I saw NorCal Cycling recently do a study between a $2.5k bike and a $12.5k (both Tarmacs). Over 20km, the cheaper bike was 2:20 slower with the fast bike being 31 minutes. They changes the wheels and tires from the high $ bike and the cheaper bike gained a little over a minute. With the expensive wheels, the price is $5kish.

Made me think about the value proposition of a $5kish bike (road or TT- basically an entry level bike with high $ wheels) compared to what I or someone else already has. Naturally the older someone’s current bike is the better the value proposition. If I consider my P2C/ultegra I’d say the value proposition for a 5kish replacement is not that high. If I consider my 2007 (yes, that’s right) Trek/105-R7000(upgraded) the value proposition is much higher.

Difficult to answer the value proposition for you.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

I understand your point and while value is baked into my question because I put a price point on it. That’s not my only concern.

I like bikes and enjoy riding “cool” bikes. Thus I’m think of selling my bike while it has some appreciable value and upgrading to something cooler. That being said, I’m not going to spend the better part of $3500 ($5k - sale of current bike) for that sole reason. If it’s about 3 minutes faster, I’m probably sold.

I'd ballpark the difference at ~200g of drag (at 30mph) (based on: http://www.aeroweenie.com/...ervelo-drag-data.jpg and assuming that today's bikes are generally in the range of the P4), which nets out to ~2sec/km (even at lower race speeds)....so about 3min over a HIM.

This is aero drag only, since upgrades like better tires and latex tubes can easily be make to an existing bike.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

The difficulty is comaparing one bike to another, especially in the real world. This was kind of the point of the NorCal videos. According to them, and the results of the tests, it’s obvious you should save your money and buy the $12.5k bike. It really is no comparison.

So if you’re wanting to spend $5kish now, whether some or all of that is offset from the sale of the old bike, the entry level TT and add the most expensive wheels, tubes and tires you can, Which TT brand isn’t going to matter, except for the best fitting one - for your fit. If you get the best fitting bike for you, you’ll be able to put out the most power, thereby making it the fastest bike for you. For someone else, the bike that is fastest for you it may be the slowest for them because of the fit.

So, what would I advise? Buy the coolest looking entry bike that fits you the best and then upgrade the wheels, tubes and tires. Not only will you look cool (which I agree is important for my mindset of riding fast)., you will be faster than on you’re current bike.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

It isn't a buyer's market.

True, but if you have a used bike, it IS a huge seller's market. Prices for anything bike related is insane.

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Kiwami Racing Team

Buy a new bike because you want a new bike. If you are looking for a value/ cost reason, there isn’t one.

With that said, I bought a new bike. I’m taking the winter to build it up. I always buy my bikes in parts.

If that were true, if you'd put 90's pro ironman dudes (Hellriegel, Zack, Reid...) on modern day superbikes and outfit, they all would be posting sub 4hrs (by a lot) bike splits over 180kms

Soooo... are you saying that there is more demand than supply?

The guru isn't going to be a particularly aero bike, it's not the worst, it's not the best.

I think you're looking at anywhere 3-8 minutes.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

3-8 is significant, especially toward the higher end of that range. Out of the newer bikes, in the 5k range, which bikes tend to be faster or are they all about the same?

Parenthetically, I’ve had a professional fit and don’t think I am an outlier. That said, I’m on the short side at 5’6”.

In terms of the bike market, I’m not that well versed. That being said, I can’t imagine many tri bikes were sold this year. Also, the QR prices seemed pretty favorable.

A Guru will be pretty slow.

With proper cockpit choices, most bikes are about the same.

That said, there is one brand that is consistently 2nd in every other company's aero marketing charts, themselves being first of course because marketing.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Does the consistently second brand start with “c”, end in “o” and rhyme with Oreo?

The p5 is out of reach, is the p series comparable to the IA - etc?

There's a thread for that!

That said, I don't have data on the P-Series but it looks very similar to the P5d, and the cockpit is pretty adjustable. I personally am not a fan of the narrow-tall ness of the IA caused by the OEM cockpit, but it looks super cool.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Rhymes with Oreo? Have I been pronouncing it incorrectly this whole time or is that autocorrect?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I'm saying if anyone has bikes they'll get far better prices now than ever before, used OR new. Shops are no longer offering discounts and the used market is crazy hot. My purpose was to tell the OP if he wanted to sell his current bike, now is the time. As far as new, one will pay full price and have to wait for supply to catch up.

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Kiwami Racing Team

From my experience going from a 2008 Cannondale Slice to a 2014 Speed Concept which was $8500 with cheap wheels, I didn't see a difference. I raced a lot of tris (long and short course), TTs and weekly practice TTs and tracked my power, times and weather on all of those. I used the same race wheels, kit and power meter on both bikes and my set up was a close as possible on both bikes and I saw no noticeable difference in times, and I even had one weekly practice TT with identical power and identical times down to the second between the two bikes. According to my notes, the weather was basically the same between the two days.

Since it is hard to compare, I can't say for sure the Trek isn't a little faster, but the difference is very small. I like the Trek more than the Slice so I don't regret the purchase, but I gained little to nothing in speed. I think those small differences matter more in time trials where it's all about the bike and a slightly faster frame could mean a position or two. For triathletes, assuming they have a good set of race wheels, and decent position, the number one thing most can do to get faster is learn to stay glued to their aerobars.

OP said that it currently is a buyer's market.

What do you think of that statement?

I'm report what I recalled from their two part series on YouTube (easy for you to watch it). The test was 250w for the 20km and a course that was all right turns with no traffic. I am no way experienced enough or have enough power to extrapolate what someone could do on a 180km course. I'll leave that up to others.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

.

In regard to that statement, a definite NO. Prices are high as inventory is hard to get and few are discounting. Our shop surely is not.

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Kiwami Racing Team

I'd say it's always a buyers market for TT bikes though. Sure road bike prices are insane, but still many of the same incredible deals to be had on 1-4 year old tri bikes, often with di2 and race wheels.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

This is sooooo true. I have a 2018 Trek Fuel Ex 9.9. Looked on eBay the other day and they're selling for ~$6,500. I thought "awesome! I'll sell this and buy an Ibis!" Then I contacted Ibis and found out that the ETA for a new Ripmo is June of 2021!!!

Really? I just purchased a frameset with a major brand (ST advertiser in fact) a huge discount. I recognize there are some supply issues at many local shops but there are many deals to be had if you look around.

Kind of like cars, if it’s on sale it ain’t sellin’. I know of two brands with sales on Tri bikes, discontinued Cervelo rim brake P2 and 3, and one other name brand which are tanks and incomparable to other leading brands. They look nice until one rides another....

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Kiwami Racing Team