I am in the market for a new tri bike and thought that since I won’t get that much (or as much as I’d like) for my other bike, why not convert to a road set up and keep the tri geometry but still ride in group rides comfortably.
Any positive/negative feedback? Would love to hear your experience if you have done this.
really depends on the bike.
if the head tube is really low you might need a wonky stem or lots of spacers to raise the bars up enough
it may handle worse if the wheelbase is aero-position optimized
and you might not be able to get the seat where you want it if the seat tube is very steep.
THAT said, yeah its usually fine unless you tend to carve twisty roads at the limit on the downhill or are very particular about fit.
I am in the market for a new tri bike and thought that since I won’t get that much (or as much as I’d like) for my other bike, why not convert to a road set up and keep the tri geometry but still ride in group rides comfortably.
Any positive/negative feedback? Would love to hear your experience if you have done this.
I have a 06 Felt B2 (pre-carbon) frame I never ended up using so I’m building it up as a “road bike” with clip-ons. I guess I could use it for tt’s or tri’s depending on the course but will probably end up giving it to my son for tt’s/tri’s. I doubt it will ever be used as a true road bike but it may pass for such. I am interested to see how it handles though.
thinking of doing the same thing.
I have a kuota kalibur and just bought a p2c frameset.
I like the kalibur’s ride, and it isn’t steep. But I also don’t know whther to sell the frame and keep the cash.
I hope to get around 1K for it. not sure though
Not to mention that the top tube will likely be overly long. Drop bars do not a road bike make any more than clip-ons make a roadie into a tri bike.
Will it be functional? Probably. Optimized? Hardly. Good enough? Answerable only by the user.
I am not trying to convert to a true road bike. I thought it would be nice to have the option to ride the road set up if I wanted to. Not looking for perfect fit at all. Heck, I don’t have a perfect fit with my tri set up.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s179/show_pony_photos/newpics004.jpg
Drops aren’t too comfortable over long periods (will fix that next off-season with a shallower bar), otherwise works a treat for 4-5 months of the year 
.
Great idea! I’m doing this to my P3c right now. I left my steerer tube uncut from the factory - (I know, I HUGE nono here on ST, but I don’t care). Swap out the tribars with the road dropbars, STI shifters, and go find the nearest group ride. Also, Chrissie Wellington raced (and won) on her P2 setup with a road bar & STIs (though she used clip-on aero bars). Good luck.
Since I do all of my training on a tri bike, a few years ago I jumped into a USCF bike race. I have a P3 Cervelo that I just took the bars off of, and put on a nice road set up. Took a little while to dial in the STI shifters and such, but I figured that it would be better to race at pretty much the same geometry that I train on. Moved the seat back a couple degrees and it was all good. If I did some training on a road bike, I would have just used one, but I do not…
unfortunately, my tri bike (Kestrel Talon) was a road bike first, then a tri bike, and now I think I’m going to convert it back to a road bike to sell. It probably doesn’t provide any assistance as it is more of a road geometry anyway (and one of the reasons I hated it as a tri bike - I ride very far forward and couldn’t get it to where I wanted it).
I have seen others convert their tri bikes to road bikes in the off season, they usually slid their seats back on the rails, or bought a setback seatpost. Not really a big deal for anyone I’ve heard doing it.
Craigster -
Funny you should mention the Kestrel Talon. I have a talon SL and I set it up for TTs when I got it a couple years ago. It seemed fine. After no TTs in 2008, I converted it to road set up with clip-on bars this year. Then I decided to do my first Tri in September and regretted it. However, I’ve spent the last few months tweaking things to try to get in the best position I can with the road setup and wound up moving my seat forward to a non-UCI legal position and getting a long, heavily angled stem. I’m riding literally right on the nose of the saddle now.
I never used to ride particularly low or forward when I had the TT setup, but now I’m feeling like the further forward and down I am the better I feel. I could switch back to TT bars, but at this point, the bike is too small for me with my new position even if I did that. I “might” be able to get low enough, though I doubt it. but I’d definitely be cramped.
Lo and behind, I tried a friend’s P3 last week and it got me in the perfect position. So I’m pretty certain that I need a 77-78 degree seat angle with a similar reach to the 54cm P3. I broke the news to my wife and she shook her head knowingly
Anything is doable but that doesn’t make it optimal. We had a guy in our roadie group several years back with a converted QR tri bike complete with 650c wheels. The hard core roadies and even us trigeeks in the group rolled our eyes since we all used our road bikes for group riding, but he was a strong rider and could still hang with everyone else.
Personally, I’d sell it and pick up a proper road bike used on ebay.
I have an 07 Kuota K-Factor that I built up as a crossover bike, and it works great (see link below for picture). I have a 2nd seatpost and saddle combo on for pure road riding that creates a slacker seat angle, and if I want to get really low for a TT I can reverse the stem. However, I usually ride the bike set up as shown, both for road workouts and multisport events. Works great, even if it isn’t ST - PC.
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr228/bcullins/Wool%20Capitol%202009/Kuota-1.jpg
In the process of doing that right now to my Blue T14. The seat post allows for a lot of adjustment fore and aft, so I figure I can get a good enough position out of it. I’m in the process of selling off the TT bars and bar-ends to buy STI, road bars and a shorty aero bar. I only do sprints and am going to ride the new roadie (or ITU) set-up next year for training and races. I just can’t justify the time and effort to switch back and forth between a full TT and a roadie set-up. My mind may be changed after the first race next year though so I’ll just see how it goes.
I just did this about 3 months ago to a Scott Plasma. Just moved the saddle back about halfway and that was that. Maybe I’m not “in-tune” with my bike, but I don’t notice much difference in handling. It turned out well, I think.
Just finished turning my Blue into a road bike. Only been able to ride it once like this, but so far so good.
I ride my cervelo p1 with drops. It takes some getting use to being so low - in the drops.
Ivan Dominguez did what you are talking about… and he won a bunch of races (sprints) on a Fuji Aloha TT bike (A CF1 i think?) with a road fork (and also an SLR T1 saddle)
Could you please tell me what exactly do I need to buy in order to convert my CANYON SPEEDMAX AL into a road bike?
http://www.dqdev.net/blog/canyon-tri-2-road.jpg
Is it technically very challenging to do the conversion?
I have to do the conversion in order to participate in a 300Km race: http://www.cyklavaettern.com
Thanks in advance!
I am not trying to convert to a true road bike. I thought it would be nice to have the option to ride the road set up if I wanted to. Not looking for perfect fit at all. Heck, I don’t have a perfect fit with my tri set up.
I tried that before with an old Cannondale MS2000. Threw on some old drop bars and STI shifters. It wasn’t bad riding on the hoods, but way too low in the drops. Other than that, it was just like riding a bike . . . .