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£s per seconds saved question

Hi I have an entry level Giant Defy 3 with Alex rims/Kenda Kriterium Tires, outland clipless pedals and a Foor Quantum wetsuit, I'm happy with the lot but thinking about an upgrade.

I'm going to get some Carbon Stryke Tribars but apart from proper training what investment upgrade will give me the best speed savings per pound???

Eg Particular Wheels, better wetsuit?

All ideas welcome

Ethan

Comments

  • Jelly legsJelly legs Posts: 278
    aero helmet
  • TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
    There was an article on this subject in one of last month's Triathlon magazines. Can't remember which one, as I don't have them in the office with me. But it gave a cost per second time saving for an OD race.

    I think one of the biggest savings was aerobars, then add the bottle, wheels and then helmet.

    One issue, Carbon Aero Bars, might be a bit extrvagant, can save just as much time with a standard alloy pair, that don't weigh that mush more, but frees up more cash to spend somewhere else. I know this goes against the carbon thing, but . . .
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    I've got a book at home with a breakdown of what different bits of kit might save - will dig it out and post.
    In the interim, if you take your wetsuit off, you'll cycle faster
  • shadowone1shadowone1 Posts: 1,408
    From my personal point of view, I found the wheels and tyres upgrade a massive advantage.

    Once I got the wheels and tyre, the difference was like night and day. The cost was split £150 wheels and £30 tyres, I think. I can only wonder what difference would have been made had I spent more on the wheels.
  • SwizzlenapSwizzlenap Posts: 160
    Newtons?
  • Barny51Barny51 Posts: 16
    Getting a compact chainset sped me up by about 5kph...

    Thats going to cuase some controversy on here as evryone tell you how big theirs (ring) is.. but I did my first year of riding on a standard 39/52 and then moved to compact 36/50 - This massivly improved my cycling technique and average speed... a further 18 month on I am thining about moving back to a standard chainset but the time witha compact was I belive the eureka moment for me.

    You coudl perhaps get two new ring fro you exsisting crank for £30 OR pay £70 for a new compact.

    Aerobars - I think these will slow you down unless you have the cycling base to build on (perhaps just use for racing).

    Wheels n tires - Yes defo! - I recomind Conti Attack and force.

    If you can do wheels, tires and a new crank you will be riding a different bike!
  • cammykcammyk Posts: 36
    In most cases its really got to be bike leg given its half the event.However you also need to take your own strengths into consideration as its easier to gain a bigger %age improvement in your weaker 2 legs than in your stronger one. Aero bars can be got for £100 but obviously not with bar end changers etc. Wheels and tyres always a good point to start or alternatively get some personal training with the cash. The biggest boost would be if you can improve your own fitness/strength as this goes across all 3 events.
  • hussler.hussler. Posts: 390
    Eat less (save on food bills) + Train more (cost free) = Lose weight (massive savings on the run)

    This way you actually spend a negative amount and therefore more money goes into the secret Tri fund to afford those Aero bars/wheel/helmet/aero bottle/red paint goodies to make you faster on the bike:)

    A new wetsuit may not make you faster! however learning to swim properly will... 99% of us are still trying to do this though after spending loads of money on it:(

    Stick to making gains on the bike and run first....then throw your entire wages for 10 years on learning to swim to see if you go any faster...
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    here we go, from July's triathlon plus:

    So over a 4K OD distance bike ride

    1. Aero helmet eg bell advtange (£103.49) saves 60 sec at £1.72 cost/second saved.
    2. Bladed aero fork eg oval aero jet stream (£314.99) saves 18 sec at £17.49/sec
    3. clip on aero bars eg proile century(£44.99) saves 180 sec at £25/sec (not sure how that works)
    4. deep rim wheels eg zipp 404s (£949) saves 60sec at £15.81/sec
    5. aero drinks bottle eg profile (£37.99) 20 sec at £1.89/sec
    6. Full aero frame eg P4 at £3699 120 sec at £30.82/sec
    7 disc rear wheel and aero front eg zipp 909 wheelset (£1633.83) 70 sec at £23.77/sec

    So I'd say aero bars, aero drinsk bottle and helmet are the most economical ways of saving time on a budget.
  • jibby26jibby26 Posts: 261
    Bman wrote:

    3. clip on aero bars eg proile century(£44.99) saves 180 sec at £25/sec (not sure how that works)
    should be £0.25 / sec
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    On the aero drinks bottle saving 20 seconds, I'm not sure I can believe that saving just by moving the bottle from frame to bars. Is the saving more down to not breaking your tuck to drink? (In which case, I believe it).
  • There was an ahem Tritalk USA podcast dedicated soley to this topic. I think the outright winner was buying Joe Friels Triathletes Training Bible. Sorry Conehead.
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    indeed, there IS a podcast from http://www.tri-talk.com totally devoted to exactly this subject.

    I can't recall the podcast number but the podcast page has short summaries of each podcast and uyou can find it pretty easily.

    IIRC his #1 price per seconds saved item was Joe Friel's TTTB!

    There is another podcast with the top 8 things to improve your 40K bike leg/TT time but that doesn;t go into cost analysis. I do remember that #4 was caffeine!

    didds
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    I concur
    Aerobars (alloy at £30 - £50 - not carbons)
    £2 drink bottle on standard frame more aero than none
    Helmet
    Tyres
    Wheels

    Nice to see someone agrees with me on going 'compact'

    But as Hussler says; lose weight, why spend £100 on carbon bling to save .01 Kg when you can lose that through training and proper diet. Unfortunately as an old git I am struggling with 1.5kg of tummy - I really would like to shed 3kg then there would be no visible fat - one day.

    Also re weight reduction on bike important thing to shed is rotational weight i.e chairings, cranks, pedals, wheels
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    So where do you attach the book to your frame?
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    Ok, here's the extract I talked about (sorry, it's in dollar$)

    Item, time saved, cost, cost per second

    Aerobars 3.5 75 0.36
    End shifters 1.5 100 1.11
    Aero drinks system 0.5 50 1.67
    Aero helmet 1 125 2.08
    18mm tubs at 150psi 0.5 100 3.33
    deep section front wheel 1 400 6.67
    disk wheel 1.5 600 6.67
    aero frame 0.5 1000 33.33

    It doesn't actually say what distance course this is over (!) - I'm assuming OD.
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    Just had delivery this morning of an aero bottle, so I will see how that goes.

    I would hope it saves more than 20 seconds over 40K. Currently I'm doing slow down a bit - reach for bottle on frame - drink - put bottle back - speed up a bit - repeat X times at intervals.

    It's the slowing down to reachy safely that loses the time, hopefully the aero bottle will allow me to drink at full speed.
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    Oh, the book is "Swim, Bike, Run" by Wes Hobson, Clark Campbell and Mike Vickers.
  • Did they equate for how many seconds it takes to read and understand that book ..

    I was already thinking along these lines in my head (congratulates self), much as I'm a fan of racing bling .. in terms of value to my race i could and should train a lot more first. As it is now the PB's are coming thick and fast meaning I'm only just breaking through from the 'average fitness' to the 'in real training fitness' arena .. I think i can knock a good few mins off my times yet with some more weight loss and strength training (sprint tri 1hr22mins - i want this down to about 1hr17mins or less) .. costs wise that's maybe 300secs .. @ £10/sec.. i think I'll go for the free-ish training option until it's all i can do to reduce my time by about 30secs... then let it rain carbon, drink bottles and red stuff ..
  • hamiltonhamilton Posts: 7
    no one's mentioned elastic laces... cost about a fiver, or less, and saved me about 20 seconds on T2.
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