy 1 (aluminium 105 spec) which has served me well the last 3 years is now beginning to feel a little heavy, to flexible and too grand fondo style geometry.

I am planning to upgrade this year. I only plan 2-3 sprint races this year, no longer, and maybe next year will go Olympic.

My eternal decision is: race geometry aero road bike (e.g. Cervelo S3 or Giant Propel), or triathlon bike. Ultimately over the next few years I plan to get both, however for now I am wondering what I should do. Will a tri bike give me much advantage over a 20k distance in sprint triathlons? If not I think perhaps the road bike upgrade might be best for now, and then next year if I go for longer distance races get a triathlon bike.

Please discuss!

BennyMul

I think there are a few questions need answering first.

do you train alone or in a group (most of the time ?)
if the yes, then I would suggest a road bike.

are you confident on the bike
if no then same as above.

most of the new aero bike claim to fast, however over 20 - 40k what is the difference between a good fitting bike and a TT bike, a minute or two.
however the main difference is the seat tube angle is steeper on the tri bike opening the hips more and "allowing" an easier transition to the run leg.

boysinblack

I recently moved from a Giant Defy 2 to a Cervelo P3 TRI Bike.

The difference over the same 20k course for me was about 4 minutes.

Definitely get a Triathlon Bike.

JohnBee

BennyMul wrote: »

do you train alone or in a group (most of the time ?)
if the yes, then I would suggest a road bike.

are you confident on the bike
if no then same as above.

Mostly train alone and mostly on the turbo. I am a confident bike handler. I will still use my road bike for most training.

iwillhtfu

Keep the defy.

Get a tri bike.

Further down the road by another carbon road bike.

Consider buying a cx bike xc bike track bike.

There's no right or wrong answer tbh whichever you think will get the most use

Tom__jnr2

Perhaps Felt AR. It can be full tri bike or road racing bike. It has revers-able seat post (from 2015).

JohnBee

iwillhtfu wrote: »

There's no right or wrong answer tbh whichever you think will get the most use

Its not so much about which will get most use, I plan to keep the Defy either way and plan to get both upgrade to road bike and triathlon bike over next 2 years.

So issues of training etc are not so much of an issue as I still will have my old Defy road bike. Thus for now, if a triathlon bike will not give me much benefit over 20km then given mostly I train with road bike I would upgrade to that first. However, if a triathlon specific bike will indeed give a few minutes advantage even over 20km, then I am happy to continue to train on my old Defy, and upgrade to tri bike first.

PS I am aware of "the rules" lol, the guiding principle we must operate on distilled to the simple formula n+1

iwillhtfu

Then a tri bike is the one you want as it will give you an advantage the thing to consider though is would it be cheaper to make up those minutes on your run swim transition?

If tri is your gig and you see yourself sticking with it then get a tri bike.

I was asking a similar question and ended up going with a road bike and built up a tri bike myself as time went by. I definitely get more use out of the road bike.

JohnBee

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Then a tri bike is the one you want as it will give you an advantage the thing to consider though is would it be cheaper to make up those minutes on your run swim transition?

If tri is your gig and you see yourself sticking with it then get a tri bike.

I was asking a similar question and ended up going with a road bike and built up a tri bike myself as time went by. I definitely get more use out of the road bike.

Tri is my gig now yes, at it casually for three years now (casually= did 1-2 sprints each summer for last 3 years, but never trained the whole year except for 2 months prior to each race!) but now have been more consistent through the year.

iwillhtfu

Go for a tri bike so you won't regret it unless you end up getting passed by auld ones on high nellys

JohnBee

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Go for a tri bike so you won't regret it unless you end up getting passed by auld ones on high nellys

See, the whole fear of "girls on mountain bikes" hasn't fully dissipated. So that fear will be there! I guess I need to know the advantage will be sufficient to avoid being overtaken by them!

PS my previous 20k times are around 39 min. A few months ago I got a turbo so I hope to knock a few minutes off that even on my Defy.

iwillhtfu

Haha you'll be grand you might get passed by strong cyclists on road bikes but as mentioned above the tri bike is set up to give you a better transition from bike to run.