You can never be too slow to enjoy nice equipment. Borrow them, enjoy the extra speed and thank your bike shop profusely for lending them!

If you can, try to get a few rides in on them before your race - they will feel different and you don't want any surprises on race day or even the day before race day.

Have fun!

Stop worrying about what other people think. There is no magic speed number to ride carbon wheels. Rider whatever you want and enjoy your race. The people who make fun of others who have nice bikes and ride slower are people who can't afford those nice bikes and gear.

It's your race. Enjoy your day and make yourself proud!

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

It's a race, use what will make you faster.

The slower you are the more the time savings from faster wheels.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

BryanD and Titan are right.

Enjoy the wheels, enjoy your race... although will caution you... your gonna want your own set. :)

This. Faster is faster. It's a race - use the fastest gear you can buy/beg/borrow/steal, and have at it.

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float , hammer , and jog

Why do you think the LBS is offering "loaner wheels" in the first place?

Honestly I would laugh if you went like 15mph. Anything that shows you train and I wouldn't laugh.

I used to be very much on the side of "don't buy the nice equipment until you're fast enough to need it", but I think it's reasonable to just race it if it is free. Whether they're worth buying is highly debatable and entirely dependent on your personal goals and financial situation.

If you're worried about looking like a more-money-than-sense guy, just keep in mind it's not at all unusual for friends or shops to loan nice gear to people starting out, and mentally count yourself in that category. I loaned my powertap and carbon bike to a couple friends when they were starting in tri and wanted to race or train with "real" equipment. The shop probably counts those wheels as a marketing investment anyway. It wouldn't take many sales to make back the wheel value. On the other side of the coin, watch out for judging slow people on nice bikes - even if you have the axiom of "buying a $10k bike to go 15mph is dumb", maybe a friend or family member loaned them that nice gear to help them start enjoying our sport.

Finally, don't forget the mathematical oddity that the slower you go, the more seconds you save.

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STAC Zero Trainer - Zero noise, zero tire contact, zero moving parts. Suffer in Silence starting fall 2016

Thats why I said caution... ;)

Why would you want less discretionary income than skill?

Thanks to everyone for dropping knowledge. I'm glad to be reminded to enjoy the race and use whatever resources I can.

I am however confused by the expression "the slower I go, the more seconds I save." Is this a reference to aero savings as it relates to speed?

Also not so much concerned with the ego as much as to the nuances of quasi-etiquette to the sport and cycling seems to be rich with that.

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“Bloom wherever you are planted"

Over 16mph i'd say if you're going slower you shouldn't be racing him yet

Gross time saved is greater the slower you are, even though it's a smaller % savings.

The only DB's are the ones who think you need to go X speed to justify your equipment. Rock it and be proud of your race.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

+1

And here I thought you limited your really fucking stupid posts to the nutrition ones.

awesome!

All the gear and no idea. That is definitely the way to go.

Now I'm in my 50s I am lucky enough to be able to afford lots of nice bits of kit. If I don't buy them now when am I going to?

A nice tri bike, carbon wheels and power meters have made a huge difference to me. I'm still very slow, but because I have the toys, and I'm a geek that looks at all the stats, I know I am significantly faster with the toys than without.

Exactly what is wrong with enjoying nice kit that you have spent your own money on, or been allowed to borrow from someone?

In my case, it's also much cheaper and safer than other midlife crisis stuff, like a mistress!

I read this on Slowtwitch (paraphrased)... My bike does not reflect how good a cyclist I am... it reflects how good I am at my job.

I had second thoughts about buying a tt bike, since I'm on the slow side... but I thought about the above quote (and other factors) and pulled the trigger on the bike.

This makes me laugh because I started Tri last year to celebrate my 50th and while my wife is a saint and supports just about all I do I did have a rationale prepared to justify the lofty investment getting equipped for the sport: "[honey] I support you as a stay at home mother of our two amazing daughters, we have an amazing life, I don't drink, do drugs, or gamble and I've never cheated on you - I'm getting the bike!" Nuff Said.

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“Bloom wherever you are planted"