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Road Bike vs TT Bike
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I've been riding a TT bike for the better part of a decade and recently I decided to include some road racing. I't been quite a while since I was on a road bike with any regularity and it's much different experience than I remember. I was wondering what the experience is for those who include both road and TT bikes in their training. I always thought that I would generate more power on a road bike, but go slower due to aerodynamics... I was half right. I was very surprised to find out how much less power I could generate for the same effort and clearly went slower (even on the trainer). I have also heard that road geometry is more comfortable, which has not been my experience. I understand that there's going to be a period of adaption, but after a couple of months I still feel much more comfortable on my TT bike. I would love to hear the experiences of other STers and any advice on the transition from triathlon to road racing would also be appreciated. Thank you.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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Are you constantly switching from bike to bike? If so, your adaptation may be stunted or taking longer.

Focus on ONE bike.

1. Be sure your road fit is accurate and optimal.
2. Allow your body/muscles time to adapt - specificity.
Last edited by: Brushman: Jan 31, 13 6:13
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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I make the same power on either bike.

Road bike is only more comfortable in that my neck doesn't have to bend so much to look up, and more comfortable in that I have access to shifters and brakes at all times which is convenient.

But it took a long time to find a TT saddle that was comfy...

What is un-comfy on the road bike after 2 months? Maybe some adjustment is in order?



Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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I split my miles about 50/50 between the road and tri bike. It skews one way or the other depending on what events I have on the horizon. I like to do fast century rides on the road bike and do a few races each year. But mostly my races are TTs and tri relays up to and including iron-distance.

I was a roadie for many years, first. As I got into the TT thing, my road bike fit "evolved." My stem is now slammed, I use deep drop handlebars and I ride almost exclusively in the drops. I never rode in the drops before. It makes being on the road bike a lot more like being on the TT bike in terms of the specific muscles that are incorporated. I don't have much difficulty at all going back and forth from one bike to the other. I'll do 50 miles on the road bike on Monday, then take the TT bike out Tuesday and do 45 miles. I'll do a century on Saturday and 30 miles on the TT bike Sunday. No big deal.

One thing I NEVER do is go out for an easy recovery spin on my TT bike. When I jump on the TT bike, it's for a hard effort. The effort depends on the next event on the schedule, so it varies if it's a 10 mile TT vs. if it's an iron-distance relay. But my mind is conditioned. When I get in the aero position on the TT bike, it's time to go to work. Fortunately, it's work I enjoy!

So bottom line, I think you should spend some time evaluating your road bike and its fit and see how you can adapt it so it's more similar to your TT fit. It won't ever be identical, obviously, but it can probably be a lot better than where it is now.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [bobby11] [ In reply to ]
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And a thing about this, that many of us get wrong at first, is we think "oh I'll move my saddle forward on the road bike to make it like the TT bike"

which actually makes it LESS like the TT bike from a hip angle perspective, (unless you are riding super low in the drops all the time on the road bike.)




bobby11 wrote:
So bottom line, I think you should spend some time evaluating your road bike and its fit and see how you can adapt it so it's more similar to your TT fit. It won't ever be identical, obviously, but it can probably be a lot better than where it is now.



Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [jackmott] [ In reply to ]
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Another point people often don't realize is how different handlebars can be. They go buy a road bike and think that all handlebars are like the ones that came on their bike. They're not! Right now, "compact" bars are popular. Well, if you want to get low and aggressive on your road bike so it fits you a bit more like your TT bike, you aren't going to want compact bars. Plus, bars all have different reach and you have to factor bar reach into stem selection (and vice versa).

Handlebars vary in three dimensions ... reach, drop and width. And, of course, they can be shaped differently and have different features for accomodating cable routing, etc.

Stems come in different lengths and also in different stem angles (rises).

There's a lot of fit variability that's available within those realms.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [bobby11] [ In reply to ]
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I disagree compact vars are ready made for an aggressive position. Simply put if the drops are as low as they can be for your fit then the hoods will be lower than on a traditional fit bar.

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Jordan Oroshiba --- Roadie invading Triathlete space for knowledge access
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [joroshiba] [ In reply to ]
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Alternatively, if you put the hoods in the same place with a compact bar, then your position in the drops will be less aggressive.

Bobby's right either way, a bar has a huge impact on the fit of a bike.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [joroshiba] [ In reply to ]
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I disagree compact vars are ready made for an aggressive position.

I never said compact vars are ready made for an aggressive position. I never said that compact bars were made for that, either. In fact, I said the opposite.

Did you mean to say, "I disagree. Compact bars are ready made for an aggressive position"? If that was your point, it would make your next sentence make a lot more sense and I'd see your point, assuming that one had either a very short head tube on their bike or a negative-rise stem. The thing about that is, with a conventional (not compact) bar with deeper drop, you can have both a deep drop when you're on the bars, and a far more comfortable alternative on the hoods for when you're climbing and/or out of the saddle ... or when you just want to give your back a bit of a break.

Last edited by: bobby11: Jan 31, 13 9:13
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [bobby11] [ In reply to ]
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Yeah that's what I meant to say. I do agree that bar shape will change fit and feel a lot, but thing compact bars give you the ability to run an overall more aggressive position

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Jordan Oroshiba --- Roadie invading Triathlete space for knowledge access
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for all the feedback. I'm probably spending too much timenon my TT bike (65/35) and should start spending more time on my road bike and dial in the fit.
Any recommendations for wrist/hand discomfort on the road bike?
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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Hand/wrist discomfort could come from a few things, but as Jackmott mentioned, lots of people coming from tri and people new to road bikes in general compensate for a feeling of "reaching" by pushing the seat forward. Which, in my experience exemplifies the problem by putting weight on the arms/hands.

Make sure you are running enough setback to have enough weight on your ass. I've found that I'm more comfortable with a long/low road position once I've gotten sufficient setback. I think I'm around 6-7cm on a 70cm saddle height. When I was around 3-4cm of setback I didn't feel as comfortable.

Various sites have tests for what is enough setback. Dan's road bike fit articles say somewhere around 9 percent of saddle height. Steve Hogg has an article here:
http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/...back-for-road-bikes/

Setback is the key to a good comfortable road bike fit in my experience.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [Runless] [ In reply to ]
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I had a professional dynamic bike fit (including Retul) by Sunrise Tri (Frank Totino) with whom I completely trust. He fit me on my TT bike and it made a huge difference in both my bike and run performance. He did set my saddle back and I just moved it forward 3/8 inches. The adjustment did not improve my power numbers (it may have hurt them), but I think it's more comfortable on my lower back (BTW, I never had low back issues on my TT set-up).
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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At the risk of stating the obvious, perhaps you need more time on the road bike. 10 years is a long time, to ride just a TT/road bike.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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time on the bike is a good answer as Fleck said. The last thing I'll say is that fitters tend to go KOPS, which I think in many peoples situations is too far forward to get proper weight on the saddle.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [jackmott] [ In reply to ]
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I'm a big believer in that too for the road: setback is your friend. Day in day out I think duplicating a tt hip angle on the road is best done with setback, not drop. My hip angles are within a degree or two on both bikes, but one has 14cm of setback and the other 5mm. Tweener just don't work so well for this old dog. Halfway sucks as a roadie, halfway sucks as a tt, but in general just sucks!
jackmott wrote:
And a thing about this, that many of us get wrong at first, is we think "oh I'll move my saddle forward on the road bike to make it like the TT bike"

which actually makes it LESS like the TT bike from a hip angle perspective, (unless you are riding super low in the drops all the time on the road bike.)
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [Fleck] [ In reply to ]
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That's what I'm thinking.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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I basically hang up the TT bike after last fall race, and ride Road bike all winter. Started as a mental break from hard training, but really think the variety helps with strength, fitness & bike handling. I rarely ride same tri training routes, but do more group rides, try to hit every hill in town and check out different parts of the county.

Power seems about the same but different, road bike takes more involvement of upper body (not moving much, but concentrating at first on holding strong steady posture). After TT bike, it was easy to slam bars down on the road bike and ride in the drops as much as I cared too. I was surprised that speeds were comparable . . . until you have even slightest bit of head wind.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [bmonkey] [ In reply to ]
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Thats essentially my intention too. I want to give the TT bike a break for the winter, do some group rides and generally have a more stable ride for those few months when the weather can be sketchy. I also want to do some road racing, but if my power #'s don't come back up I may reconsider. Thanks for your feedback.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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A TT bike will use slightly different leg muscles than a road bike. That is probably why you feel slower. The hamstrings and calves are used a lot more imo.

As for being uncomfortable, without a good fit its impossible to tell whats going on there. But one thing that I would guess is a weak core, TT bikes let you rest so much weight skeletally it turned my core and arms weak.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [trithink] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for asking this question. I just bought a used road bike to do some group rides and possibly race. Sounds like we are having the same issues. Some good advice here.
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Re: Road Bike vs TT Bike [rotoraz] [ In reply to ]
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I agree, the feedback has been invaluable. Thanks everyone!
I'd love to hear how you're road cycling evolve; please keep in touch.
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