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TT bikes worth the $£?
dactri
Posts: 2
in General Chat
I'm in my second year of Triathlon and am loving the whole training and racing scene and have been looking at the sexy Tri bikes at the races.
Apart from being aero which will save me a small amount of time on a sprint/olympic is there any other Noticeable advantages to these bikes compared a carbon sportive type bike?
Is it worth the cash for one of these bikes?
Who couldn't live without their Tri bike?
Thanks!
Apart from being aero which will save me a small amount of time on a sprint/olympic is there any other Noticeable advantages to these bikes compared a carbon sportive type bike?
Is it worth the cash for one of these bikes?
Who couldn't live without their Tri bike?
Thanks!
0
Comments
it's sooo nice. Specialized Transition.
- You've ambition to win your age group, qualify for age group team or race pro in non drafting races
- you can't get comfortable in the aero position on a road bike
- you've reached your limit on your current bike and aren't satisfied with how fast you're going
- you've oodles of spare cash and like to own nice bikes
If you answer yes to the majority of these questions, then yes, almost certainly worth it.
I guess it is all about your personal circumstances. If I were a single 20-something with some spare cash, and serious about the sport then yes, it would be worth the £ to buy a tri-bike, but in my case I can't justify it. It doesn't stop me getting bike envy in transition though...
And having the blingy bike alone won't make you faster necessarily. I did a pool based sprint last week and on hte bike leg I overtook about a dozen people, three of whom were riding tri-bikes. That definitely made me feel better going into the run I can tell you!
FK
Just think though - maybe the sprint race you overtook them on was a warm down race after a middle distance the week before.
Maybe they are just back from inj.
Maybe they are just getting their kit squared away.
Maybe it's not their A race.
Overtaking someone on a TT bike doesn't make you special - it makes you faster at that given time.
And no, I don't have a TT bike
I am noticably faster on my TT bike than on my road bike over a 40k circuit that i tested on. The roadie (with clip on bars) averaged 29.8kph (not fast I know) but the TT did it at 36.3 kph (still not fast I know) however the gain in terms of % average speed is quite high (~20%), although some of that gain is down to training - they were 2 months apart.
*EDIT* Just had a check and I think they are running different sized chaingrings, which could also account for some more of the difference...should have thought of that before posting
But yeah its an ace toy and owning nice bikes is a clean hobby...
A new bike will make you quicker once - then it's up to you how much you progress.
For me a massive difference over my old bike - but then there was a big difference in price - so the question for me would be would a TT bike of similar price to a road bike be better or not ??
Now the proud owner of a Giant Trinity 0. Not cheap, but I love riding it, and I love the attention I get from other riders when I'm out on it
[img:2n6kvsds]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/rich_w/24100_388197912345_648382345_384400.jpg[/img:2n6kvsds]
but as they say, its not the fancy bike that makes you quick its the engine behind it and frankly I'm the equilivant engine of a smart car and if you stick a smart car engine in a ferrari that ferrari won't suddenly have the same performance as normal ferarri!
However having recently completed a tri which was partly on the 40k loop i tested roadie v TT previously - i found that I averaged 40kph on that second and was much more comforatble at that speed on the TT than I have ever been on the roadie at that speed. I also ran comfortably off it. I put the additional speed (over my last loop on the TT there) down to training, but running off it afterwards was down to the bike. Even at Oly distance I haven't ever run that easily off my roadie, this was a lot longer than Oly and the run was much easier.