I've been doing group rides at lunch with some guys at my work, who ride on road bikes, but after grabbing a tri bike this year I switched over to that, since it's a major upgrade over my old, basic road bike. I haven't been too aggressive and tend to not push it on the descents etc because the bike is clearly more twitchy than my old bike. The group is pretty fast and the roads are far from ideal (New England, traffic and bad pavement), so I'm definitely aware of the risk. I ride on the drops/brakes most of the time, only going on the bars when I'm in front or back and the road is clear and easy.
Anyways, I had noticed that I felt a little uneasy on descents, basically because my weight is forward, the drops are low, my saddle is relatively high (tall lanky guy), and I just don't feel "locked in" like I would on a road bike. Well, this past week I was doing about 20mph down maybe a 3deg hill, in the back of the group, and blindly hit a bump/roller that popped my ass up and I went over the bars and supermanned on some rough pavement. No major damage but some serious road rash and gashes on my knees, elbows and stomach. Have to replace the saddle and the rear wheel might not be salvageable, and throws off my race prep for a few days. Not gonna lie, it's a bit of a wake-up call as it could have been much worse.
My questions - am I an idiot for riding this tri bike in the group ride in the first place? Anyone else feel the same on descents? I think if I were in an area with good roads it might be different, but here you can rarely find a smooth road where you can relax. At the very least I'm going to have to hang back on descents and be extra cautious, but maybe I should just ditch the tri bike and use the road for group rides. As I type this this is clearly the correct answer, but my justification was that I wanted to get time on the tri bike (don't have a trainer currently) and it's such a huge upgrade from my previous $1000 road bike it was hard to go back. Maybe restrict the tri bike to solo rides, and grab a trainer? I'll probably have to upgrade the road bike at the end of the year if I want to really train with one, as the current one is definitely holding me back.
Anyways, I had noticed that I felt a little uneasy on descents, basically because my weight is forward, the drops are low, my saddle is relatively high (tall lanky guy), and I just don't feel "locked in" like I would on a road bike. Well, this past week I was doing about 20mph down maybe a 3deg hill, in the back of the group, and blindly hit a bump/roller that popped my ass up and I went over the bars and supermanned on some rough pavement. No major damage but some serious road rash and gashes on my knees, elbows and stomach. Have to replace the saddle and the rear wheel might not be salvageable, and throws off my race prep for a few days. Not gonna lie, it's a bit of a wake-up call as it could have been much worse.
My questions - am I an idiot for riding this tri bike in the group ride in the first place? Anyone else feel the same on descents? I think if I were in an area with good roads it might be different, but here you can rarely find a smooth road where you can relax. At the very least I'm going to have to hang back on descents and be extra cautious, but maybe I should just ditch the tri bike and use the road for group rides. As I type this this is clearly the correct answer, but my justification was that I wanted to get time on the tri bike (don't have a trainer currently) and it's such a huge upgrade from my previous $1000 road bike it was hard to go back. Maybe restrict the tri bike to solo rides, and grab a trainer? I'll probably have to upgrade the road bike at the end of the year if I want to really train with one, as the current one is definitely holding me back.