My wife needs a new bike to replace her old Felt B-1. This was a fast bike but she found it way too twitchy so she was always nervous riding it. Would this “twitchiness” just be a function of tri-bike geometry, especially with the small frame size (48cm) or are there tri-bikes out there that give a more forgiving ride (even if ultimately slower)? Will she be better switching back to a road bike (she doesn’t have the same problem with her old Giant carbon fiber road bike, although it’s really a bit too big for her)? Would 700 wheels help vs 650?
If anybody has any recommendations for something that feels pretty stable and comfortable for less than $2k, I would like to hear them.
Not sure about tri bikes but just finished getting an Orbea Dama set up for my wife. She loves it…not too twitchy and nowhere near the cadillac tourer she used to ride.
My wife also finds her 48cm P2K to be twitchier than her 51 cm road bike. In fact my tri bike is twitchier than my road bike. Just the nature of the beast. They road race on shallow angles and ride solo on steep for a reason. If she’s uncomfortable with a tri bike then she should look at a good handling road bike.
If your wife fits a 51 cm road bike, for about he 2 K price may I suggest the Cervelo Super Prodigy as a consideration. It handles like a dream and you can’t beat that steel ride. Unfortunately the smallest size is 51 cm.
The twitching is probably caused by a bad fit; aerobars not positioned right, crooked handlebars, a seat to far forward, ect…
I ride a QR as a tri-bike (I do all my training on it too.) It is far from twitchy. It’s rock solid in the aerobars and it corners fine.
Try getting her fitted a little better maybe. If all else fails a $5,000 bike is always faster (just ask Trek.)
is she even using the aero bars on the tri bike? If not no wonder she finds it twitchy, esp at slow speeds. Tri bikes are built to be ridden fast and aero so if she doesn’t like being aero a road bike would be a wiser choice? If she’s not comfortable in that position it could be just a bad fit which could be corrected easily - something you should at least consider before shelling out on a new bike…