A proper fit/position is always the most return on your investment regardless of the bike.

Besides the fit suggestion....fast tires and latex tubes. No down tube or behind the seat water bottles, no flat kit, no bento box....nothing except one bta water bottle and maybe a gel taped to stem or top tube. .

seat tube motor.

How much time do you think you lose over 40k with a standard water bottle on the down tube and nonlatex tires (separately and/or collectively)?

Get a good cockpit just because it looks cool.

I'm thinking about getting a p2 or p3 (they are pretty much the same aren't they except for groupsets?), and getting the USE Tula or R1.

From what I gather, this can make a p2/p3 superbike worthy?

Many threads on this topic, lots of good ideas.

I just did this with my p2c.

DEFINITELY cockpit upgrade. The stock cockpit on my P2c as well as the P2s, are, well vanilla boring.

Unfortunately, cockpits cost a lot, especially the integrated aerobars/stems.

Because my bike is circa 2009, and I'm not an aeroweenie squeezing every last iota of speed out of my setup, I actually took a gamble and bought some chinese carbon no-name aerobars and matching base bar and installed them myself (which is a whole nother story, learned a lot, but you basically have to recable the whole bike.)

They don't even sell these aerobars/base bar anymore ,but luckily, they look and work absolutely great - much more 'pro' looking that the Vision stock aerobar that my p2c came with ,and I also could achieve a lower front position with it. The looks along of the glossy curved carbon with graphics are worth it to me, but seems like my performance is going fine as well as I won my AG in 2 local tris largely on the strength of my bike split, which was PR territory for me despite not training anywhere near as hard as I have in the past.

Bur yeah, if you go with a major bike manufacturer for the aerobar/basebar combo, it'll likely be at least $350 for parts alone, and it goes up FAST from there. (My carbon aerobars+basebar ran $140 together, a heck of a lot cheaper but I did install it myself.)

This is what I did to my P2...

Duraace 11 speed groupset
Profile design prosvet basebar
FC35 carbon armrests
Ceegees pads
T4 carbon extensions
tririg sigma stem
tririg omni front brake
Profile carbon levers
latex tubes
Conti GPTT tyres
80/60mm wide carbon wheels

All in an ongoing effort to prevent myself buying a new bike. It's working so far...

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How much did that all cost you? Honestly, if I were going to invest all that, I'd be seriously just considering buying a whole new bike!

I think you might be overestimating what the parts cost and underestimating what a new bike costs.

Am I? I added prices to the main items below excluding wheels/tires, and it's at LEAST $2105 there. That, said, that's good stuff - you could buy a new entry level tribike (can definitely get a used recent-gen Cervelo p2 for that much) with $2100-2300 but you won't get DA, tririg, etc.

Duraace 11 speed groupset $1200
Profile design prosvet basebar $220
FC35 carbon armrests
Ceegees pads
T4 carbon extensions $160
tririg sigma stem $240
tririg omni front brake $185
Profile carbon levers $100

latex tubes
Conti GPTT tyres
80/60mm wide carbon wheels

Are you saying that rather than upgrade an entry level P2, you would have spent that money on buying another entry level P2?

That doesn't seem like a very worthwhile exercise.

There is a whole thread on upgrading p2s. Search for "can i see pictures of your blue and white p2

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...nd_blue)_P5171780-5/

If you buy a P2 on sale for 2200 or so you can make a great bike for 4 k as shown in this link.

For 5 k you can have a great PM, great wheels, and a nice drivetrain. I am pretty convinced it is the best way to buy a bike, I really dont get the 4 to 5 k retail price points because you still dont get a bike with a power meter or good wheels. By paying more than a basic P2 all you get is a slightly nicer drivetrain and you will still need to upgrade everything else.

No, I'm saying that if you're actually going to go so all-in on upgrades that you're spending pretty near the equivalent of an entire-current-gen P2 (and definitely spending more than what your older-gen P2 is worth currently), you might want to seriously consider going all in and sell your old P2 and spend up a little more for a new tribike at $4-5k.

I only upgraded my cockpit because I could do it for <$500. I'd feel a lot differently about upgrading my 2009 P2c if it was going to cost $2k+ to do the upgrades - I'd be looking at new bikes at that point

This.

Basically P2 + $2000 = P5

You said it way better than I did.

Exactly...if you have any relationship with a local cervelo dealer...you can do much better than getting a P2, then spending $2,000 to upgrade...I actually just got a brand new 2014 P5...DI2...for less than a P2 and 2,000 in upgrades...there might not be many sizes left now...but over the last month...Cervelo had a bunch of older model P5's on closeout...

bento box and the right bottle on the downtube can improve aerodynamics

I think he's saying rather than spending 2 Grand on a P2 and then another 2 Grand and upgrades, why not buy a $4,000 bike

If you already own expensive wheels and a powermeter?

---

'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Couple of reasons I guess. Firstly, a P2 with $2k of upgrades is better than what you can get for $4k here. Especially back in 2013 when a P5 would have cost nearer $8-$10k. Secondly and most importantly, $2k + another $2k spread over 3 years is a lot easier to get budgetary signoff for.

Besides, I didn't spend $2k on upgrades. $1.2k would be closer to the mark.

For the first tri bike and assuming you dont have wheels or a PM, it might go like this.


If I were doing my P2 over again and I just wanted to focus on the essentials I would do 3 things: Rotor Power2Max crank ($700), Hed Jet + wheels ($900), conti tires, latex tubes ($100) and a Vision base bar that has the brake cable ports much closer to the stem ($200 for carbon). The rest of the drivetrain is not necessarily going to make anyone faster.

When you look at their website it is almost as if Cervelo makes the base bar brake cable routing look ridiculous just to get people to buy a P3. For $60 you can buy an alloy vision base bar that cleans up the brake cable a lot.

So for around 4 K you have a fully capable no excuses race machine, you also took at least a pound off the bike in the process. You also can keep your Shimano 500 wheels / tires as trainers, they are not worth re-selling. I am also assuming you go to best mail order sources for pricing and you can do your own wrenching.

But so many others choose to buy a $4000 P3 / Felt /Speed Concept as their first tri bike and all they have to show is maybe ultegra Di2. Prices for those may be coming down though because of the softening in the tri market. This is the first I had heard of the 2014 P5 close out.

ok, let's be clear...is this the new version of the P2 or old version?