I’m sure this has been asked many times but I’m asking again anyway…
I’ve got £3k to invest in a new bike and cant decide whether to get a time trial bike or road bike. I mainly compete in Olympic distance triathlons and only have time for 1-2 hour training rides at the weekend. I occasionally do the odd sportive with mates but not many.
At the moment I have a planet X carbon sl road bike and a giant TCR time trial bike with carbon wheels. I’m planning on selling both of these as they are both 5-6 years old now. My issue is at the moment I am no faster on time trial bike than my road bike. I’ve tested and they are almost identical on a 20 mile course (I average 21mph on both). My issue is I find the time trial bike extremely uncomfortable and don’t enjoy riding it whereas I love my planet x. However I bought the time trial bike second hand and have not had a proper fitting it so I think it could be the geometry that doesn’t suit me.
As I mainly do tri’s I like the idea of buying a new Excocet with deep section wheels and concentrating on only riding that to get fast, but im worried it will still be uncomfortable. On the other hand I have been looking at Canyons lovely CF SLX with full SRAM red and mavic sr wheels (6.2kg!) and I can always put on some aerobars on it.
I cant buy both so would be interesting in your thoughts?
Exocet Dura-ace and RT-57 105 total 3k…
It’s hard to get a good tri position on the old TCR Aeros - they were road frames with deep tubing. A tri specific bike will be easier to set up well which will lead to being significantly more comfortable and faster. Deep wheels only make a small additional difference though it appears the Exocet has them as stock. I would ask if the P-X wheels could be swapped out for Shimano RS80 Clinchers so you have easier tyre options.
IMO much more fun to have a nice TT bike and a decent road bike than just a slightly flasher TT bike.
Equally - just having a high end road bike holds you back in tri.
My tt bike was getting a new frame this season so I had to ride my 2012 Canyon Ultimate SLX with clip ons , swapped in my tt saddle and adjusted the fit. Came in 10th in an early middle distance(Bala), rode 5.16 at the Outlaw and came in 40th at Norseman, plus have a beautiful rode bike. If I had to choose 1 bike personally I would go road with a spare saddle and clip ons to allow a proper change in position.
I have to say the slx looks like a lovely bike. Its a shame Canyon dont sell one with aero wheels (except the top of the range £5k). Would love to know how much faster you are on a TT bike vs an SLX with aero bars?
The road bike is going to be more versatile so if you can only have one bike I think you have to go that route. Sure, some guys only have a TT bike as their only bike, but not many. Especially on undulating and wet British roads.
Marc you could also look at the new Ultimate CF SL, which is the same mold as the SLX but only slightly heavier. The top model comes with deep Mavic wheels and Ultegra gruppo, tipping the scales at 7,15kg for about 2200 pounds. If you’re doing tri’s mostly then weight should not be the most important metric I guess. Of course, you could also go with the Aeroad CF, there are lots of combo’s with deep wheels and they’re all in the SLX ballpark pricewise.
how weird - I have an Exocet (mk1) and just picked my SLX SL (2013 model) last week
I would never consider racing anything other than my exocet for my tris and TTs. I got the SLX for road races and sunny days, and it’s a wonderful ride, but nowhere near as fast as the PX in a time-trial
depends how important the tris are to you I suppose - if I was only going to have one bike I would have the SLX, but until very recently I had the Exocet and a cheap Allex for training on, and it’s been great
wish I could be bothered to post photos, but over a fairly flat 25TT I went from:
1:02:39 (specialized allez, clip on aero bars, 32 spoke training wheels, road helmet, bibs and nike pro baselayer top)
57:02 (PX Exocet, Giro advantage, shoe covers, PX82/101 wheelset with wheelcover, same clothes)
so over 5 mins quicker on a similar day, same course. SLX will be comparable to allez on that course, maybe even slower with the r-sys wheels! obviously you could bring the gap down with the helmet, better wheels etc
This may have already been said, but the BEST thing to do if you are going new TT/tri bike is to get a fitting and SEE if the Exocet would work for you, before you go out and buy it…
Just changed my mind. Rode out on my restored tt (Van Nicholas Blaze) over a hilly 80k loop (including climbs like the Bwlch in S Wales) and came in with a huge chunk off my usual time. I’d go for the Exocet (have it fitted, Bike Science used to do this in the UK) and then maybe a cheep roadie from the back of cycling weekly ?