I've been looking into this as well. I have no experience of either of these bikes but the shiv disc and P5 get talked about most and probably in that order.

My Felt iA handles great at speed and on descents (better than my road bikes). It's an older rim brake model too. I find it depends on the front wheel I have on, since the deeper one is effected more by any wind gusts. Wheelbase, head tube angle and fork rake would be a good place to start in comparing different models.

Interesting, what would you be looking for specifically in terms of wheelbase, head tube angle and fork rake? Longer wheelbase and steeper angles like the new BMC?
Is a longer wheelbase better because it makes the descent feel more stable and more weight towards the rear?
Or is a shorter wheelbase better because you can steer quicker?

Handling, like navigating u-turns on an out-back course, our roundabouts in Nice? Sweeping switchbacks? I'd put the QR V-PR against anything. I MAY be biased, but the low-cord depth of several of the frame's aero sections and general overall low weight allows the V-PR to switch lines with a quickness that bely most tri bikes, which typically handle really well in a straight line, but not as much in tight, fast-tracking quarters. I said as much in much of our material when we launched the bike: the V-PR handles and moves with a quickness that's closer to a road bike than many tri bikes out there right now. Give it a look.

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Jay Prasuhn
Marketing Specialist, American Bicycle Group (Quintana Roo//Litespeed//Obed)
twitter.com/jayprasuhn

P5 rim brake handles like a dream.

Most of this comes down to individual rider, depth of front wheel, and positioning of extra weight like fluids.

The one ride I had on a P5, it is a good frame for sure.

The P5X on the other hand is more of barge.. at first. Takes a while to dial-in but after that it's great. I think this is the reason the X series wasn't a popular choice.

The aerodynamics of a tri-bike/deep wheels or disc, make it want to run straight. Apply a push forward to the inside handle, lean the bike away from the body into the turn and you can turn aggressively, just like any other conventional bike.

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A good TT bike should be stable while in aero as that's how you are mostly riding it.
That makes it not as quick handling for something like a crit or a winding mountain descent.

If you struggle on descents with your TT bike you need to practice more and get the most out of the limitations of it's geometry.
Or as a last resort, switch to a road bike with clip on bars.

I honestly think the brake stopping power (I saw OP has rim brakes) is the most important thing for faster descents. The more confident you are in your brake power, the faster you can let it rip when it really counts.

Triathletes are generally pretty ignorant when it's comes to a bikes geometry other than pad X/Y (and a lot don't know what this is either). A well handling bike comes down to your weight distribution on it. Clue yourself up on front centres, trail, wheelbase etc and then choose the size that meets your requirements. Dan has written previously on front centres. A lot of the current crop of bikes have fairly significant pad X/Y crossovers between sizes.

Base bar grip drop can also make a difference outside of aero. Lower can help you get more weight on the front wheel for cornering at the expense of climbing comfort. Appreciate a lot of today's bars are fixed.

Maybe not the most popular answer, but you the rider will/can make pretty much any bike handle fine. When I came to triathlon from racing motocross, mountain bikes and crit racing I was and still am pretty astonished at how bad, in a very general sense, triathlete's bike handling skills are. Bike geometry and things like that do make a small difference imo, but a good rider will ride any bike fine.

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I appreciate your contribution and I'm sure what you say it's true.
I live in a flat area so unfortunately it's quite difficult to practice proper descents. As AG triathletes we already have three sports to practice on top of whatever else we do in life so it does get quite difficult to improve handling specifically. I recognise descending is a limiter of mine (although I'm sure I'm not in the bottom percentiles of long distance triathletes) and something I'd like to work on and that I've tried to work on.

What I do find is that my current triathlon bicycle does make it worse and I'd like this thread to focus more on that side.

So far the following points have been brought up:
- bicycle geometry (kinda hard to compare this across models, I'm still not sure what things to look for specifically)
- base bar position
- hydration and storage (presumably lower and behind positions are better that BTA)
- how bike fit affects rider weight placement on the bike
- bicycle weight and weight distribution (Tri bikes seem to have completely disregarded this part lately. It's interesting to see QR and BMC have thought about it)
- wheel choice

If your issue is descending and you have no means to practice, then the easy answer is try a bigger frame size next time, as long as you can get the arm rests where you need them.

that's not my experience.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I haven't ridden a V-PR yet, but I absolutely love the handling of my old Lucero. I love technical descents, and I've actually set several of my Strava PRs (including a few top 10s on the leaderboard) with it...

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