This is my personal bike rant. I'm not explicitly seeking advice because I think I know what the answers will be, but I still have my head comfortably in the sand.
After going through several tri bikes over the years of different makes and models that didn't fit me very well (and most of the blame for them not fitting falls squarely on my own shoulders), I am down to one bike in my garage. It is a Soloist that I am pretty happy with. I have a FSA K-Wing bar on it that I love, but is a no-go for clip on bars. My big race that I want to do as well as I possiby can for is IM AZ. Clearly, this is not the first choice bike for that course. I ride a tri bike very steep at 80 or 81 degrees and I am pertty flexible. I have a full Dura Ace group on hand to build up a frame with. Ideally I would buy a new tri bike and I would have a really good road and tri bike in my stable. But I am riding with Rotors and a Powertap so I have some reservations about buying a new bike and pulling out the BB, cranks, and wheelset that I really don't need anyway. I know the obvious next solution is to buy a frame and build it up. But there are not many frames I think I can afford that are availible as only framesets. So I am thinking of buying a Vision basebar\aerobars, new stem (and MAYBE splurging with a carbon seatpost to try to offset some of the added Rotor and PT weight) and seeing about using the Soloist in AZ. I know handling will not be ideal but it is a flat course so it's not like I'll have IMLP-like decents. I get the sense that if I rule out buying a complete bike, the parts I buy for the Soloist will be needed anyway to finish up a build on a frame that likely is the only solution that makes sense. Am I kidding myself by throwing dollars at a false solution? Or taking a few steps in the right directon by getting the rest of the parts for a future frame?
After going through several tri bikes over the years of different makes and models that didn't fit me very well (and most of the blame for them not fitting falls squarely on my own shoulders), I am down to one bike in my garage. It is a Soloist that I am pretty happy with. I have a FSA K-Wing bar on it that I love, but is a no-go for clip on bars. My big race that I want to do as well as I possiby can for is IM AZ. Clearly, this is not the first choice bike for that course. I ride a tri bike very steep at 80 or 81 degrees and I am pertty flexible. I have a full Dura Ace group on hand to build up a frame with. Ideally I would buy a new tri bike and I would have a really good road and tri bike in my stable. But I am riding with Rotors and a Powertap so I have some reservations about buying a new bike and pulling out the BB, cranks, and wheelset that I really don't need anyway. I know the obvious next solution is to buy a frame and build it up. But there are not many frames I think I can afford that are availible as only framesets. So I am thinking of buying a Vision basebar\aerobars, new stem (and MAYBE splurging with a carbon seatpost to try to offset some of the added Rotor and PT weight) and seeing about using the Soloist in AZ. I know handling will not be ideal but it is a flat course so it's not like I'll have IMLP-like decents. I get the sense that if I rule out buying a complete bike, the parts I buy for the Soloist will be needed anyway to finish up a build on a frame that likely is the only solution that makes sense. Am I kidding myself by throwing dollars at a false solution? Or taking a few steps in the right directon by getting the rest of the parts for a future frame?
