Thats a tough decision having to give up a bike. I generally feel the same way; I enjoy the road bike much more at the core of my actual enjoyment of cycling. However, I can say it'll be at least -1 mph difference depending on your fit and wheel selection, and probably more since IMSR race is so stinkin' flat. It really comes down to your fit, and how much performance matters to you. If you want to qualify, there are other reasons besides pure aero to only be riding your TT bike... If your purely there for enjoyment, if you could care less about finishing 10-30 minutes back on the bike, but still running strong and finish with a smile on your face, who cares what bike you used? If your somewhere in the middle where you still want to push your limits but wont be at the top, I'd go for the TT bike, but thats me.

I am racing IMSR next May as well... and want a top 10 AG finish. I plan 90% of my time on the bike in the TT position on my TT bike, whether its indoor or out . They can be very different between a road with aerobars and TT; went without my TT for 2 years after it got totalled and its taken me the better part of a year just to get used to it again and then my "TT" power back to where it was. So if you ditch the aerobike with plans to make a return, keep that in mind.

In the end, you gotta know what you want goal wise and let that guide you.

Safe training, see you at IMSR!

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Matt Leu, M.S. Kinesiology
San Pedro Fit Works, Los Angeles, CA
Endurance Athlete and Coach
Consistency/time=results

Your handle is Try_Guy, and you race triathlons. Keep the tri bike. In the future you may be able to pick up a low-cost road bike.

can i ask an intrusive question? is the need to sell one of the bikes space-related or finance-related?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Your wife wants you to sell one? Fuck no!

Keep the bikes. Sell a kidney

More financial than space unfortunately

Thats for the comment I have some thinking to do as to how hard I want to train and race.

Good point!

how much is a 2013 Venge worth anyways... probably not much.

I'd keep the Tri bike

My thought for this is how much do you think you can get for either bike? I toyed around the idea of selling one of my bikes for some extra money but then realized that the money I would get for the bike I could find by being super cheap somewhere else to make up for it. But I didn't NEED to, I just thought the extra money would be nice. So maybe figure out pricing then talk to the wife about it and see if it is still worth it, assuming you haven't already done that.

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Twitter - Instagram

you're not gonna like this, but, since you asked, i would keep both bikes and just not enter races that cost more, per single race, all in, than what you're going to get for either bike.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Keep the road bike, especially if you can get in a decent position w aero bars. Sometimes that takes a different saddle and seat post (can’t remember if venge let’s you flip the seat post or not). With good position on road bike w aero bars, you give up very little or nothing to a dedicated tt bike.

Maybe sacrilegious, but I put drop bars on my tri bike, instead of the ram horn is came with. Best of both worlds. I sold my road bike (Specialized Roubaix) and have never missed it.

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Athlinks / Strava

Sell your wife.

Only on ST would you see this. Everyone here knows you have to have an FTP north of 350 and ride IMs sub 4:30 to be average.

Agree with Slowman. Keep both - they’re not costing you any money sitting in your garage - and save equivalent dollar elsewhere.

Some would argue that's the worst of both worlds. Tri/TT frames generally make poor handling road bikes since they are optimized for a low/forward position in the aero bars. Take the aero bars off a tri bike and you have a bike without the speed of a tri bike and without the handling of a road bike.

All that said, slapping some drop bars on an old tri bike frame is the cheapest path to owning an aero road bike if you aren't too particular on how it handles.

I've been riding for over 40 years, and the tri bike is surprisingly more stable than my road bike ever was. It's an older 2010 Cervelo, and the Vision brand base bars it came with, are the same diameter at the drop bars I put on it. So the position of the aero bars and my set up, didn't change at all. I can ride aero and nothing changes. But I can ride hoods or drops like a road bike. It's got the Cervelo reversible seat post, so I could even set it up like a road bike if I wanted, but I've gotten so comfortable with the forward saddle, that's not needed. I've had a lot of bikes, and this is my favorite by far.

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Athlinks / Strava

yeah, handling is a subjective thing. One person's "stable" is another person's "poor turn-in". Everyone has their preferences. I like unusual frankenbikes, so it's always cool to see drop bars on a shiv or aero bars on a mountain bike.

What's the difference between 21 and 20 mph at Santa Rosa? Bottom of the 1st page of results vs. middle of the second page? Is that worth giving up the joy the Venge gives you the other 364 days a year? Unless you're 55+, you're probably not a contender for a Kona slot either way.


Sell the Argon, optimize the Venge for double-duty. get a second seatpost for a TT saddle for the Venge (pretty sure the post on that model is reversible), then spend a little time figuring out what stem/drop bar/aerobar get's you the right position for both aero and road position with minimal faffing other than swapping the seatpost..probably a long-stem, short-reach-handlebar combo with an undermount aerobar...or maybe something like the Specialized Hover bars which have a 15 or 25mm rise.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I agree with this as the correct answer. This was my first thought as well being that it seemed to be a financial decision. Most people also have an unrealistic expectation as to what they will be able to recover for their used bikes that they have so much "invested" in.

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__________________________
Matt Gervais

I'm seeing that vintage of Venge going for around $2k on ebay. Sell that and buy a used bike on Craigslist for $500. Roadie, gravel, cyclocross.......whatever.

You still pocket 75% of the money and keep a bike of some kind with the road riding position.

I'd recommend buying someone's used CX bike so you can do gravel and road. $500 would buy a decent enough 10 speed bike.

I dabble in TT and can tell you I don't really enjoy the handling of setting the already twitchy aero roadie up as a TT setup.

Exactly. Old bikes aren't worth much. Ironman's are ALWAYS expensive.

I sold my TT bike and just ride my Venge with aerobars, but I focus more on Xterra and just do some local sprints on the venge so far. I would say the aero position is not as comfy and if I was doing ironman or halfs I would want the TT bike.Maybe try to sell the Venge and if you get a good price great, but second hand bike prices often disappoint.

I was in this exact situation and I regret selling one of them. If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would just keep them both.