It is the cool/notice me!!! factor...must be. Here is why...So you have this roadie who took out a second mortgage, cashed in his (not his/hers...chicks are too smart for this) investments and bought this super duper titanium/unobtanium/whateveranium bike. He goes for a ride...and nobody looks at him twice. The thing is that his gazilion dollar bike is no different then Joe Average's sport/commuter bike. Drop bars? Check. Double triangle frame? Check. Gears? Check. Joe migh even have clip in pedals on his/hers bike from Costco, for probably less then a grand. So our roadie goes home and conteplates the sense of life...
Enters his majesty the Triathlete...Long aero bars are visible from a mile. How many time were you asked something like "dude, what are those for?" After you explain you here an admiering "cool". No drop bars here, bulhorn bars only or those wicked looking wing like bars from, say, Vision or Oval Concept. They screem speed. While you are sipping cappucino at a conveniently chosen caffee shop with lots of passerbys, they look at your aerodynamic downtube and seattube. No round stuff here, wing profile only...And then the unconventional designs such as Titanflex, Softride, Kestrel, P3C, Orbea Ordu...Maybe you decide to take your racing wheels for a spin, disc (dimpled, of course) on the rear, deep dish on the front. Dude, are you turning heads or what? Everybody has spokes, but those Hed Tri spokes, can't not notice them. Slap on a nice cool aero helmet and roadies are bunching up for safty in numbers.
And then the races...Not only that you can swim and bike and run...how long???? Words such as Ironman and Tour de France are pretty much household names. If you are a triathlete chances are that you have done an Ironman, or that you are training for one. And if none of those, you do have an opportunity to do an IM sometimes in your life. When was the last time you met a roadie who has done the Le Tour?
Ha, ha...don't know what else to add, gotta go for a brick workout...cheers...