Having worked in a bike shop for longer than I care to admit, being the president of our university tri-team, and fit more people on both road and tri bikes than enough ( but not as much as dan :) ) I can tell you that you should get the road bike first. Then you have something to train on, race at first on, and when you get a nicer bike, something to still train on. Plus it is a lot more likely that you will stick with cycling even if triathlon doesn't pan out if you invest in a road bike now. Not saying that you won't love it, but you can always ride road on a road bike, the same cannot be said for a tri bike.

tommy

Here's a good article, by Tom Demerly, that covers some of the pros and cons of road bikes vs. tri bikes:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/difference.shtml

Another thought is to consider a bike like the Cervelo Soloist which can be used as a road bike or tri bike. See Tom's review here:

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/soloist.shtml

By the way, I don't own a Cervelo (yet) and don't work for Bikesport.

Richard

Norm, a good point was made about buying a road bike, and then you can use it for road riding. That is fine if you really like biking. My opinion differs slightly, though. Having gone from a road bike to a tribike I couldn't be happier. (Well, actually if I'd gone for a nice $6,000 kinda ride I would be.) One study(which is entirely debatable) stated that riders coming off of a tri-bike averaged about 1-minute a mile faster in the run, than, say using a regular road bike. However, if you are a strong runner it won't make near as much difference. But my recomendation would be to get fitted on both and see which is more comfortable in the long run. After all, its the motor, not the machine.

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I don't work here, I just live here

Are you bringing your tri team to the Collegiate National Championships this year in Phoenix Az. on April 26th?

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