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Re: Training on your race bike? [Remco] [ In reply to ]
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While training I'm riding through all sorts for stuff on the road.

I don't need to worry about glass, wire, cuts etc.. in my tires on race day.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Remco] [ In reply to ]
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Remco wrote:
In the fall and winter i ride my MTB on singletracs in the woods in the weekends and in the evenings i do a spinning class and a workout on the trainer.

I have never owned a tri bike up untill recently. Am planning my schedule where i ride my roadbike twice a week during group rides and one ride solo on my tri bike.

People here mention that they have seperate wheels for training and for racing. Why is that?
there are threee reasons I've come across:
  1. Don't want to risk damage or wear on best equipment during training. Want to save it for the race.
  2. Want to use fast tyre option in races but not happy with their durability and/or cost for training. So keep fast tyres on race wheels and use training wheels with something more durable mounted.
  3. Want to feel faster on race day, so intentionally make their bike feel worse the rest of the time. For example some fit Gatorskins, and butyl tubes specifically to make the bike slower.

I don't subscribe to any of those 3 ideas. I use the same gear for training that I race in. I spend most of my time training. Why wouldn't I spend it using my best stuff? I like to go fast and I like supple, grippy tyres.
I do some things differently in training, for comfort or practicality, like using a standard road helmet or bringing along more water bottles....

Item 1 above, I sort of understand but think it's kinda silly except in really bad conditions. If I was going to be too cautious to use and enjoy it, I wouldn't buy it.
I think item 2 is reasonable but it seems a bit of a sacrifice.
Item 3 seems totally ridiculous to me.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Tri-Banter] [ In reply to ]
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Tri-Banter wrote:
I have 2 bikes, 1 tri bike and 1 road bike. The roadie stays in the rafters for all but maybe 4 total rides throughout the year. Pretty much all of my riding, indoors or outdoors, is done on my tri bike. I just like it better.

I'm the polar opposite. I have a nice tri bike, but have ended up spending the majority of my time on my low end aluminum frame road bike. This is mostly attributable to my preference for group rides (where aerobars are generally frowned upon and not safe in a pace line).

"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]
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Ai_1 wrote:
Remco wrote:
In the fall and winter i ride my MTB on singletracs in the woods in the weekends and in the evenings i do a spinning class and a workout on the trainer.

I have never owned a tri bike up untill recently. Am planning my schedule where i ride my roadbike twice a week during group rides and one ride solo on my tri bike.

People here mention that they have seperate wheels for training and for racing. Why is that?

there are threee reasons I've come across:
  1. Don't want to risk damage or wear on best equipment during training. Want to save it for the race.
  2. Want to use fast tyre option in races but not happy with their durability and/or cost for training. So keep fast tyres on race wheels and use training wheels with something more durable mounted.
  3. Want to feel faster on race day, so intentionally make their bike feel worse the rest of the time. For example some fit Gatorskins, and butyl tubes specifically to make the bike slower.

I don't subscribe to any of those 3 ideas. I use the same gear for training that I race in. I spend most of my time training. Why wouldn't I spend it using my best stuff? I like to go fast and I like supple, grippy tyres.
I do some things differently in training, for comfort or practicality, like using a standard road helmet or bringing along more water bottles....

Item 1 above, I sort of understand but think it's kinda silly except in really bad conditions. If I was going to be too cautious to use and enjoy it, I wouldn't buy it.
I think item 2 is reasonable but it seems a bit of a sacrifice.
Item 3 seems totally ridiculous to me.


Agreed, I decided to use everything to enjoy as much as I can the training sessions outside.
I tested my new wheels with news tires this weekend, I never enjoyed destroying my legs as much. Can't wait for the next session.

I don't care if my wheels last a bit less or If I have to buy a new set of tires before the race, I spend 300H/year training and 10 to 20H in race, that would be a waste to keep the best stuff for 5% of the time.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Remco] [ In reply to ]
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Remco wrote:
In the fall and winter i ride my MTB on singletracs in the woods in the weekends and in the evenings i do a spinning class and a workout on the trainer.

I have never owned a tri bike up untill recently. Am planning my schedule where i ride my roadbike twice a week during group rides and one ride solo on my tri bike.

People here mention that they have seperate wheels for training and for racing. Why is that?

Roads around here are crap. An unseen pothole will destroy a rim. Might as well be a cheap one rather than an expensive one.

Training in bad weather, many carbon rims fill with water. It can be a pain to get out.

I don’t find race wheels to be any more enjoyable than training wheels. They’re just marginally faster, but I can still go plenty fast on my training hoops.

I’m cheap. I ride cheap durable tires in training and on the turbo trainer. I’ll get several years out of a set of race tires.

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: Training on your race bike? [strangename] [ In reply to ]
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strangename wrote:
Agreed, I decided to use everything to enjoy as much as I can the training sessions outside.
I tested my new wheels with news tires this weekend, I never enjoyed destroying my legs as much. Can't wait for the next session.

I don't care if my wheels last a bit less or If I have to buy a new set of tires before the race, I spend 300H/year training and 10 to 20H in race, that would be a waste to keep the best stuff for 5% of the time.

I'm basically the same. my HED wheels are the nicest bit of kit I own, and I enjoy the feeling of being on them. only time they're not on, for the most part, is in winter.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]
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Ai_1 wrote:
Remco wrote:
In the fall and winter i ride my MTB on singletracs in the woods in the weekends and in the evenings i do a spinning class and a workout on the trainer.

I have never owned a tri bike up untill recently. Am planning my schedule where i ride my roadbike twice a week during group rides and one ride solo on my tri bike.

People here mention that they have seperate wheels for training and for racing. Why is that?

there are threee reasons I've come across:
  1. Don't want to risk damage or wear on best equipment during training. Want to save it for the race.
  2. Want to use fast tyre option in races but not happy with their durability and/or cost for training. So keep fast tyres on race wheels and use training wheels with something more durable mounted.
  3. Want to feel faster on race day, so intentionally make their bike feel worse the rest of the time. For example some fit Gatorskins, and butyl tubes specifically to make the bike slower.

I don't subscribe to any of those 3 ideas. I use the same gear for training that I race in. I spend most of my time training. Why wouldn't I spend it using my best stuff? I like to go fast and I like supple, grippy tyres.
I do some things differently in training, for comfort or practicality, like using a standard road helmet or bringing along more water bottles....

Item 1 above, I sort of understand but think it's kinda silly except in really bad conditions. If I was going to be too cautious to use and enjoy it, I wouldn't buy it.
I think item 2 is reasonable but it seems a bit of a sacrifice.
Item 3 seems totally ridiculous to me.
A big reason for me to ride on bombproof wheels with Gatorskins and tire liners is the need to get to work on time when I bike commute. This just about eliminates getting a puncture on my commutes, and I can go at least 3000 miles on a set of tires. (I could leave home 5-10 minutes earlier every day so I'd have time to fix a flat, but who wants to do that every day on the off chance of having a flat.). I could put the Gatorskins along with the tire liners on my race wheels, but then I'd be swapping back and forth between tire setups (and I'd rather ride my bike than tinker on my bike). It's definitely slower than my race day setup, but it's not that bad. I get in a lot of training on the ride home from work, and it's more fun than being in my vehicle every day of the week.

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [rjrankin] [ In reply to ]
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rjrankin wrote:
Guess I'm the minority here. My road bike is set up on my trainer and I do 90% of my riding on it. Will ride my TT bike outside and pretty much just ride outside leading up to races

I'm the same. I do the majority of my training on a road bike (also love group rides with the local race team for weekly long ride). I haven't ridden a TT bike since IMMD Sept. 29. Now that race season is getting close, I'll start to do 1-2 rides a week on the TT bike, usually race specific efforts. I will do all TT work outside if I can, I hate being in areo on the trainer.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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I have a TT bike, an aluminum road bike, and a carbon road bike. I race and train on all 3 of them. During the winter, the Allez Sprint has been on the trainer, and the other bikes set up with aluminum wheels and winter tires. After the time change there won't be as much trainer riding so the training bike will be whichever one doesn't have the race wheels on it, but I will probably do TT bike intervals 2x a month.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Fishbum wrote:
How many here training exclusively on your race bike. Trainer/ Road.???????

The vast majority of my structured training is on my roadie, both outdoors and on the trainer. Pretty much only ride my TT bike for races and maybe a couple training rides before each. The roads around me are too dangerous for aero bars and I hate riding it on the trainer. I also mountain bike as much as possible. Super fun, builds new skills, and I don’t have to worry about cars.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Fishbum wrote:
How many here training exclusively on your race bike. Trainer/ Road.???????

Just for some perspective, when I first got into the sport I bought a Speed Concept 2.5 and I both raced and trained on it. I'm guessing in its first two years of life it saw 1,000 miles/year on the road and triple that on my Kurt Kinetic. Since then it has become a trainer queen. I'm guessing it has over 15,000 miles on it with only routine maintenance. Frame seems no worse for the wear.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Outdoors, yes - 100% on my race bike (and race wheels). I have an older road bike that lives on the trainer.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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Right now everything indoor has been on my tri bike and outdoor on my road bike. It's the offseason and it's casual so I really don't care. I live in town and 90% of the time if I took the tri bike out I'd be on the drops anyway. Once the season is in full swing I'll probably ride 100 miles on my tri bike a week and the rest on my road bike.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]
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Ai_1 wrote:
Remco wrote:
People here mention that they have seperate wheels for training and for racing. Why is that?
there are threee reasons I've come across:
  1. Don't want to risk damage or wear on best equipment during training. Want to save it for the race.
  2. Want to use fast tyre option in races but not happy with their durability and/or cost for training. So keep fast tyres on race wheels and use training wheels with something more durable mounted.
  3. Want to feel faster on race day, so intentionally make their bike feel worse the rest of the time. For example some fit Gatorskins, and butyl tubes specifically to make the bike slower.

I don't subscribe to any of those 3 ideas. I use the same gear for training that I race in. I spend most of my time training. Why wouldn't I spend it using my best stuff? I like to go fast and I like supple, grippy tyres.
I do some things differently in training, for comfort or practicality, like using a standard road helmet or bringing along more water bottles....

Item 1 above, I sort of understand but think it's kinda silly except in really bad conditions. If I was going to be too cautious to use and enjoy it, I wouldn't buy it.
I think item 2 is reasonable but it seems a bit of a sacrifice.
Item 3 seems totally ridiculous to me.

Thanks for clearing that up, i had no idea. I like the nice wheels for faster cornering and better acceleration. I don't own really high rims as i live in a rainy and windy country and i'd probably get blown off of a dyke :-)

I commute on a solid steel bike with baby seat. Steel rims and big fat tyres.

JasoninHalifax wrote:
Roads around here are crap. An unseen pothole will destroy a rim. Might as well be a cheap one rather than an expensive one.

I guess I'm spoiled then. Infrastructure here is close ro ideal for cyclists. Nice smooth roads and loads of bike paths that are seperated from roads.
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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I am building a TT bike that I plan to only race on a a few rides a year. This is a luxury.

2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz
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Re: Training on your race bike? [Fishbum] [ In reply to ]
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I do not train exclusively on my TT bike. During the winter I ride my road bike mostly on road rides and 100% for indoor roller riding.

I also have a 29'er mountain bike I do gravel, fire roads and some single track riding to keep the winter insteresting.

When weather warms ups I drag the TT bike back out and train mostly on it... probably 75% vs. 25% on my road bike when I'm riding outside.

I have no aversion to training on my race bike... especially in racing season.
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