It’s been said that if your riding a tri bike and you get out of the aero position, you’re worse off than being on a road bike.
What is the best way to climb with a tri bike?
On a road bike if I’m going to spin up a climb, I’m seated on the back of
the saddle with my hands on the hoods or the tops. Is it wrong to do the same on the tri bike?
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It’s been said that if your riding a tri bike and you get out of the aero position, you’re worse off than being on a road bike.
Who the hell said that?
at a recent half ironman I did, that had lots of rolling hills, I was staying in the aero bars.
the people that were passing me were up out of the saddle and out of the aero bars.
so, N=1, maybe I was doing it wrong?
It’s been said that if your riding a tri bike and you get out of the aero position, you’re worse off than being on a road bike.
Who the hell said that?
IIRC it was Tom D himself re: tri bike fitting
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Slowman has an article on that somewhere around here. To paraphrase: He says to stay in the extension and spin till you can’t, and then stand up.
totally depends on how long/steep the climbs are, and whether you have the gearing to match… my personal experience: I like sitting up, scooting back, and holding onto the armrests for a long climb, trying to spin as much as I can; for a shorter roller, I’ll grab the pursuit ends, stand and hammer. For a really long climb, mix it up. Unless it’s like that for the entire course, I actually like having the excuse to sit up and stretch a little, mix up the muscle groups a bit… then I feel more relieved to get back low & aero to hammer again on the flats.
Yes, a tri bike doesn’t climb as well for the same reason you scooch back on your seat on your 73 degree road bike to, say 70 degrees - to recruit your hamstrings and come over the top, open your hip angle, etc. Climb much better this way for longer climbs you can’t just spin up or stand and mash over. Since a tri bike is already at least 76 degrees (usually more like 80), when you sit up and scoot back, you don’t have the same leverage (to use a word) in addition to the likely 2-5 lbs of extra weight.
Descending on a windy, hilly course - even worse still!
I’ve heard Dave Scott said that combo of sitting and standing is best.
It’s been said that if your riding a tri bike and you get out of the aero position, you’re worse off than being on a road bike.
What is the best way to climb with a tri bike?
On a road bike if I’m going to spin up a climb, I’m seated on the back of
the saddle with my hands on the hoods or the tops. Is it wrong to do the same on the tri bike?
.
I’d say don’t worry about sitting up on the tri bike while climbing (steep climbs, not gradual ones). At low speeds the aerodynamic cost isn’t all that much, and the change in position can be refreshing, i.e. be able to stand and climb for a bit. I often find hills to be a nice break during triathlons.
For the actual hilll you may be worse off than being on a road bike, but the hill is presumably some small fraction of the course. If the race is mostly hill, then you may consider a road bike.
What goes up must come down. And when you come down the extra speed you get from being aero will help you more than the couple of degrees are going to slow you down on the way up.
My take from Slowmans article is to stay in the aero position and shift to smaller gears to spin up a hill. That said it also depends on your gearing, your conditioning and the length of the hill. I have found that what Slowman says is true. I can stay seated in the aero position and shift gears to maintain a high cadence all the way down to about 8 miles per hour. This is faster then sitting up and or standing. I climb a minimum of 2500ft per day on my “flat” rides, with some climbs as long as 2.5 miles. I have tested this alot and I’ll stay seated and aero. The knowledge and use of gears is very important.
i have found a effective way to solve this problem.
I sent a athlete over a hill 30 times in the same session…it took a few hours. When he was done, he never asked again the question about how to climb on a tribike. He got his answer and now, he is pretty good at climbing on his tribike…