I am an almost complete newbie to multisport- I have approx 15 years recreational bicycling experience and now one season of participating in some sprint tris and in one olympic distance. It’s FUN! I am now training to compete (vs. participate) for this year (working through Friel’s Bible) and hoping to place top 5 in my age group for some sprints/international distances and I also want to do a half IM. Since I want to be more competitive, and because I love new gear, I am also looking to race on a tribike in leiu of my roadbike.
I found myself in Texas recently (I reside in Honolulu) with some spare time and called bicyclesports to arrange a fitting. After a 5 hour trip (short by TX standards- but anything more than 20min is long in HI) I found myself at the shop. John Cobb himself was available and he took plenty of time to position me. He put me a conventional tri-position (not slam). As this was an impromtu trip, I was unpreparred- didn’t bring my shoes/pedals or even clothing to go for a ride, but we made do. I had a very positive experience- JC treated me like an important customer, even though I am a beginner who just happened to be in the area.
So… now comes the decision of the bike. I am sure that I will get some more direction from bicyclesports when the time comes (I am still socking away some $$$)- but I thought I might get some input from the forum. I would like to purchase from bicyclesports- I feel that they have earned my bussiness, and I am not happy with the service that my LBS has been able to provide. This limits me to a few brands- Javelin, Aegis, Griffin, and Kestrel (maybe QR too). I am preparing to spend $2-3 thousand. A big minus is that I will not be able to test ride before I buy due to my location- but I am hoping the expert fit will make up for that disadvantage. I know that as far as looks go (and from what I have read on this forum) I like the Cervelo P3- but bicyclesports is not a dealer. I can always pay JC $$$ for the fitting and then buy wherever- but I feel that he would offer alot of follow-up service if I went through him. Any thoughts or reccommendations? Thanks!