Okay, I don’t want to get everyone too excited here, I know this is a heavily debated issue.
How can I get a steep seat tube angle frame with 700c wheels? Is it possible? I’m 5’8-'9
and want to ride a 54" tri frame with 700c wheels. I just bought a 650 P3 and I swear that I can peddle my road bike with 700’s much faster.
Tell me I’m nuts like my local bike shop and I’m taking up basket weaving.
Any thoughts?
If you’re thinking Cervelo, have a look at a 52 cm frame. It comes with 700 wheels and is about the same size as a 54cm with 650’s.
QR and Litespeed have 53CM bikes with 700C wheels. The blade and saber both have 78 degree seat-tube angles. Tiphoon and Caliente have 76.5 degree seat-tube angles. QR angles are a little more slack but Litespeed is fairly steep, not as steep as the 80 degrees you can get from a Cervelo but plenty steep none-the-less.
The difference is not from the fact that the wheels are 650c. You either can or can not ride the road bike faster. It doesn’t sound like you actually tested it. Going by feel is very error prone.
You may have a bad position. Your wheel could be rubbing the frame. Your wheels could have bad bearings. Many things could be happening, but it can’t be the wheel size.
If you are normally proportioned, you could probably get low enough on a 700c bike at your size. If you have short legs, maybe you can’t.
Thanks for the feedback. I don’t want to beleive it, but I can tell you that their is a difference that I cannot explain. I have tried riding them side by side and I can easily maintain a higher speed on my road bike. From a comfort standpoint, the tri bike takes the cake by far. Someone I spoke with thought that because I typically ride bigger gears, lower cadence that I was not conditioned to riding faster to keep the small wheels turning. I don’t know…this is proabably all wrong too…but I do know that I am much slower. I’ll try riding with my seat back in a road postion, maybe that will help.
I am also 5’8" or 9" and ride a 52cm road bike and a 50cm tt frame (center to top) of the top tube with an inseam of approx 30" wear 32" inseam pants. I am sorry but I think a 54cm bike is too big for you if measured center to top, some tri bikes measure center to top of seatpost which sticks out. A 54cm with 650 wheels is probably the right size but a 54cm with 700 wheels is probably to big to be able to get low enough.
Just my opinion, I would ride it first before buying.
bob
Two bikes…one 650 one 700…same gearing…same cadence…650 will be slower…go up a chainring size or two and see if that fixes the speed issue. You should never go slower on a Cervelo and certainly not on a P3. M’thinks the issue lies within the gearing (found the same thing when I went from a 700 to a 650 Softride Powerwing)