I would look at your other kit first, aero helmet, tight clothing, wheels etc. FWIW I did Kona back in 2003 in 5.15 wearing “baggy” clothing, road helmet and out of date Zipps. The frame itself may not be worth much time unless you can’t get your position low enough on the Talon. The main reason I switched from the Talon to a P2 in 2009 was that I couldn’t get low enough on the Talon. The Talon you’re on now might have different geometry, if you’re OK with your position then I would worry about other kit than the frame.

Awesome reply thanks! I'm assuming a bike fitting would be the first step to make sure I'm in a proper position.

I’ve never had a pro fit, totally self diagnosed. You can get some free advice on this forum and ask for a fit feedback. You might not like the responses you get, but cheaper than paying for a fit. You can always pay for a fit after that.

Ya I would agree. You are at that point where any old frame will do and you should worry about other things first. Post a picture and get some feedback on whether people think you can even achieve a decent position on your current bike. If it is reasonable on your current bike, then get a fit. I would also ask for a saddle and helmet recommendation from the fitter. If you ask me, the most important part of going fast is a saddle you can comfortably sit on.

What would be really good would be to have a timed course you ride. Make a 5-10 mile Strava segment (mine is Mike's 20 minutes of hell) and ride it a couple times to get a baseline. Then you can track the effects of position and equipment changes. If your times are slower or you are noticeably more uncomfortable after a change, then you can stop and revisit your last change.

Assuming you frame works with your position, it is usually the worst bang for the buck upgrade. You can go pretty fast on a mediocre frame.

Great idea with the timed bike portion and make adjustments, thanks.

I will post some pics later tonight to show my current positioning on bike.

Thanks again

Yes, because it will give you improvement. But, set the cost and return in context with other potential investments. This is a very handy chart to help give you some rough order of magnitude guidelines.

The "Aero Frame" at the bottom are both considered TT frames, but the tubing design is different. You are on an aero road frame, which is something different. Road frame geometries are different from TT frame geometries, so your final optimized position on your Kestrel may not be as good as it could be on a true TT frame, so you have that intangible to consider in addition to just the pure aero advantage of a true TT frame.

If you found a good value on a used frame and did the conversion yourself, then in my opinion, it is worth it. I would do this before spending too much effort buying parts to optimize position on the Talon, because the expenditures could be throw-away.

But big picture: If you are just getting into tri, and you have nothing, then I would get a good tri suit and aero helmet first. Then wheels or frame upgrade would be my toss-up for second. Mainly because you likely be buying a combo of aero bars, stem, and TT saddle along with the frame for a net massive gain over your current setup.

Thanks exxxviii, that chart is very helpful. I do currently have carbon aerobars in the profile design cx3.

The geometry is what I was worried about the most with it being an aero road bike oppose to a pure tri bike. I also really don't know the true position to be so wouldn't be sure if I was able to get in correct position or not. Hopefully the pictures will help later today.

I think these are the true keys to drive to "worth it." If you get a good fit, independent of your bike, that will tell you your ideal position. Then, layer that onto your current bike-- what would it take to get your bike to that position (new seatpost with a forward offset, very short or long stem, stem with an extreme angle to get to the right height, very short or tall pad pedestals, etc.) If the parts needed to arrive at your fit seem extreme or costly, then you are probably better going with a new frame that fits you. And, it will have the side benefits of being faster than your original just because.

I was able to upload a pic I had on my phone of bike.


I thought you'd want to get sized on the bike you would be using?

The "Fit" most folks think of here is bike agnostic. The idea is that you go to a fitter who works with you to establish a position that is optimized for you. Then, you could implement that fit on any bike, and it would probably be different from what you have now on that bike. So, you would not go in by duplicating your current bike's configuration, since there is a inherent assumption here that you could improve your position & fit that your current bike may not easily support.