I'm with slowman in thinking that budding triathletes ought to start with a road bike, as you have. But once you move to a tri-bike, keeping the road bike is key. As soon as you would get rid of the bike, you'd regret it. Off-season slow and easy is always more comfortable on a road bike, whether on a trainer or on the road. If you only use a trainer for scheduled, hard or "breakthrough" type workouts, then you ought to ride the tri-bike, otherwise, the road bike is just as appropriate, and keeps the wear and tear off your main bike. And mountains aren't nearly as fun and definitely not as friendly on a tri-bike. Beyond that, turning your road bike into a commuter bike is a great way to get in more riding and save on gas too.

But if none of those reasons appeal to you to keep your road bike around, then I highly recommend donating it to a local junior cyclist or triathlete, especially one less fortunate. I've given two old bikes away to young kids. To this day they both credit me and those bikes with giving them an option to running the streets. One of them is quite good and routinely finishes on crit podiums. He's long since moved on from the Centurion Ironman bike. He gave it to his young cousin, who is still milking it for every last mile! I'm not trying to toot my own horn. I will just say that experiences like this are far more valuable to me than any race i've ever won. You might even say they're priceless. All for the small cost of a bike that was gathering dust in the storage unit.

Tom -

I would suggest not getting rid of your old bike. You never can tell when it may come in handy in the future. Maybe you'll find a road group that you want to ride with; maybe you'll use it as a commuter bike; maybe you'll want to change it to a fixed gear bike; maybe you'll want to put fenders on it and use it when it's raining.

In any case, using it with a trainer is reason enough to keep it. I've found that training in the "road" position is immediately transferable and beneficial to racing the "tri" position.

I would also suggest keeping your old bike for sentimental reasons. Just think of all the good times you've had on that bike. How can you get rid of it? I had three low quality bikes in grade school, middle school, and high school that I sold. I wish I still had them. I'll never get rid of another bike.

I just went through the same situation. Got a new P2K so I decided to change my road bike's stem length and lower the seat so that my girlfriend could use it when she wants. Of course, this nearly never happens and I can no longer ride my road bike. I didn't realize I would miss STi shifting so much. The bike is at the shop as we speak getting the stem changed over to a front loading version so that I can substitute the shorter for the longer without taking off the bar tape. That way when she wants to ride I can set it up for her, but I can still ride a road bike in groups. The mechanic says the shifting might be less than perfect, but should work. Bottom line is that I learned that without a road bike I was less happy with my riding options. The P2K does rock though.