I have no problems recommending a rear zip, sleeveless model.

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Also my favorite for Oly and shorter

What is the material of these aero tri kits or are they all the same ? Or is the fit more important ? Help the new guy out. I know all about $400 tech suits for swimming but know nothing about tri clothing.

My pref. is a sleeveless with an UnderArmour long sleeve top over it. The skin-tight top provides most of the aero gains (covering hair/skin on the arms and shoulders/lats), is easy to swim in under a wetsuit (all my races are wetsuit-legal), isn't hot on the bike, and pulls off in two seconds in T2.

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Not all the same. But, yes, fit is very important. I find the Kiwami WS1 rear zip to be very hydrophobic and tight-fitting so I think it is among, if not the best for short course. It has a more "papery" feel than most suits which are softer in feel, but seem to soak up, rather than repel water.

Fit is important as well as the materials, which makers pretty much keep proprietary. They are not all the same. What do you mean by $400 "tech" suits for swimming. If its a $400 suit, I'm assuming you are referring to a tri suit...made to be worn not just for swimming but the entire race?

No I was referencing swimming only tech suits. My daughter is a swimmer and they wear ridiculously expensive suits that only last two meets and the suit is so tight it takes 20 minutes and two people helping to put it on. Those suits there really is no difference in the material used by the major players its a compression fabric treated to be water repellant.

The tri suits it appears they are not as easy to compare to each other. My problem is fit because I am 5 10 and 200+ right now. I think I will just wait to see if I can get down to a low enough weight to actual fit into the height weight chart.

Check out the pearl izumi pro Tri sprint suit. I liked the one from a year or so ago. It has a ton of stretch and should fit a wide variety of body types.

You will have to any suit on for fit.

YMMV

Keep in mind where you are racing. By ITU rules, which are applied in many jurisdictions outside of the US, any sort of sleeved tri-suits are illegal for anything shorter than middle distance (i.e. 70.3) so for sort course, they would be illegal. And for middle and long distance, they are illegal during non-wetsuit swims...

It's worth reminding, because we had a US based athlete show up to a race in Canada last year with a sleeved suit for an olympic distance event, and he had to cut the sleeves off of his suit (since he preferred that to buying a sleeveless suit at the expo and racing it the next day without trying it...)...

I checked out the Izumi site and I realized I can just wear a two piece L bottoms and XL top. With how fat the rest of America is the sizing charts of tri clothing really threw me off

If you go the two piece route then you can always check out 2XU and mix and match at a prettty reasonable price point.

I might suggest also checking out Kiwami......just bought two kits from them....looks like they still have a sale going on. Andre is very knowledgeable and is a frequent contributor here. The nice thing about them is they'll send you samples to try on so you can confirm the best size.

I race primarily Olympic and Sprint distance events... I use rear zip kits with no sleeves. I'm picky about fit and comfort and have found the Kiwami stuff to be my favorite to date.

Agree.

Kiwami's rear zip trisuit is all I race in if I have a choice. Next choice is the TYR rear zip suits.

I'll reply here because it is roughly the same topic. I race almost exclusively short course, and have two suits I have used for racing: a Castelli two piece (with hardware on the back to connect the top to the shorts so it doesn't ride up), and a TYR sleeveless rear zip suit. I feel like the TYR should be faster because it's tighter, but the Castelli is supremely comfortable and I've always had my best races in it.

It feels to me that the one-piece suit puts pressure on my glutes while in aero and might be causing some loss of power. I haven't done any testing to date, and I'm tall so it could just be a fit issue (most companies don't make stuff for tall skinny people, they assume everyone tall is also thicker). Has anyone else noticed any issues with loss of power in a one-piece suit? Is that even something that makes sense in terms of physiology (that pressure from stretched fabric could inhibit the efficiency of the glutes while bent over in aero)?

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Tulkas wrote:

I'll reply here because it is roughly the same topic. I race almost exclusively short course, and have two suits I have used for racing: a Castelli two piece (with hardware on the back to connect the top to the shorts so it doesn't ride up), and a TYR sleeveless rear zip suit. I feel like the TYR should be faster because it's tighter, but the Castelli is supremely comfortable and I've always had my best races in it.
It feels to me that the one-piece suit puts pressure on my glutes while in aero and might be causing some loss of power. I haven't done any testing to date, and I'm tall so it could just be a fit issue (most companies don't make stuff for tall skinny people, they assume everyone tall is also thicker). Has anyone else noticed any issues with loss of power in a one-piece suit? Is that even something that makes sense in terms of physiology (that pressure from stretched fabric could inhibit the efficiency of the glutes while bent over in aero)?

I've used a few suits over the past 5-6 years, including two-piece front zip and a few one piece, rear zip.....preferred the sleeveless, rear zip, one piece for short course events. Never had the problem you are referring to....just possibly might be the particular suit you are using and how it fits? Don't know......but again, I've not experienced that issue with any of my one piece suits.