styrrell wrote:
The fastest bike in a race doesn't need all of this stuff (assuming that there are food/water hand-ups when the race is long enough). My strategy for a IM race is to get 1 hand up, maybe 2. 1 aerobottle on the frame I bottle on bars and one at about 60-70 miles seems to work fine. A pitstop, tubular Co2, allen wrench, razor blade and a races worth of Gus will all fit in bento or taped in between the seat rails. You have to look very carefully to see any of the supplies other than the Bento, which is hidden when I'm actually riding.
Ah, bento boxes. They are a necessary evil on long training rides, but my knees (keep them in, right?) constantly hit it, especially since bentos inevitably flop to one side or the other, and disrupt my turning sometimes. The trek SC apparently has a solid mount to stop the flopping, maybe that's the sauce.
Taping things to rails sounds great, except tape falls off. Especially on crappy northern roads with constant freeze cracks.
The shiv bladder does ruin the downtube, so that's why I think a nosecone/integrated bottle would be better. I'd guess 75% of ironman bikes race with keel/aerobars bottles. Why do "kind of aero" when you can do "windtunnel optimized" aero keel bottle?