Adapted road bike vs tri-bike?

EDit · 10-09-2019 10:50am #1

Hi, just wondered about people’s opinions on this....my situation is that I have very nice road bike (giant TCR) which served me well through a full IM and a 70.3 race this year. However, I am looking to improve my times next year and the bike stage is an obvious place to look. As I am not exactly flush with money, I see myself having 3 options

1) Adapt the road bike to be more tri-orientated...ie, add tri-bars, get tri-specific saddle, get a bike fit focused on getting into aero position

2) Buy a new low spec tri bike and use that for triathlons instead (not likely to be able to afford anything bar the very basic spec bike)

3) Search around on Adverts/DoneDeal to try to find someone selling off a good tri bike for a reasonable price (and hope I don’t buy a lemon)

Clearly, option 1 is the cheapest, but I guess my main question is whether a low-spec, basic tri-bike trumps a high-spec road bike that is properly set up for long distance triathlons?

peter kern · 10-09-2019 12:52pm

depesnds on races you do for hilly races solution 1 by far the best option ( see bellow)
2 i would not do as most likely that will be slower

3 with bike fit if its mostly flat races

1 also depends could you achie a good tt posiiion on the road bike if not than not good .

4 rember its the front that makes the biggest differece
ie wheel aero helmet potentially trisut and handlebars that have the biggest impact on aero

so the best process would be to see a fitter at your current bike and if its good invest money on the stuff i mentioned

and yes yes yes find a proper saddle. its in my mind the most important part of a triathlon bike.

68 lost souls · 10-09-2019 10:27pm

Been in a similar position the last while and put a decent bit of effort into my biking this year. I have 1 bike that does me for commuting, training and racing. Has about 10,000km on at this stage and a bit like triggers broom only the frame, handlebars and seatpost are original at this stage. Still can’t justify the expense of a TT bike and been keeping an eye out for a bargain online second hand but to get something of equal or better in a tt bike I’m still looking in the region of €1000 or more that I don’t have.

I feel like I got good return on speed/cost for a decent saddle (Adamo) , aero helmet (giro vanquish) , aero shoes (bontrager ballista), aero bottle (speed fill) and half decent wheels (racing 3). Probably about 600 between the lot over 2 years and mostly needed anyway (sheowes and wheels needed retiring).

Most benefit I found was from training in race position, keeping the drive train nice and clean especially during race season and a good bike fit.

To put it into perspective for me I knocked about 5-10 minutes off my sprint times on average and 30 minutes off my Olympic times this year in my 6th season of racing between training much better and a few small changes on the bike. I do think the bike “tech” maybe contributed at least a bit to that.

griffin100 · 11-09-2019 12:02am

For me it’s No. 1 plus a bit of weight loss. For me weight loss always equals free ‘speed’. You may already be super skinny but I’m not, so feel the effects of losing even 2kg on the bike in a big way.

Bertje14 · 11-09-2019 6:52am

following as in similar position

dickidy · 11-09-2019 8:15am

also following

peter kern · 11-09-2019 9:42am

griffin100 wrote: »

For me it’s No. 1 plus a bit of weight loss. For me weight loss always equals free ‘speed’. You may already be super skinny but I’m not, so feel the effects of losing even 2kg on the bike in a big way.

what you feel and what is real is a differecne lol. aero almost always trumps weight. unless you really spcialise in very hilly races ie 90k with plus 1200m climbing weight its one of the lowest factors for your race split.

( you could claculate it if you want a more scientific answer the info is out there for you a few google fus away )
if you said last weeks nice world champs was your lifes a race and you dont go out of bed for a course thats less hilly than the lost sheep than you look at weight almost as much as aero ( you still look more at aero ) but if you do a mix of races like kilkee athy copenhagen and the odd hilly race 90 % of your focus is on aero)

aero and light is right but also very expensive
so you on a budget aero is what you want. and at the right places ie especially the front of the bike.

EDit · 11-09-2019 10:48am

Have to say I am liking the responses so far (mainly as the thoughts of having a conversation with the wife about buying another bike was not an attractive prospect

).

Seems to me that getting the existing road bike kitted out and properly set up for aero + getting me kitted out for aero (including loosing some weight) + extra attention on training in the aero position is the better option.

The challenge for me for this option is that I also like cycling outside of triathlons (sportives mainly) so I have to find a way to easily transform the bike between the two sports...one option I’ve thought about is buying a second seatpost, so that I have a tri-specific seatpost/saddle that can be switched out for the road seatpost/saddle and the tri-bars can be removed for sportives. Obviously the concern with this is that you might not get the tri-bars “right” if you are constantly putting them on/taking them off + if the two positions (tri-specific vs road-specific) require different stem heights/lengths (as that makes the transformation process a lot more long-winded).

reidman · 11-09-2019 11:04am

I adapted my roadbike for full IM and had a solid day, but am going with a tri bike for next IM. I still have post, bars and saddle I used to adapt my bike, you're welcome to try them out, you'll need a fit. Saddle by miles the best move I made, and tried a few until I got it right for me.

dickidy · 11-09-2019 12:19pm

I did see a lovely set up posted on instagram by wheelworx. It was a aero cockpit with adjustable tri bars. Looked amazing . No price though

Adapted road bike vs tri-bike?

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