Well... I don't think your seat's too high! What do people who actually know about this sort of thing think?
...

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"I'm going to stick to my sardines" - Cassidy
"Others took their lemons and stood up and walked." - Kestrelkerri
"I will never know quite why I set out on the run. I guess because it was next." - Nachocheese
"No, just to people on the Forum. My athletes are the control group." - Paulo Sousa
" Actually, I am naturally an Asshole....not unlike the way you are naturally an idiot." IRONLOBO

Your outfit doesn't match.

Ok besides my outfit (been using the same shorts last 4 yrs)....any useful feedback?

I'd suggest taking the spacers out to give you a bigger drop and lower position. Also, aero helmet. They are cheap and give you more benefit than aero wheels. Why everyone doesn't use them baffles me. So what if they look dorky.

don't listen to the "you need more drop" crap. You need to be comfortable. Maybe take it down a bit at a time, but its not necessary. Also, seat does look low to me.

I would go and spend the money on a professioanl fit. If you can afford zip discs you can afford the fit which is much more important.

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"ah-hem...the time is yours."

a lot o water(food) on there for a 70.3, use the aid stations and save weight and more aero.

If you've been using the same shorts for 4 years, my "useful feedback" would be to check in a mirror. Mine get somewhat sheer after one season, so I'm guessing that you're giving quite a show to those behind you ;-)

Exactly! For a 1/2IM you need one cage with a Gatorade bottle in it. NOTHING else. Two cages, an aerobottle and GUs on the top tube is way too much even for an Ironman.

hard to tell from that angle, but it seems that your elbows are a little tight and might be constricting your chest...Is that a comfortable position?

...and thats a nice bike!

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my twitter feed

Those are wheel covers on old Zipps, and I do not know of a tri-bike fitter in Puerto Rico....but excellent point I will take my bike with me on my next trip to the mainland. In the meantime will get as close as possible on my own....just got a gonionmeter on the mail so I can actually check angles.

I wouldn't go that far. As someone who just had to do a half with no nutrition with me and only one stop on the St. Croix course with anything other than water and gatorade let me promise you that the pitiful weight penalty you pay by having your nutrition with you is far outweighed by the fact that your run is going to suck balls if you've not been able to take anything in.

Also two water bottles works out nicely on a course like that with so many rough roads and where you have to run over those 10 or 12 speed bumps and it's bottle launch city. Riding with no water and no nutrition is not a good way to do things.

Your fit and being able to stay in aero position while riding including descending and climbing and drinking is more important than the weight stuff. Worry about where you can ride comfortably for that long. To be a little less aero by being higher up in front is a lot better than having to sit up over and over and absolutely blowing your aero because your back is twisted to the high heavens later in the race. The earlier poster was spot on that you can remove those spacers slowly as you become more used to riding bent over all the time.

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-Andrew Saar
It is better to do the right thing and be paid poorly,
than to do the wrong thing and be rewarded richly.

Hi allona,

I think you could raise your seat up a bit, not much though. Probably just fine as it is now.

If you are looking to get more aero, you could start to remove spacers (as others have mentioned), or alternatively, you could turn your stem upside down. This will change the rise angle of the stem, getting you a little bit lower.

I love your frame! I think that is one of the best-looking bikes to come out in a while. Did yours come with the Real Design wheels? Did you get rid of them? I think they are great wheels, but I think a lot of people were bummed about having to take a set of race wheels with their bike. Personally, I'd love to have a set of those (especially b/c they matched the bike), but I bet the Zipps are nice also.

I will echo what others have mentioned -- focus on comfort first, especially for your upcoming IMFL. You look comfortable on your bike in the picture, so don't wreck that in favor of a pure aero approach.

Best of luck, congrats on a fine day in STX!

mm

You smashed in ST Croix!!!!

"I'm not putting in the hours, I'm not sure about my form...."

Sandbagger !!!!!

Dude, I swear to God I thought I was going to suck. I could only get in about 8-10hrs per week and only did 3 outdoor rides before St Croix and the fastest was 18mph. Honest. Everything else was trainer. It was freaky, my legs just didn't get tired, can't explain it. Felt way better than LP last year on less training. Makes absolutely no sense but I'll take it.

Looks like I'll be joining you for beers at LP.

You have to do St Croix. How about next year. I want a rematch!

The priority should be the weight loss, seriously. Do the math and you'll see that the Watts/Kg ratio will improve so much more dramatically if you drop 6-7 kilos than if you bump up your seat, lower your bars, or whatever.

The body position looks fine where it is. It will be much harder & require much more focus -- and deliver much more benefit -- to drop the weight.

I do bike fittings, and I wouldn't lower the front end on your bike. Your hip angle and low back position already look tight. Lowering the front end will make it very difficult for you to stay comfortably aero for 112 flat miles on the IMF course. I echo the elbow pad width comment. You look like a broad-shouldered athlete. The elbow pads should keep your elbow width at shoulder width, not in tight. You want to direct the airflow around your knees, not into them. Are you comfortable in the position. Be sure that you are making the bike fit you and your flexibility, not some preconceived notion of what "aero" should be. You don't look far off now. Just a few tweaks could me you possibly more comfortable. I recommend paying for the bike fit. Dial it in so you can train solid on that position through the summer. Good luck with training and IMF.

Daryl

Don't worry about the spacers in the front right now. Just get your seat up to where it needs to be and the net effect will be the same as lowering the front.

I got a goniometer on the mail earlier this wk and did some knee angle measurements last night, I was at 140 deg! So your feedback (and a few other guys feedback) was dead on. I had fitted myself using my measurments from a professional roadbike fit I had done last yr.....I just confirmed it does not translate to a tri-bike fit. So I ended up raising the saddle up 1 cm to get to 150 deg knee angle, and it just feels much better now....will do some riding this evening. 1 cm is a huge change, so I might drop it down some and bring up gradually. Raising the saddle 1 cm gets me an drop to the pads of 8 cm, so I am getting there, will play with removing spacers as soon as I am good with the change in saddle height.

This is my first true tri-bike, and I love it, aero rocks and I know I can tweak it a bit more. It took me a while to get used to the position. It does get a little scary on fast descend though, specially bumpy ones....but this should not be an issue in IMFL. I got the bike without the wheels, I already had the Zipps and the local shop worked out nicely with me. I heard the Real Design Wheels have had some issues and that QR is now fitting Zipps with the Caliente, don't know how much of this is true though.

Dead-on feedback! thanks

Thanks, IMFL is flat so don't know how much more beneficial it will be on the bike, but on for the run it will be huge benefit. My goals is 15 lbs loss in 6 months, should be doable.....

Daryl,

I had a hard time thinking I could just take out spacers, before my post in the forum I was thinking of moving the saddle fwd first using the QR "shuttle" hardware to open up the hip angle. But now that I realized the saddle needed to go up I will hold-off any other changes until I have adapted to the new saddle height.

On the pad width, I have been opening them up gradually, initially I was getting shoulder fatigue/pain, which is now gone...but I could probably open them up a bit more to gain additional comfort, 112 in the aero position is a long time to be aero.

What state are you located?

Antonio

 
I've been using this calc to approximate power and whatnot:

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

It's not a bad tool to show how factors, like weight, effect speed.

Just remember that when you move the seat up, you are moving the seat back too, so check your distance to the bars too. So you liking the Caliente. I just go the Seduza, which has the same frame. Ive only got a few hundred miles on it, but so far I love it. I was on a road bike with aero bars before and this is way more comfy. I haven't had the courage to post the "how's my position" photos yet.

I've had a few of those days too.. you just want to package them up, duplicate everything you did, and save it for later. It just doesn't seem to go that way, unfortunately.

I'd love to do St Croix, its on my "must do" list as well as IM Canada and Roth. I'm not sure about next year work-wise, but if I can, I'll be there. Don't worry about spanking me, I won't even be in that time zone (4:40ish)!

The beers are going to be so cold and plentiful in LP.