What’s the best road bike for triathlon? Or put a different way, what bike is best at attaching a set of clip on aerobars, moving the seat, and being in a decent tri position?
A few internet articles listed things like a $12,000 Parlee, but I’m thinking more budget-friendly and accessible to local bike shops carrying Specialized, Giant, Cannondale, and Trek.
TIA
Felt AR has reversible seatpost to reach clip ons better. Or, what I did for 5 years before getting dedicated tri bike was use the profile design fast forward seatpost. You need a standard 27.2 or 31.6 round seatpost on your road bike so it wouldn’t work for bikes with proprietary seat posts but I found that to be an excellent solution to have just one bike for training and racing. Budget friendly too.
But essentially that means any road bike with standard round seatpost could be a good road bike for tris.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money unless it makes you feel like you’re getter more. The Felt AR2 and Argon 18 both have reversible posts. I believe the Giant Propel allows some adjustment of this as well, although I’m not sure if the post can be reversed.
Another option is to buy a used Tri specific bike. Some good deals out there.
Why would you buy a road bike?
If I were shopping for a dual-use bike, I would get the Felt AR. No brainer. It is a very aero road bike, and it is designed for dual use in mind. And, it looks totally sweet. And it has some killer high-value price points.
I would get a Specialized Venge ViaS or a Felt AR3 and upgrade the wheels. What I like about the Venge is that you can buy an clip on aerobar specifically made for the bike.
If I were shopping for a dual-use bike, I would get the Felt AR. No brainer. It is a very aero road bike, and it is designed for dual use in mind. And, it looks totally sweet. And it has some killer high-value price points.
Yeah, the AR would be the first place I’d look. The AR2 with Di2 would be ideal, but even the entry level AR5 would do nicely.
Kestrel Talon and there’s not even a close second
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if you are still unsure to do triathlon for longer term, road bike is a good way to go
my suggestion is Cervelo S3
you have a good solution to enjoy pure road bike feeling on mountain courses, not stiff like the S5 or Venge (and much cheaper!) and you have a decent aero frame
you can customize it easily with short aero bars and with a bend seat post, both from profile design (as example).
i have arranged my wife’ S3 with rear saddle bottles with Xlab 400 wing, aero bottle on the frame if needed for the Ironman distance and short profile design bars (that you can easily remove in case you have a granfondo or such).
venge and s5 are better for tri but again, very stiff and too expensive in my opinion
Those Redshift Sports clip-on aerobars and seatpost seem to be a well thought out solution for converting a(ny) road bike to a triathlon bike.
Local guy in the Boston area won his AG at the national TT a few years ago on a S5 set up with tri bars. I think it was due to UCI regulations that he went with that bike. He is also a 2x AG world champ in some shorter track racing. I’d think that any of the aero road bike could do the trick, but why not get a dedicated tri bike?
I have spent a lot of time researching this. Trek shop in san diego puts trifolks, who don’t want to buy a dedicated tribike, on domane with clip-ons. Says they have had excellent results. Jay Reale completed 2 IM’s on that setup, and told me he was fast and comfortable. I’m falling into the camp that states “go for the most comfortable setup, and the time will follow, with some aero penalty, but you will be able to run.” Then, when not tri-training, you have a wonderful roadie. Not as sexy as a tribike, IMHO, but it should be able to get you to a finish line comfortably. Local shop attainable, and I see them on sale frequently. Jay, if you r around, please chime in.
OP might not understand the emphasis on seat posts.
OP, arguably the most important difference between tri bikes and road bikes is the angle of the seat tube. Tri bikes have a steeper (more vertical) seat tube that moves the seat forward. Road bikes tend to have seat tubes in the range of 72-74deg, and tri bikes around 78-82deg. So the grassroots way to turn a roadbike into a reasonable tri bike is to get a seat post that will allow you to push your saddle forward towards the handlebars, then put the aerobars on.
Note that I’ve ignored the fact that some tri bikes have low front ends. IMO that’s not the direction to go for one’s first tri bike.
The idea of “best” isn’t going to work. There’s a million perfectly satisfactory choices. Instead, I’d orient on a few characteristics of the roadbike. Get a bike that uses a conventional “tube” seat post. Since you might be swapping out seatposts, a seatpost that is some odd oval shape in order to slide into an odd ovalized seat tube would be a bad idea. Also, take a look at the specs of the bike and orient on bike with steep seat tubes, say >73deg. Less than 73deg and you might have trouble getting your seat far enough forward to get a position you like for triathlons.
Finally, be emotionally prepared to buy a triathlon oriented saddle. Road saddles and dedicated tri saddles are kinda different because in triathlon folks tend to rotate their pelvis forward a bit more.
I’m biased because I have a Cervelo S1 for this exact reason.
I have a 2nd seat post with a Cobb JOF55 saddle and clip on aero bars. I went with the S1 because of budget. Now that I have Flo 30 wheels it is a nice comfortable ride with reasonable speed and flexibility on a budget.
If budget were not an issue I would get an S5 or S3.
I have a Planet X Stealth Pro (tri frame) that I use as a road bike because it has the front end geometry of a road bike but is still slightly long in case I wanted to put clip on bars on it.
Definitely a lot of good info in this thread.
I just did a HIM on a Specialized Tarmac with clip on aero bars and a redshift seatpost. If you’re looking to have a versatile bike that can pull both road duty and light tri duty, it’s pretty good, but its neigh impossible for me to get into a really solid tri position - I just cannot get the front end low enough. That said, it still is a very comfortable and function system for me. The redshift seatpost gives you a 3-4 degree effective angle change, so I’m in the 78 degree area with it in the tri position. But still…its not the best and I will probably look to move to a dedicated tri bike in the future.
In talking about saddles, this is also a concern - if you are using redshift, you only really have one saddle. If you have 2 seatposts, then you can change saddles. I did find that the Specialized Power saddle works very well for me in both positions, so the advice to look at saddles is also a big one.
You can get the Argon 18 - Nitrogen or Nitrogen Pro with the reversible seat post.
You get the aero frames set and get in the perfect triathlon position with aerobars clipped to the handlebar.
I ride a Fuji Transonic. Liv Envie Advanced is a good women’s bike. Both are aero, reasonably light, with decent price/performance.
What’s the best road bike for triathlon? Or put a different way, what bike is best at attaching a set of clip on aerobars, moving the seat, and being in a decent tri position?
A few internet articles listed things like a $12,000 Parlee, but I’m thinking more budget-friendly and accessible to local bike shops carrying Specialized, Giant, Cannondale, and Trek.
TIA
I’m biased, but I bought a felt AR for those exact reasons. 99% of the time it’s a killer road bike, the other 1% of the time I have a very decent TT aero setup complete with a 78* seat.
Plus, they seem to be discounted a bit in their current form, so there might be an update coming soon. At least that’s what I’ve noticed the past few months around here.
+1 for the Felt AR!