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New tri bike scares me!
nessyt
Posts: 25
in General Chat
I have just brought a tri bike, i have been out on it a few times & it scares the hell out of me. I cant seem to move from the top of the bars to the aero bars without wobbling. I feel totally out of control especially when im on the aero bars and i need to brake.
Im really tempted to sell it even though i have only had is a few weeks.
ive totally lost confidence!
Can anyone offer some advice!
Im really tempted to sell it even though i have only had is a few weeks.
ive totally lost confidence!
Can anyone offer some advice!
0
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When you are on the bike go steady and take your time. Get off the bars before you feel the need to brake! confidence comes with familarity!
Falling off a tri-bike is the best thing ever. Just ahead of drowning in a bowl of custard.
Oh, this is serious?!?! Practice makes perfect as they say, and I have ridden my tri bike for 2 years and I still have a slight wobble when shifting from aero to upright. Is it even possible to do it without wobbling I wonder, as you are always likely to pressed into one side of the bike when moving an arm, to then move another.
Treat if like any other training session. Practice techniques in safest environments. Do reps of moving positions. Time down in aero, time upright and repeat! Practice moving to braking position. Learn to read the road ahead and make decisions and selections early.
If Carlsberg did mistakes, then getting rid of a tri-bike for a road-bike would probably be the best in the world!!! [:D]
I, in the meantime, have returned to what I consider to be a more normal progression from my original hybrid to a road racing bike with standard drops. I feel much happier and more secure on that, although that security has taken a bit of a bashing with the addition of clip pedals! I will stick with them even though I wake up in the night sweating from dreams of toppling over at a junction and under a car!!
I think there's just not hope for me-I'm just a huge wuss!
However, when I am in full flight (hah!) there is nothing better, speed and comfort. Stick with it, as if you give it up I'm sure it's a decision you will regret.
For what it's worth, my expectation is that you won't get a single response from this forum supporting you call to abandon the Tri bike.
Other than that - yep, it is poo poo time, just like wearing clipless for the first time.
Try and practice in a park or cycle path with grass verges early in the morning with nobody about. Cycle along the edge of a path next to the grass so if you fall off you have a 50% chance off hitting the soft stuff. That's what I did.
after 6-8 weeks though something clicked and i started to build some confidence. first of all on straights and clear-ish road, and after a while learned to confidently use one hand to change gear. i wouldn't be without them now, i'm quite happy to use them to cruise up long steady hills.
see if you can find some quiet places on your regular rides to use the aeros, short stints to begin with and then extend them as you build confidence.
juleso
There is a bit of wobble when coming up from the aero position, back on to the bars, but it isn't enough to send you crashing to the floor, although it may feel like it. Once you have got used to it you will wonder what all the fuss was about.
http://www.idbike.com/other.htm
i will take all your advice & try & get use to it. I will keep you posted!
jon.e that looks painfull!!!!!!!
blimey. looks a bit unstable at low speed to me. i'd love to see him do a clipped in hill start [:D]
It's a recumbent - but rotated through 90 degrees!
Pity they stopped developing it, looks like fun to me...