Well first decide on a road or tri bike. Only then can you really compare bikes.

Thanks. Okay, I love doing triathlons so I'd say that's the route I'm heading although I thought the Cannandale Six13 was pretty amazing.

I ride the R3000 and have ridden the six13. They are very nice road bikes. I'm sticking w/ Cannondale for a while.

Do you do sprints or longer tri's? I do some local sprints on my road bike w/ clip-ons, but always do oly and longer w/ the tri bike.

Stltricoach,

I have to ask how did you like the Six13? To answer your question, I do sprint triathlons mostly but am doing the Superfrog half Ironman in Coronado California in September and want a great bike for that. It is flat and fast. Any thoughts? Am I forgetting anything?

six13 was really nice, and light of course. I did a demo ride, so I didn't get too many miles on it, plus they didn't have my size since I ride a 48cm. I'd be interested in getting one, but my R3000 only has about 1,000 miles on it right now, maybe in the fall/winter.

I used to work at a shop so I've ridden a ton of bikes. You need more than a test ride to tell the difference in bikes IMO. In your case anything will be a huge improvement over a MTB. If you've got the cash and want a prime road bike, get the six13.

When people ask me what to get I recommend the road bike first to get used to bike handling on the pavement. It's easy to do all group rides then also. Then throw on some clip-ons. If you stick w/ it (not an insult, but most don't), then spring for the nice tri bike later. Then you'll have both bikes (everyone's dream!). It's the most logical plan from what I have seen in people.

Stltricoach,

Thanks a mill. So from your advice I'm leaning towards the Six13 with notion of amping it up for tri. One more question if I may indulge. Is a P3 that much better than a Six13 tri madeover? I can handle the truth. Thanks!

I love my beam bike. You can pretty much configure it any way you want. Read Slowman's reviews of the SoftRide TT and the titanflex.
I don't know if it's still on, but there were some places (either SR or one of the Tri web sites) that had a TT with Zipp 404's and carbon fork for $2400 or so. You would still need a saddle and components and assembly. You could sell the Zipp's and get a good aero wheelset for much less.

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Dick

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know nothing.

This is my 4th very-happy year on my Cervelo P2K, and while you only listed the P3 I'll throw the P2K into your mix as well. I think they're selling for about $2600 now, so you get to save some money initially and then you can strategize your upgrades if you really want to go for the full 4K experience. However, the P3 comes pretty impressively loaded, I believe, so if wrestling with upgrades isn't your style, then what the hell, go for the P3!

Not that the P3 is better than a made over six13. They are totally different bikes. The geometry for the two frames put you in two completely diff. positions. It would be very hard to get you into the same aero position on the six13 that you could achieve on the P3. Not impossible, but very challenging.

The P3 is designed for TT and tri, so everything is made with the idea you will be riding the majority of the time on the aerobars.

The six13 is made w/ the idea you will be riding on the hoods and drops most of the time. They don't design it thinking some tri-guy is going to put clip-on aerobars on it.

So a P3 is "better" than a six13 with clip-ons if you are in a more aero AND comfortable position. I would dare to say the P3 will allow you a better run from the steeper seat angle. If you want to learn alot, search on slowtwitch for Dan's articles on bike fit.

at this stage, i'd think you're better off with a road bike, which you can train on and do shorter tris with. also think if you're going to drop that kind of change, better off getting a road bike in $2000 range, which can still get you a very nice bike and that way will save $2000 for a very nice tri bike in the future. for under 2 grand you could get a cervelo soloist, and aluminum framed road bike, or for a little more, a kestrel talon, or trek 5200, both carbon framed. search the posts on any of these bikes, and you'll find that readers generally have a lot of positive things to say about those bikes.

imo its kind of tough to justify dropping $4000 on a first real bike to use in triathlons when you're still learning about the sport, and most likely won't tell the difference between the ride quality of a well made $1500 bike from a $4000 bike. check the bike picker section elsewhere on the slowtwitch site. that may help guide you along.