When I started in 1998, the Kestrel KM40 and Softride Powerwing were the most desirable US frames, they overshadowed the GT/Tiemeyer aero frames but were most probably not as fast.

The UK had the Hotta and many custom steel TT bikes. The Lotus had issues...

The Germans and Danish loved their Principias which were ultra stiff QR copies.

But really the C4s were the most stunning. If I recall correctly the Joker won bike of the year in 1997 for being stiff and compliant with a clever beam-like design. Like the KM 40 it was way ahead of it's time and with more modern carbon fibre manufacturing techniques would still be a looker today.

Alas for C4 the southern Europe contingent stuck to road geometry until the mid 2000s, and Marco moved onto building carbon fibre diving fins.

The Cervelo P3 took triathlons by storm but it was the Trek Speed Concept that became the modern day standard. When it came out it had everything.

Then the Germans all started riding Kuotas after 2006!

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29 years and counting

Yeah, I was going to put the Lotus on the list but not a tri bike.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Shiv? Not the Shiv Tri...

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Personally, I hate all the integrated stuff, and Treks are so FUGLY. Give me a clean looking bike that's easy to wrench.

Agree and this was a bit part of why I thought the P3C was the most game changing of sorts without making it too difficult to use. I owned the first Speedconcept 9.9 and loved riding the bike and it was light and felt stiff and was super clean....but it was really a pain to adjust and work on and having owned the P3C before I would glady stick with an easy to work on new p3c looking back vs the benefits of the integrated speed concept.

I guess we are talking about bikes that took it to an entirely new level. Arguments could be made going a long ways back so impossible to agree I'm sure with any real consensus on here.

 

How about the Javelin:

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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

i think the kestrel 4000 came before the 200 and was road geometry. the km40 shifted to forward tri/tt mode. for a time schwinn owned kestrel and sold some rebranded 4000s (mark allen rode one in kona).
of the cervelos, i really think the original aluminum p2 was truly groundbreaking. i guess i’ve been around long enough to have seen and owned a lot of these mentioned, from my qr superform se (raider color), to an early kestrel km40, aluminum felt b2 (fast but noodly), litespeed blade, hooker elite tt, cervelo aluminum p2, bmc tt02/tm02, and now a shiv pro. functional art, all of them.

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"that which does not destroy me will only make me stronger" Frederick Nietzsche
andrew peabody
http://BREAKAWAYMULTISPORT.COM

I was about to mention the P2. While the superbikes are great, the aluminum P2 and the P2C are pretty special in terms of the performance you get at that price point, which is just a tenth or two off the far more expensive bikes. Case in point, Chrissie Wellington's first win at Kona was on a P2C.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Didn't the original P2 have a shark fin under the BB or was that a different Cervelo?

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

yep. that’s the one. and integrated seat mast. uci illegal tubing shape.

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"that which does not destroy me will only make me stronger" Frederick Nietzsche
andrew peabody
http://BREAKAWAYMULTISPORT.COM

While not a "tri" bike, the original BMC time machine ridden by Tyler Hamilton and Phonak should at least get honorable mention.
This bike is 15ish years old and still looks awesome. https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/...rs-bmc-time-machine/

My QR Kilo is an extension of my body. To paraphrase Roger Taylor: I'm in love with my bike.