It's their money, so be it. But yes, triathlon is a rich persons sport and as technology continues to take over the sport and race fees keep going parabolic, it will become more and more elitist (if that's what you value).

Well I quit triathlon for cycling like 10 years ago, so you're talking to the wrong person.

I disagree and agree with you, though. I disagree in the sense that, no, you don't need to be rich to do triathlon. You can get a $500 used bike, some shoes, etc, and do just fine in lower-cost, local grassroots triathlon.

I agree in the cultural domination of affluence. The IM races resemble catered resort vacations that happen to have a race in the middle. The media coverage centers around all the expensive stuff.

It’s also possible to get into that salary range as a nurse without an advanced degree. Though you typically have to be pretty specialized and not have as great of hours. Completely possible if you’re wise enough though ;-)

One could even feasibly do so with a family while racing professionally.

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Adam Feigh
Pianko Law, Speed Hound, Castelli, Sailfish, Base
Feighathlon.com

Ok lets be real here. Nobody who chooses tri as a lifestyle and main interest uses a 500 road bike and cheaps out on everything else for the long haul.

The cheap stuff is for the newbies and dabblers. Once you are commited to tri for years you will want to do more than the local tri and with bettwr gear.

Tri is definitely for those with assets. If not the equipment and race fees, the time it takes to train 3 sports eliminates most folks struggling to pay all the bills.

This is coming from someone riding a 2008 cervelo as my race and training bike.

I cringe at referring to any sport participation as a "lifestyle." But, sure, fine, the person then upgrades to a $2000 used 2014 Cervelo P3. Good to go. Sure, triathlon takes some expense. There's a good amount of equipment needed. But there's no way around that. In almost any sport. But you don't need to be "wealthy" to do triathlon.

There's no need to fixate on the dude that bought a Dimond last year, and just sold it to buy a P5X. (I have no problem with that guy - he does us a service be letting us buy those bikes at like 50% off!)

I'm posting here after a while but arent you the troll that the new member FAQ warns us about?

/pink

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Those who are slower than me suck.
Those who are faster than me dope

Sorry. The conversation at that point had been entirely about money. You quoted a post listing the prices of motorcycles and responded with a post about $8000 watch parts you collect.

I incorrectly assumed were were still talking about money since that was the only context at the time. My bad. Sorry.[/quote]
Ah fair enough, sorry for being unclear.

And I should make it very clear that I most certainly am NOT in a demographic bracket where I could buy a $8000 buckle. Or rather, I can afford the buckle, I suppose.. but the watch it is meant to go on? Nope. :)

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Those who are slower than me suck.
Those who are faster than me dope

Clever marketing by Ironman, putting it out there that the average triathlete has a very high income.

"Buy this experience which is going to be very hard and very expensive, like all these other successful people do."

You reckon? I have always thought the nature of the sport lends it self to a certain demographic and personality profile, atleast among the keen enthusiast segment (ie, Slowtwitch, not Pathetic Triathletes group), and the Ironman event costs are more of a filter than enabler.

Grandfondos be similar as well.

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Those who are slower than me suck.
Those who are faster than me dope

An ARNP isn't a nurse. They make an easy ~$120k

That too.

But yes I imagine there's some selling going on here . "This is something expensive for life-winners"-bit like how you sell golf.

What if the average competitor worked for minimum wage, had questionable hygeine*, and slept in their car? I doubt Ironman would be quite so keen to broadcast it

* 1 out of 3 I'll own up to

+1 on this! and good marketing too, the 'rich' folk lap it up... the 'poor' folk know differently.

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@the.lazy.triathlete

https://www.strava.com/athletes/18691068

Wealthy people want to tick the IM box, buys all the shit complete the IM and realise they dont want to sacrifice that much rime the next year.

And lot of people just like to buy gadgets way above what they need.

Personally my mindset is that i need to earn the right to buy an awesome bike etc. eventhough i could buy a px series I dont feel fast enough for it to matter

Ha, fair point :)

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Those who are slower than me suck.
Those who are faster than me dope

What people spend there money on should really never be any of others business.

Couple grand on a bike is cheap especially if that's your only hobby.

I do track days with a car, love scotch, and throw in 5 kids to boot.....hence no $8k bike, but it's all about what I want to spend my money on.

Exactly. But the intimidation of all those fancy bikes contributes to keeping people away. And really there are a lot of people out there with way more bike than ability.

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Pete Githens
Reading, PA

 


Glad I am off the hook for this question since I am not a triathlete. :-)
Otherwise I am guilty as heck for the rest of it though had it been, "how wealthy are recreational cyclist posers and how wise?".

Fun and entertaining thread though. :-)

hand raised high......... Me!!!

But the intimidation of all those fancy bikes contributes to keeping people away.
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Do you people ever go to your local sprints and olys? I ask because out here in my neck of the woods, we have at least 1/3 of the field riding cheapos. I've seen a women on her cruising bike with the baby seat still attached. More mountain bikes than I can count (including complaints that the wheel racks provided by the race weren't wide enough to accommodate... then the race director went out and got a fatter rack for the next race). Lots of entry level aluminum tri bikes as well. I'd say that the number of people riding a super bike is fewer than 5% of the field. I think I saw only 1 disk at my last event.

I really doubt that the quality of bikes is what's keeping people away from tri. But, that's a completely different discussion.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I have the exact same experience at my local races. I've even seen somebody with a basket on the front of their bike, and inside the basket was a sandwich!

It's only once you get the IM branded events do you see the vast majority of carbon tri bikes. But IM is a totally different animal and you really have to be committed to the sport in many ways much more than even financial. Think about this, if you want to be "healthy" you could probably get away with working out 5 hours a week or so with a mixture of leisure bike rides, runs, lifting some weights at the gym etc. Then if you assume that typical IM training will take up an AVERAGE of 12 hours per week for the better part of 26 weeks, that means you are spending 182 hours over the typical amount of time you would workout to remain healthy. Multiply that by $15/hr which is what you could make at a part-time job pretty much anywhere around here where I live, and that's $2,730 in cost for your time assuming you take a pretty low wage job. If you're more specialized and could get a side consulting gig, that number climbs quite a bit. And that's just one half-year training block.

Once you start doing that math, you realize that people dropping $10,000 on a bike they use for a couple seasons isn't all that crazy and not even close to the biggest expense you have in the sport.

And this is coming from a cheap-ass who just finally (yesterday) bought my first real TT bike (2019 P2) after riding a frankenbike I fashioned out of an aluminum Caad10.

The first local sprint triathlon that I raced was in a rural town of 25,000 in the midwest. It was a spectacle in terms of a dick measuring contest as any triathlon tends to be. High end bikes, wheels, and discs left and right. You had the odd totally noncompetitive athlete on lesser bikes, but you could tell 9/10 it was a one and done.

I showed up to my first ride with the local cycling club on my $2,500 bike and post ride everyone is telling me I need a power meter (Quarq no less) and di2. I'm like WTF...These people obviously have way more money than me and perhaps less sensibility.

I don’t think anyone is saying you need to be rich to do triathlon. I think he was saying saying (or at least I am saying) that wealthier people do the sport. There’s a difference. I agree with you you can get into this sport for what you consider cheap-$700 or so. But you don’t seem to appreciate that is actually an expensive price entry point that pales in comparison to the inexpensiveness of, for example, soccer or basketball which require nothing more than the shoes on your feet and a ball.

Couldn’t agree more with this. I did my first sprint on a MTB, there was commuter bikes, bikes with panniers and all sorts along with a few IM guys and team GB guys on better bikes, none of which laughed at or intimidated anyone else and we’re more than encouraging. Unsure of some of the communities some people seem to be from on here. I have a lot of Tri friends, many IM/multi IM friends that compete on bikes ranging £500-2.5k, most of whom couldn’t even tell you the names of most super bikes on the market. This sport is pretty much as expensive as you want to make it.

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@the.lazy.triathlete

https://www.strava.com/athletes/18691068