Personally, I’m fed up with the bike industry not just Tri bikes. I think they’ve moved too far too fast when you’ve laid down a ton of cash for a bike and maybe a set of race wheels. You have a ton of folks out there with gorgeous 10 speed systems which seem now out of date with 11 and 12 speed derailleurs let alone moving to Di2. Oh, let’s go to wide tires now that won’t fit anything 3 years old. Let’s make rim brakes obsolete and only sell disc brakes. So when I see that $15-20k on my bike shops wall, I know only the rich kids are buying that for 2 seconds of time saving trying to Kona qualify. We all know the guy who had a better coach or executed his race better will triumph. So, that said, I think the ladies buying within their budget are the ones doing it right, an expensive bike will not always make you faster. I’ll tell you what. When I can’t fix my P2 anymore, I will not replace it with some art shop junk I can’t afford, repair, ride on a bumpy road, or pack in an bike box.

End of rant!

If you can't be fast, be flash!

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

I have three Tri bikes that were top end in their time, and a top end road bike. Bought them all used at a significant discount. Would never have bought them new. Use to watch the boards, eBay, CL, and local bike shops for potential purchases, but haven’t looked at them in a few years. While DI2 shifting is appealing, there really isn’t anything new that matters. And what was previously mentioned, the thought of disc brakes, new wheel sizes, or even tubeless tires turns me off to another bike purchase.

Bike for show run for dough$$$

dirty secret: A lot, probably > 55%, of those superbikes were/are rather aerodynamically mortal.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

There's a whole lot of stupid in that article. There's is always going to be a super bike.

This specific thing is clearly untrue:

The P5X/PX Range is one of the easiest ranges of bikes to fit people on. It also has an extremely wide fit range. Yeah, it's expensive and they don't move as much, but it's not because they're difficult to fit...that is unless you suck as a fitter.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

As a general comment, and I think I happened to read it here after thinking the same thing, but “Ultegra build” bikes in general seem to have jumped $1,000 in the last few years.

I feel like I could get a decent Ultegra bike for ~ $3,200 a few years ago. My last tri bike bought about 4 years ago was in that rage. A current similarity spec’d bike now seems to be $4K+. That is college tuition kind of inflation.

I'm glad I'm not the only that has noticed this and it seems to be more concentrated on tri bikes then anything else. Road and cross ultegra bikes can still be had in the mid to upper $3XXX, but tri bikes seem to be almost universally in the $4k region.

I still race on a 2008 Specialized Transition Comp that when new had an MSRP identical to the current MSRP for the Cervelo 105 P-Series. Everyone complains about the cost of modern TT bikes but the P-Series is significantly better than the Transition.

First like a lot of bikes of the era the Transition has aero brakes that are boarderline acceptable in the dry and are worthless in the wet. This is made worse by the absolute PIA they are to adjust. While people complain about discs they at least stop the bike. The stock bars on the original Transition were also atrocious whereas you realistically don't need to replace the ones on the P-series. Then there is the issue of seat post clamps. Seems trivial but the early generations of hidden clamps were riddled with issues and that is a critical part of the bike. Finally frame stiffness/balance has improved to the point speed wobbles no longer to have largely disappeared. I still don't understand what causes the wobbles but they a brown stain inducing and certainly are an issue on TT bikes from 10-15 years ago.

All these things add up to a much better bike at the same price. Obviously I can still race on the old bike so its 'good enough' but represents far less value for money than modern bikes.

I agree the argument these bikes are impossible to fit most people is nuts. They’re impossible to not fit most people.

I do agree that bike shops should not have to stock a $15,000 bike.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Nah, your existing bike and equipment haven't been made obsolete. If your stuff was pretty competitive when you got it in the last decade, then it still is. Nothing has gotten that much more efficient. Fashions have changed. Largely, but not always, for the better. You can still buy narrow tyres, narrow wheels, rim brake wheels, caliper brake parts,10 speed groupset parts, etc... In fact the majority of people are probably still using all of these things.

So what's the problem?
Oh, yeah - you want to have all the new stuff, even while complaining about it's existence!

It's not a problem with excessive development (what a silly idea!). It's a problem with you succumbing to tech envy and mechanical lust but blaming others. ;)

If your neighbour marries someone younger and more beautiful than your wife, does that make your marriage obsolete? Has your neighbours wife's parents done you some terrible wrong by producing her?.....Not so much

are you having issues getting narrower tires for your bike? I understand the annoyance with brand new bikes only being disc brakes. I'm fine with disc brakes on my gravel and mountain bikes but feel like it's needed on my tri and road bikes which both have rim brakes. Both bikes are 5+ years old and I don't plan on replacing them anytime soon.

This!! I have a road bike and a tri bike that together, new, MSRP was $20,000 even. I have $4200 combined in both. Road bike maybe weighs 16 lbs, and my new Speed Concept Project one (2013) is pretty darn slick.

As little as I ride outside these days, and I have an old 1994 aluminum beater for the trainer, I figure these will last me a good while.

I ride 650s. What worries me in all this is that there might not be a bike for me to ride in the future.

I have a carbon road bike, a standard turbo bike and a TT bike. They are all running 10 speed Dura Ace with calliper brakes. Di2 isn’t a choice on 2 of them. I can see at some point replacements won’t be available because Shimano will switch off producing.

No one is investing in 650 development so what are us shorties going to ride in the future. At 5’ there are no other options.

The first part about women is true. My wife is an experienced triathlete and her spending habits on the sport are vastly different than mine.

Secondly the market will sort the pricing out. Big Bike will either survive or not on yearly "innovation". Disc brakes, 12 speeds, $3k wheel sets, are just an example of the yearly "innovation" that can and probably will price themselves out of the market. Every year there is that "must have" thing for a premium price.....those days are numbered as a business model because people are getting smarter. The days of the "game changing" bike is over outside of some kind of drastic frame material change and that is a maybe.

Triathlon as a market is going to take a HUGE hit from COVID and it remains to be seen how many people come back to the sport after this is over......but........one thing is for sure.......there will be fewer people guaranteed because they will have moved on to other things.

Recumbent bikes are still using 650c wheels. Don’t worry about parts so much, heck you can still get bearings to repack old style hubs and bottom brackets. However, it may make sense to pick up another set of 650c wheels as they are very cheap now.

Welcome to my world; this thread is for you and me:

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/.../?page=unread#unread

As far as I can tell, if you want an upgrade to disc brakes, you're out of luck for now.

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DFL > DNF > DNS

https://gizmodo.com/...e-gadgets-1842456125

You will love and can relate to this article.

2020 Tactical 650c

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

Pics or it didn’t happen 😉

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DFL > DNF > DNS

http://www.premierbike.com - shop - XS

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Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com