that isn't at all correct.

wind resistance exists at any distance.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

How important is it to you to go as fast as possible on these tris? If you're mostly concerned with improving your PR, sticking with the road bike is fine. If you want to get as high up the rankings as you can, a tri bike will get you higher than a road bike... but if you have back issues on the run, I'd be hesitant to suggest hunching over in the aero position.

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Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. -Enzo Ferrari

If you have enough money to consider race wheels like Zipp, i'd recommend that you get a tri bike first. You would stand to gain more time from a tri bike than a set of wheels.

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Paul..

The best advice I've seen on here is to search the forum - there are bound to be tons of good posts about tribike v. roadbike, with facts and figures and maybe a few opinions. Ditto for wheels. I doubt you'll get the quality of response to this post that you'll find in previous ones, simply because the topics have been discussed so often.

Personally, I'd get some cheap aerobars and see what you think about riding in that position (followed by running).

I also will be getting a tribike in the near future, assuming no ridiculous home/ car disasters occur fwiw.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

If you check the latest slowtwitch poll only 10% are using a tri bike exclusively. 74% of us ride our road bikes quite a lot, probably more often than the tri bike. So don't get rid of the road bike just to own a tri bike. The road bike is far more versatile and IMO a tri bike is strictly a second bike to be used for racing and some of your training. Most of the top pros do a significant amount of training on their road bikes. How experienced are you in cycling. If you're also new to cycling then you should keep the road bike and do group rides with roadies to improve your bike handling skills. For sprints, a road bike with clips works fine.

As for the wheels, you don't have to spend a fortune. A $100 disc cover from wheelbuilder.com is as aero as any other disc. Take your pick on a front wheel, but as a newbie stay under 60mm depth due to twitchy characteristics of deeper rims on windy days.

I rode only a tri bike for the past 3 years, and finally got sick of it. I finally decided that if I could only have 1 bike, then a road bike was best for me. I race for fun and not really to place high in the rankings. I converted my 2007 Kuota K-Factor to a road bike, and haven't looked back. A tri bike is absolutely faster than a roadie, no question about that, but that didn't matter as much to me as the 99% of riding where I'm not racing (i.e. group rides, etc.). I would keep your roadie for now, and save up for a tri bike as an additional purchase (that's what I'm doing now).

If you check the latest slowtwitch poll only 10% are using a tri bike exclusively. 74% of us ride our road bikes quite a lot.

I like the polls on here, but this is one of the polls on here that I really question if it represents in any way the real triathlon market or even the market on ST - 75% of the Slowtwitch triathletes own and ride road bikes that much??

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Specifically for your back issues, I would say stay away from a true tri bike.

"What's your preferred non-tri bike to use for training?"
Agreed - this one can be interpreted multiple ways given the choices- If you ride a tri-bike 95% of the time and a road bike 5% of the time, you would have chosen road bike as an answer. The only way a tri-bike gets chosen is if you ride it 100% of the time.

A interesting poll might be: For those who primarily race triathlon: What bike do you do most of your training on?

I'd guess the road bike % would drop from 74%

kinda depends on the issue, a tri bike might even be MORE comfy

and there is always titanflex

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I'm no doubt 100% faster racing on my Tri bike than I am my road bike. That being said, if I could only have one bike in the basement the tri bike would be the first one to go.

I'm one of the guys that does the majority of my riding on my Road bike. If I'm getting ready for race I'll spend a few days or weeks on my Tri bike to get ready, but for the rest of the time I'm grabbing the roadie off the wall to go riding. I'd have to look at my log, but of the 3500 miles I put in since the first of the year training for IMC I put probably 2000-2500 of them on my road bike.

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This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. - Fight Club
Industry Brat.

I did a season on my old specialized roubaix that I had tweened for my at FitWerx in Peabody, MA. Most people think just tossing a pair of aero bars on gets you where you need to be and if you are going to drop a few grand on a set of fancy wheel you could spend the few hundred on getting a properly fitted bike.

My 2 cents in order of what you should do is -

1- Go to a reputable shop and drop the few hundred on getting a bike fitting, typically they will apply some of the money to a new bike. Also decide if you want your road bike fitted for road racing or fitted for close to tri or skip all of that, keep the road bike the way it is and get fitted for a new tri bike. Everyone gets hot and bothered over brands of bike but the best one is the one that fits
2- if you want aero bars buy used sine a new tri bike will most likely come with them also any tri modifications to your road bike will probably include a forward seat post so between the fitting and the bars and seat post you are already ~$400 or so into it.
3- Keep the road bike and at some point buy the tri bike and the last thing to spend money on imo is a set of wheels.

Cerveloguy gives some great advice.

Even when I was training for IM, I only did 1 ride a week on my tri bike. After that season was over, the road bike got used 5+ times a week and the tri bike sat and I rode it maybe once a month. Eventually I decided to buy another road bike for crit racing and due to space issues, the tri bike had to go.

Tri bikes are great for racing triathlons and TT's. They're subpar for everything else.