maybe 1 minute over 40k, clean up the cable routing well - you can save lots of time there, check out http://www.timetrial.org/aerodynamics.htm for more info on the subject

Did the ultegra come with the bike? If so it wouldn't hurt to get a little more up-to-date compenets on it. A five hour Ironman time would, (I'd tend to guess) come down between five and twenty minutes. The five is minimal aerodynamic advantage, while the twenty is switching to a very aero bike made of carbon, titanium, or a beam to make it more comfortable so ride faster longer.
Just my guess.

---

I don't work here, I just live here

I've been riding a POS trek road bike retrofitted to 78 degrees, stock box rims and clip on aerobars, STI shifting on Sora. I recently bought a P2k. When I first got the P2k the position from the LBS was *almost* identical to the position I was already riding. I did a 30' TT and I was 0.9 mph faster.

After spending quite a bit of time using the fit information on these pages and John Cobb fit articles I appear to be 2 mph faster.

I think that I am on the highest end of the improvement scale and the 2mph total improvement may include about 0.5 mph of increased engine.

 Probably an hour and a half in an Ironman distance. Enough said ,go spend a few grand and quit being a poser. Our economy sucks so think of it as a rolling retirement present to yourself. Bar none every new bike I got I was way faster at least for the first couple rides. Aloha G

Not everybody is a spoild bratt that can spent any cash on any bike they want. If it would go after my wicked mind, I would have bought a new bike years ago.
And even if you do have the cash flow ligned up, not thinking accordingly before you buy, hence posting some questions on a forum like this one, is not only testament of being spoild but ignorance and lack of intelligence.

Triathlon is an optimization problem! You can't go out and be real strong on the run but suck on the bike. Even if you are a pro, you need to take cutts somewhere in order to be a balanced athlete. Triathlon as a whole, training, equipment, raceing...it's all about optimizing.

Therefore, going out there and spend 4k on a new bike might not be the best solution to make you a faster athlete on race day.

Agret, is the irony in your post intentional?

---

"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

I would think the time gain would be minimal, couple of minutes at best, since you already have good wheels and won't change those. The evidence, look at the pro's. Every year they change bikes and their bike times remain pretty much the same, on average, even going back to those years when your bike was new.

Unless your frame is failing or very flexible (unlikely with 5 hour bike splits) a new bike is unlikely to do much for your time. It would probably do something, but not much.

---

--------------
Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

I've found through personal experience, that the improvement in your bike split is directly proportional to the money you spend on your bike.

As evidence: last October I spent an absolute fortune on a new custom titanium tri bike. After only a few rides, I realized immediately that I was NOT noticeably faster than I had been a week earlier on my old bike. But now I had a really big problem: I was an MOPer on a top AGer bike. This would simply not work. I would be exposed as a fraud. All my fellow MOPers would laugh at me as they passed me on their MOPer bikes, saying, "what, you think you better than us just cause you got the bike?!" Oh the shame! And my wife! She'll be saying, "my husband spent more on his bike than my first car, but I'm still waiting just as long in the hot sun at T2 as last year!!!" Not to mention my own buyer's remorse-laiden conscience saying, "you knew it wasn't about the bike, stupid!"

So I had to show "them" that it was worth the money by secretly putting in the time to actually become a better cyclist. And it worked. My half 1/2 IM bike split by 31 minutes this year! And I owe it all to the bike! ;)

GBJ,

yes the irony is intentional! You can see from the other replies that the question I ask is not a clear cutt at all. Weather you can acctually gain a lot from an aero bikeframe is not obvious to me at all and others think the same way. So just going out there and put a couple k's down in order to jumpstart the US economy and "quit being a poser", I don't think so. If you have a 80k yearly income, no kids, no other life but work and train and no future to take care of, well yes then you might be able spend the bugs without too much thinking (irony intentional).

Frank,

now you reflect my thoughts right there.
Wonder if there are more people thinking like that.

Don't get me wrong, I luster for a P3 too, big times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not eggsactli wot i waz refferrring too.

---

"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

Kannst ja mal in einer anderen sprache schreiben.
C'est ca que tu veux dire?
Wenn nid, sorry schuesch bisch halt e schliimschiisser!

Hope you where not refering to spelling or grammar troubles!

malheureusement...oui

---

"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

Why do new golf clubs make you feel like you play better? Why do new shoes make you feel like you run faster? It's the psychological side of sport (which should never be disregarded - we are humans, you know)... if you can afford it and want it, buy a new bike, enjoy it. If it fits, you certainly won't be going any slower. If others are bitter about your new shiny P3 or KM40... just smile... it's THEIR problem.

---

___________________________________



http://irondad06.blogspot.com/

http://irondad.blogspot.com/

True.

Especially Ironman races are a very psychological game.
But that's exactly what I'm talking about, the other way around though.

My bike has done many long and short distance races and did never let me down. Having my trusty steed under my ass is a true psychological advantage, passing the guy on his new P3 and LG helmet is a priceless confidence boost!

GBJ,

Ich sehe schon, Du lebst das Detail.
Mais c'est l'image entiere qui fait l'impression.
Wenn Du super schoen mahlen kannst aber das ganze Bild ecklig ist...

I hope you don't always get bugged down into those details

There is no doubt you are a cunning linguist. The only image I have is based upon what you have furnished me with. The devil is in the detail.

---

"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

There are a couple of areas in which a new bike will make you faster
1. bar end shifters vs STI will end up giving you more than you think if having STI means you don't shift when you need to and just power over small hills or don't make the most out of all your gears.
2. On my retrofitted road bike I couldn't get near low enough in front. In fact, when I used Dan's formula for the first time on my new P2k, I actually posted my numbers on this forum for a sanity check, I just couldn't believe that anyone was actually supposed to ride that low. Now that I'm there, I can't believe how fast it is.

Umm, spaghetti...

I am sorry if I offended you my post from last night was meant to be a blanket response to all of us who probably spend too much time and money on going fast and not training enough. I am not calling you a poser or do I advocate spending money that could be spent for such things as retirement to buy more toys.
If you look at the times of most of the posts, this forum probably costs American companies in the millions of $ in salaries of guys at work screwing around at the computer. Your posts at 0807,0907,0919, & 1102 today would indicate some major jonesing on the internet this morning. If you could have gone and done a track interval session and a bike tt brick during this period It would probably have made you faster than a new frame. Or if you are at the office, you can run stairs on the bathroom break.
My thoughts on racing are that if you are not going for the overall win then you are posing at it. g. Be it an age handicap, weight handicap, skill level or some other subset of the race. Winning is the victory everyone else is just along for the ride.
If it don't go, chrome it. G

"this forum probably costs American companies in the millions of $ in salaries of guys at work screwing around at the computer"

Yeah. We probably shouldn't attempt to actually determine this value. I reqlly don't want to lose my job. Then I couldn't afford my internet connection.