Just finished my first IM (Roth) with a pretty decent bike split of 4:57. Just after the race this goofy guy comes up to me and says: “wow, amazing you can go that fast with a bike like that”. I have a brand new cannondale (road bike) with aerobars and Campagnolo G3 wheels. I thought that was a fast bike. Would I really gain that much by buying say, a cervelo p3 with disc wheels, aero helmet and all that stuff? Or will it just make me more comfortable so I can run faster? What time do you guys think I could have done on a top of the line bike given everything else was the same?
As someone who has no desire to do anything as long as an ironman in the near future, I would think that comfort on your bike would become increasingly important as you increase the distance of the ride. I don’t know many people who do those long charity rides on their tri bikes, for the simple reason that nobody wants to ride on their nuts for that long. At least I don’t.
Then again, I’m a beginner and I don’t really know shit about IM.
Just add the aero helmet and disc - gives you a few mins over an IM bike. Most people can’t stay very aero (especially on a P3) for very long, so that sort of negates the P3 “effect”. Comfort is key in an IM. I assume you are set up pretty well with a sub 5 hour IM bike split.
Can anyone give a more specific advise about how much time will be saved? If the time gained is 10 minutes or more I would consider putting out the money…
Good luck with that! John Cobb and other aero gurus hang out here from time to time. We all know that improving our engine helps most. It all adds up for sure (i.e. internal cable routing offset by my number flapping on my race belt, etc.). Since you are already pretty fast, buying more speed (i.e. 10 mins) will get pretty expensive pretty quick. A Zipp Z9 wheelset is about guaranteed to save you some time, but at what cost? You could probably spend time in an aero windtunnel for that and check out all kinds of fun positions - I’d love to do that
Congratulations. That’s a great bike ride at Roth. I hope that rest of your race went well. Don’t worry about what the “experts” are nattering about.
At the biggest local 1/2 IM race in our area last weekend I got out and cycled about 80K of the bike race for my own training ride. I would say that well over half of the field, many tricked out on sleek aero TT/Triathlon bikes were not even riding in the aero-position on the return leg into the head-wind. All sitting up like a parachute! So I am not sure how much more comfortable these bikes are to these people. Stick with what works for YOU!
it took me a year, but i’ve finally got the right saddle, stem length, and basebar height to feel more comfortable riding my tri bike in the aero position than on the basebar. I hate riding the tri bike sitting up. I can ride all day on my elbows now. A tri bike is better if you can find the sweet spot. if you don’t want to work on that, don’t, but I will tell you I gained 2 minutes on my bike split in a 12 mi bike leg my first race on my Dual. and 2 minutes on the 5K . Now part of that is the bike, part is that I was getting better at tris after about a year of doing them. I really like riding the tri bike now. All the time.
