I’ve been riding a tri geometry bike for the past 4 years. Last week while my bike was being repaired I borrowed an old Giand Cadex road bike. I loved it. Now the guy I borrowed the bike from wants to sell it to me. I’ve read studies which have nicely documented that coming off a tri geometry going into the run is of benefit in run times (vs road geometry). I believe this and plan on doing my tris on my tri bike. The question I have is, given “specificity of training” is there any training disadvantage to riding a road bike 1/2 of the time during training. Secondly, is there any way to make a road bikes geometry more tri like?
You will hear a variety of opinions here. Ultimately, specificity of training dictates that the best approach would be to ride your tri bike all of the time and to ride it steep and low and adapt to that riding position. However, if riding a road bike is more enjoyable and as a result, you ride more, go for it. Also, a road bike is much more manageable when riding in a group. I have both and spend about half my time on each. No issues with switching back and forth. I just grab the one I feel like riding that day. Personally, I really like having both. I really did not like doing group rides on my tri bike.
There are many elite triathletes who do quite a bit of training on their road bike and switch to the tri bike during the season.
Mike
P.S. I wouldn’t worry about trying to make the road bike geometry more tri like.