Pretty much everyone on here browses ST while at work 😂 so welcome to the club!

Have you tried reaching a bottle behind your saddle? Are you comfortable doing so? For someone such as yourself who's doing their first Ironman, I'd say taking on proper nutrition at regular intervals might be a higher priority than that particular aero gain (which might be worth 2-4minutes over a 112 miles).

No need for two "tires". Just two tubes should be fine assuming you put fresh tires on sometime near your race.

Ofcourse 2 tubes and not two tubes :)

I mean with a bit of practice i dont tink it would be much of a problem. I'm just wondering if it is worth it for my first one.

Which will be your first Ironman, out of interest?

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My race site: https://racesandplaces.wixsite.com/racesandplaces

Ironman Copenhagen, expecting around 20 degrees celcius (68F).

Hi,

I was in the same boat as you last year, this is what I did and it seemed to work out well (i.e. I don’t plan on changing it) :

· Xlab Torpedo up front.
· Frame bag (Xlab stealth 500).
· Homemade double rear carrier (2 x Xlab gorillas).

The frame bag only had my solid food (chopped up high five bars).

The rear carrier had a tool pod in the left cage, the right cage was kept empty / spare and the carrier also held a can of pit stop and had a tyre underneath (I am on tubs).

I had two gel flasks in my tri suit pockets (non caffeine on left and caffeine on right).

The tool pod had every Allen key I needed (I converted all by bike to Allen key – I only need four for all the bike – I used ‘real’ Allen keys – have you tried using a multi tool quickly in an awkward position … ?), the smallest chain tool I could find (Planet X), 2 x quick links, 2 x Co2, filler head, razor blade and mobile phone.

I started with a full torpedo but an empty right rear cage.

Came out of the swim, took bottle from my T1 bag, drank most of it whilst changing took what was left to bike and put it in the right rear cage.

I only took fluid at the feed stations, no foods. The routine was, chuck the empty from the rear (if there was one), Grab a fresh bottle, refill the torpedo, if I emptied the new bottle chuck it, if not put what’s left back in the rear carrier ‘just in case’.

I just repeated that process at every station (7 stations on the IMUK course). I skipped the last station (It’s only about five miles from T2) as I still had a bit left and I had another premixed drink in my T2 bag in a small run flask - which I then took with me on the run and refilled at the run feed stations (approx every three miles).

The above gave me a reasonably clean setup, enough where the size of my arse would be way more detrimental than my equipment positioning … lol

There will be a whole host of opinions, just find out what suits you in training and don’t change it on race day !

Hope that helps.

WD :-)

I use one regular bottle in a cage zip-tied between the aerobars. I swap that out as needed at aid stations. I train with what will be at the aid stations and take hand ups. I did place a second bottle on my down tube but I could have easily lived off the course with a single bottle. I kept some unwrapped bars or gels in my from bento behind the stem. I took additional bars, bananas, gels from aid stations. I kept a flat kit under/behind the saddle. The flat kit consisted of one CO2, one tube (with stem extender as needed), an inflator head, 2 tire levers, and a small multitool. I could go with a single tire lever actually. I did have a second tube and CO2 in bike special needs that I could grab if I used the first beforehand. You certainly can have a bottle behind the saddle. But it can be hard to put it back in and use it effectively. Yes, some people are probably quite adept at it. Practice and see. If you are struggling to shove the bottle back in and sitting up straight to do it, you might be wasting more time than just having the extra bottle on your frame.

I did Ironman (Lake Placid) in a bit under 13 hours. So I'm not fast by any means. I would suggest looking for small improvements where able, but to place a lot of focus on getting your body comfortable in aero position for long periods of time and finding out how to enjoy 6 hours on the bike. Also practice taking hand-ups and you can carry less on your bike knowing you can get a lot from the volunteers.

I'll repeat the advice I read before my first Ironman and didn't use, but have now incorporated having learned some tough lessons:

1. Don't underestimate how dumb you're going to be. Plan your day like you'll be down 50 IQ points, simplicity in logistics will pay you big dividends on the course.

2. Plan to use special needs - there is no need to haul everything around with you all day.
(I leave 1 tube, and 2 CO2s in Special needs, and carry 1 tube, 2 CO2s, 2 levers, one of those small Park Tool patch kits, a multi-tool, and a chain link in an XLAB aeropouch behind the seat)

3. If you go with a behind the seat bottle, you don't have to drink out of it; you can use it to refill an aerobar mounted bottle, or swap it for a frame mounted bottle.

A really easy set-up that I used on my last bike was a Torhans BTA aero bottle + frame mounted bottle + behind the seat bottle.

I used infinit at 400 calories per bottle (I'm a bigger guy), and mixed all my hydration prerace.

Start the ride with Infinit in all 3 bottles, drinking from the BTA. When empty, refill BTA with frame mounted bottle and toss (I buy cheap bottles for IM races). Repeat, refilling BTA when empty with behind the seat bottle then toss. You'll arrive at special needs with 2 empty cages and a near empty BTA (or use the empty cages for hand-ups on the course).

When you get to special needs replace your frame mounted bottle and behind the seat bottle and refill your BTA.

I've also done a 1/2 IM where I used a single concentrated calorie bottle and water hand-ups from the course to refill the BTA, that works well, too.

Of coursed both methods require you to take all your calories as fluid, which may not be your thing (I can't eat during a race).