Recently decided to return my money spent on a new tv to spend towards triathlon.
I’m not too experienced with bike components so any comments/opinions will help!
Aero Helmet
Stock Cannondale slice 5
HED Wheels
Training wheels with gatorskin
Wetsuit: Zoot synergy, too tight on the shoulders now
I’m looking at aerobars, but i’ve narrowed it down to the 3Ts. My main concern is the aerodynamics then weight of it since it will be one of the first parts of the bike to hit the wind. I’m thinking between the brezza (red one) and the ventus team trial.
Also, I’m looking to upgrade my crankset, and put a new cassette on my hed wheels so I can switch between those and practice wheels. I was thinking about a sram red cassette but heard they make a lot of noise and that the tour team doesn’t even use it (is this true?). I may look into a force one if possible but it pretty weighs the same one as my shimano 105.
Wetsuit: I was thinking of getting a higher end 2XU, or a TYR Cat 5, any comments on significant differences?
Bike shorts: Been training on the bike with tri shorts. Even rode up to the top of mount lemmon with trishorts yesterday and I do not plan on doing that again. Haven’t heard anything bad about the De Soto 400 mile cycling short. Any other competitors that can give the 400 mile a challenge?
Glasses: Used to use the $10 walmart glasses until both of them broke. Is it worth paying $50+ for Oakleys?
That’s a lot of upgrades. I hope it was an expensive TV…
I’ll chime in on the Oaks. Buy them. Don’t get anything too crazy that will go out of style quickly because they’ll last you forever. Put them in your will.
I’m not sure about the shorts. I wear tri shorts on my tri bike and bibs/bike shorts on my road bike. Both work well in their specific application. I find my Pearl Izumi road shorts have more padding and are not as comfy as tri shorts on my tri bike.
I’ve got cheap Oakleys and some of the more expensive ones and there is little difference other than the style. The optics/lens quality seems very similar and that’s what’s important.
As far as the bike goes, how much money are you thinking of investing in it? You aren’t going to get much bang for your buck by upgrading the bars and drivetrain. IMO, you’ll be significantly faster with an aero helmet and race wheels and leaving the other stuff as is…
Thanks for the input on the Oakleys! I’m probably going to get some cheaper ones for now.
So far the only upgrade i’ve made on my bike is getting the hed jet 6/9. I have an aero helmet so I thought the next step I could make is the basebar and cutting the weight on some heavier components.
You can still find old stock new 3T Breeza that are non-compliant for 1/2 price at retailers that still have them. If you only race triathlons this is a steal on some pretty amazing bars.
TYR Cat 5 suits are great. They are cut very slim. I’m 6’ and 174 lbs and XL fits me but I need someone to zip me up as it is tight across the chest. Once I’m in the thing it feels fine, no restriction for such a tight fit.
I didn’t know that Oakley even made glasses for $50! I have a set of Oakley Flak Jackets. Love them for the run but they are just ok on the bike.
Oakley’s are great, watch the classifieds on here and you’ll find a bargin.SRAM Red 1090 cassette is nice, but not necessary unless every single gram really matters to you. Get a 1070 cassette for sub $80 and you’ll be glad you saved $100+Check out the DeSoto First Wave suits. Phenomenal suit!the 400-Mile shorts from DeSoto are worth every penny. I’ve got Sugoi, LG, Pearl Izumi and the only one’s I’ll buy from now on are DeSoto.
SRAM Red 1090 cassette is nice, but not necessary unless every single gram really matters to you. Get a 1070 cassette for sub $80 and you’ll be glad you saved $100+
Do you have a set of practice wheels now? One thing you may want to do is just to get a chain whip and cassette lock tool so you can just switch out the cassette between each. Once you get it down it only takes a minute or two.
I think a nice wetsuit that fits should be high on anyone’s list… You might consider buying used… I bought my Zoot Zenith 2.0 on ebay for $200 and it looked like it had just been tried on once in the store…
I would say to leave whatever components are on now until they wear down…
If you want to spend your money on the fastest things first, make sure you have these:
Nice tires/ latex tubes
Aero helmet
Get your bike fit to you
Then move on to aerobars and other things like aero brakes…
I can’t help with much else because I’ve never had a chance to try any of the things you listed.
The rule limits the geometry of a bike component to an aspect ratio of three-to-one, meaning that the aerobars may not have a profile deeper than three times its width.
Original 3T Brezza = $400 (UCI Non-Compliant)
New 3T Brezza II = $800 (UCI Compliant)
To my understanding there is no other differences between the bars. Somehow I don’t think the UCI adopted this rule specifically for aerobars, but more for the frame design as those profiles were getting thinner and deeper with every subsequent release. But that is just speculation on my behalf.
If you only race triathlons then save youself $400 and be happy!
The rule limits the geometry of a bike component to an aspect ratio of three-to-one, meaning that the aerobars may not have a profile deeper than three times its width.
Original 3T Brezza = $400 (UCI Non-Compliant)
New 3T Brezza II = $800 (UCI Compliant)
To my understanding there is no other differences between the bars. Somehow I don’t think the UCI adopted this rule specifically for aerobars, but more for the frame design as those profiles were getting thinner and deeper with every subsequent release. But that is just speculation on my behalf.
If you only race triathlons then save youself $400 and be happy!
these bars should be more aerodynamic than the uci legal version?
yeah i can challenge the desoto 400 mile. castelli body paint, and the castelli ganna collection are excellent shorts. well made, very comfotable. sometimes u just cant beat italiano
Surprised no one has chimed in on these 2 items yet:
Powermeter
Swim Coach (I know you were talking about bike gear, not swimming technique). I have no idea how fast/slow you swim. But if you suck at swimming like me, you might be able to find a few minutes in the pool for much less money than a set of race wheels.
I haven’t considered a power meter, but it will be on my list of to upgrade/buy. I do suck at swimming as I can only swim around 2:00/200 pace. My 50m breastroke is somehow faster than my 50m freestyle. I live almost 10 minutes away from trisports so I’ll be taking a 45 minute swim lesson to fix my butchered form and hopefully go sub 2min/200
