Congrats on a good choice, not only the bike but also to leave the Ultegra on the TCR.

My wife has a rear bottle mount system made by Minoura. I prefer a front mounted aero bottle, which John Cobb is now telling us is actually the most aero. Endurosport in Toronto has both on their website.

my wife got hers to and is thrilled with it!

Xlab flat wing works... my wife and I are using it on our duals.

Johnboy, How do you like your Dual. I really have to get use to the steep angle but it did feel good after the first ride. Is the Dual the only bike you ride or do you ride a roadie as well. Just wondering what people think about switching between road and tri throughout the year.

I switch all the time, some weeks I don't have time to ride my road bike, other weeks I don't have time to ride my tri bike :-).

But seriously, I don't think there is anything wrong with it. When I ride my tri bike it is for very specific training. In those cases I train alone, and I train on desserted roads and stay in the aerobars as much as possible. I feel this is an important part of your training, being in the actual race position, riding solo and focussing on physical and mental strength.

For more leisurely training rides or recovery rides, I can ride either bike but when in a group I prefer the road bike (not a big issue but if you have two bikes, you may as well use the road bike for this purpose).

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle

Gerard,

Just wanted to let you know that Oak Bay Bikes in Victoria was great to deal with in getting the bike. The bike is amazing. I look forward to racing on the Dual next year. I just have to spend some time tweaking the position over the next little while.

Thanks for the feedback.

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle

My wife and I love our Duals. Just ride the Dual and my mountain bike.

"Just wondering what people think about switching between road and tri throughout the year. "

It depends upon what kind of riding you do. I would find training/riding solo all the time about as exciting as watching paint dry on the wall. My most fun biking is on our goup rides. Tuesday night is our "drop the other guy" fast ride. Thursday night is our "killer hill climb ride" and Sunday morning is our long group ride, usually three or four hours. When riding in a group you develop your cycling skills much more so than solo riding. I also really like the excitement of wheel to wheel group riding. The roadies really push you and it's a better work out, although unstructured, than I get riding solo on the tri bike.

Triathlon is a sport that can appeal very much to those solitary types that want to do all their training on their own. I have a friend who only owns a tri bike and only rides alone. He's very fast but I wouldn't want to ride anywhere near him in a group situation as he just hasn't developed his bike handling skills by training the way he does. He counter argues that since triathlon doesn't allow drafting or group riding, he doesn't need to and that's also why he doesn't need a road bike. Can't argue with him. He's right from his point of view, even if that's not my philosophy.

For people who only do tris, only ride solo, live in an area where it is flat and strait, then there is likely no reason why they really need any other bike than just your tri bike. However, if they want to group ride, improve biking skills and run with the roadies, then leave the tri bike at home and also get a good road bike for this purpose.

In the warm weather I ride almost every day (I don't run much) and spend 80% of my time on my TCR road bike. I do a 40 km ride once a week on the tri bike and then use it only for tris and TT's. No difficulty at all switching from one to the other.