Let’s say you had just come in to $2500 in cold, hard, cash. Let’s also say that your wife says you can spend it any way you see fit.
Finally, let’s say that 4 months ago you purchased what you consider to be the best road/tri bike that the world has to offer - it fits you perfectly, it handles well in the aero position despite the relatively shallow STA (say… 74.5, but ridden at 73).
You love the bike, you ride it well, but you think maybe, just maybe, you can get a slight speed and run advantage on a steeper bike, that will also fit just as well and ride just as well as the bike you have now. You could retrofit the existing bike, but you really like having a road bike and can descend better in the drops than on bull horns, and deep down you know that retrofitting isn’t worth it in the long run.
$2500 will get you in to this new bike, equipped with Campy 10 speed - but you can’t afford the wheels and must race on Ksyrium SSC SLs.
Alternatively, you can go out and get the Zipps or Heds or whatever, and slap on the Hed aero bars, saving the rest of the cash for a rainy day, knowing that the steep geometry bike would be a few more years out.
this is what i would do. i would buy a swank steep frame of my choosing. 1800 bucks worth. that will get you anything you might desire, and my desire would be a custom steel steep tri bike in my fave color with the cable stops where i like and every millimeter made to me and me alone. 18 hundie will get you that from anybody - damn and howdy would that be sweet. or you could buy a p3, i suppose - whatever. now, take that remaining 8 hundie and buy a 105 build kit for the road. swap the road bike’s parts to the tri bike and build the road bike back up as a 105 machine. go race the 105 road bike and when you hit the mattresses care not. ride your new ultra-killer tri bike and be glad.
Perhaps the thing to keep in mind is that the biggest benefits from steep geometry are not effected on the bike, but on the run following a hard bike. That is why Tour de FRance riders are almost always much shallower that non-drafting triathletes.
Steep geometry may make you somewhat faster on the bike. It may not. But it is very, very likely to make you several minutes faster on the run.
brah…i could have written this same post that you did.
i’m in the exact same boat…all the way down to the ksyrium ssc sl’s…it’s crazy.
i had my PERFECT road bike “retro-fitted” this last weekend. i rode for an hour 2 days ago and my favorite, perfect road bike absolutely SUCKED. i took off the shorty aerobars and now i’m DEFINITELY going shopping and going to buy that tri-specific bike.
buy the tri-specific bike…you can always get the race wheels next year…
The frame I desire would be another Yaqui - I think they are excellent, and had cash literally not fallen from the sky and hit me on the head, this would be a moot point. I love the current bike, and in training bricks I have already noticed a huge improvement over my performances last year, and I am planning on racing this bike at the World’s Toughest Half so I can handle the descents better. It’s just that I would love to find a way to shed some minutes from my combined bike and run times over IM and 1/2 IM distances like Coeur d’Alene, Vineman, Wildflower, (Kona? only if I win the lottery…), etc., not to mention the sprint and Oly races.
well there you go, john. since you have manna from heaven itself burning a hole in your pocket give some of it to ves and let him set you up with that frame. go all out, my man! from what i have seen there are none better. get new yaqui and fork for 17-18 hundie, rebuild the road bike as a 105 practical type ride, and you are styling.
as an aside, are you sure you will run faster coming off a steep bike? not to slay sacred cows or anthing, but i didn’t. i set up a steep bike last spring, rode it and tried it and evaluated it and got used to it and in the end i ran exactly the same off it as i did on my slammed road bike. didn’t make a gnat’s eyelash of difference to me, after three steps, if that much. i liked it OK on straight flattish riding, no question it was better there. but i do not like that sort of riding. just saying . . . . . . . . .
Steep geometry works for a lot of people but isn’t the best for everybody. I run better off a steep angled bike but my wife runs just as well off either. Also, she’s just as fast slammed on her road bike as steep on her P2K.
Here’s what I’d do - spend $400-600. of ebay for an older Quinatana Roo Kilo. Still a great bike with a genuine 78 degree seat. Try it out and see if the steep angle suits you. If not sell it for what you paid for it on ebay. And if it does, then do the same and get a newer bike.
I had a similar experience as T-T-N. Raced a 73 deg road bike with clip ons for a few seasons. Bought a 76 deg. tri bike. Comparing times saw no noticeable improvement in bike or run times. Certainly not a controlled experiment, but I’d disagree with anyone who says a steep angled bike will necessarily improve run times. I’m still happy with having two bikes if for no other reason than the fact that I can leave the tribike set up ready to race & don’t have to pull the clip-ons & shed the aero wheels between races on the roadbike.
