What you think is ugly, I may find beautiful.

---

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

I walked this path about 12 months ago when I bought a bike. The quick nut is that "affordable" gets thrown out the window pretty quickly. The Felt B14 is affordable, and if you live in country where they offer the B16, then that is very affordable. And, it is pretty decent looking. That was my baseline when I began shopping. So, I would vote for the B14/B16 as nice looking and affordable.

I like minimalism...

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Shiv?

The QR Kilo is another very good bike for the price

Sounds like you're just making a statement based off of the top of line bikes when most brands still offer more entry level. Cervelo P3s are great bike and not out of this world expensive or the Shiv as mentioned. I was going to say the Shit TT for your minimalist taste but I just checked it and it is a bit high just for a frame. I am sure the Speed Concept still have entry level models.

BMC Time Machine 02 105 is a great entry level bike that has served me really well. It is ready for Di2, EPS, or eTap. It has a lot of great features with a rather traditional frame style.

the kilo is kinda on the ugly side though.

I did see the PR series of bikes on the site though, they look nice.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I think you can get a bike like the Cervelo P2 in the mid-$2000's.

The bikes beyond the P2 and the P3 are better - the wind-tunnel numbers don't lie, but we are talking minimal gains. The ill-placement of one water-bottle on the bike, can wipe those gains out. Or a a poor helmet choice and a bib number flapping in the wind! Or bad choice of hand/arm position our front! . . an so on.

If you go all-in aero with everything else, with some of the lower priced bikes that, are pretty good (and don't forget until the last round of super-bikes the P3 was the Gold-Standard) you'll not be that far behind!

---

---

Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

If Trek still made the Speed Concept 2.5 and just went with a simple all-black color scheme with 105 components for ~$1500 they'd sell boat-loads of them.

Alas, this is not the case :/

I don't find something like this 2012-gen bike hideous:

2012 Kestrel Pro $1399

As an off-topic aside, I've been getting into maintaining my long-neglected 2008 Cervelo P2C - it took a LOT of internet youtube videos and websites/forum research to figure it all out, but I'm coming along nicely - I actually now look at the "Park tool Advanced" toolset and think "That's not advanced at all!" which is amazing to me since just last month, a tire change was about all I could handle as a wrench.

I've been since a bit horrified with all the compatibility issues one runs into when trying to do something as simple as install current-gen Shimano 105 on a bike. You'd think it should be automatic, that any recent-gen bike should be able to do instantly. But no, there are different bottom bracket standards, apparently Cervelo went from the screw-in Hollowtech BBs (that I like, since I can pull 'em out and clean them) to a press-fit less serviceable BBRight so you can't just stick a cheap ultegra BB in there.

If I do buy a next bike (unlikely now) it HAS to have easily user-removable parts, including the BB.

The Diamondback Serios - as a complete bike - is a steal for a really fantastic bike. If you don't need/want the parts, it's not a great option (no frameset only). But if you do, hard to beat the price and quality.

---

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I wouldn't call any of the SC's entry level, I think they start around 4K. I'd also prefer frame only, but that's asking a lot these days.

The new P2 / P3 is ugly as sin. The proportions look funky to me, I don't like how the cabling is run, the seatpost isn't very good looking. If you are gonna run derailleur cables behind the stem, run the brake cable there too! I like the old P2 and P3. Don't like the current one.

The QR PRthree looks like it might be OK, but i've never seen one in person.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

never even thought of BMC. Buddy of mine has one, he likes it and it does look good.

no idea what the prices are though.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I paid $2,500 for mine, totally stock. I don't know what you consider affordable, but that is pretty cheap for a carbon tri bike based on my research. There are cheaper, but I didn't like them when I test rode them, specifically the Cannondale Slice.

Is sub-$3000 what is considered affordable nowadays?

I think that's where the market is.

I really miss the days when you could buy an aluminium frame for $1000-ish. Those days appear to be gone, which means I won't be getting anything new for a while...

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I agree that triathlon/TT bikes seem to be at a kind of crossroads. There are divergent paths between increasing complexity and more wild innovation (or "innovation" if you're jaded) and more conventional design. I kind of miss the days like 10 years ago when you could just go buy a Cervelo P3C and you were good. And it was pretty much as easy to maintain as any bike, and had a minimum of proprietary gee-gaws.

But to answer your question, I'm waiting for final details on the new Cannondale. Which appears like it'll be minimalist, good-looking, and hopefully has decent aero performance. Just keeping my fingers cross that it has a rim brake option. (If you're listening, Cannondale, please have a rim brake option). The Canyon TT bikes also look good.

I think you can still get an alloy frame-only for $1000.

The groupset alone though, costs near $400 for shimano 105, which is the typical starting entry point for TT bikes.

The Trek SC 7.0 is $2,999. Not necessarily entry level, but also not 4k.

---

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

My wife still has her turn of the century era aluminium Cervelo P2K which she bought new. Its been to Kona, Australia, Mt. Tremblant and a zillion local area sprints and served her well. She feels no need to replace it. I sold mine years ago. Wish I still had it.

$4k on Trek's People's Republik of Canuckistan site...

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I'm on a P2SL (black). I just wish it were a slightly longer frame and neater cable routing.

Inexpensive custom options?

Mine...

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Many affordable tri bikes and frames can be found here: https://www.mybikeshop.com/...constraint=Triathlon