I’m sure this has been asked a thousand times, but here is my specific situation. Any advice would be appreciated.
I just started racing and riding this fall. I borrowed a bike instead of purchasing because previous attempts to ride more than 10 miles left me with awful knee problems. This was my final test to see if I could ride without pain if I had a proper fitting bike. The experiment worked and after some trial and error I was able to ride and race. As nice as my husband’s and girlfriend’s bike were, the time has come for me to purchase my own bike. The first question is tri vs road. Some additional info- I don’t like biking and will never enter a bike race. I may join a cycling group to try to improve my skills (in the race I was passed by several people on mtn bikes). The guy at the local bike shop said unless I was really competetive (I’m not) then I should go with a road bike for better handling. Of course, I noticed he didn’t sell tri bikes. HMMMM! Reading Tom’s bike sport homepage suggests I may be better with a tri bike. Any thoughts?
Also, if I get a road bike I know what I want, but what tri bike should I consider. I am new to the sport, not competitive and really don’t care that much about gadgets, just want something I can ride and still run when I am done. WOW, I am on the wrong board!
i’m not one to give advice… the worst thing you could do is take advice from me (my first road bike was an ancient tri bike from ebay that literally fell apart during my first tri)
however, i think it’d be good for the experts of slowtwitch to know if you’re comfortable riding on aerobars, or if you plan on it.
IMO, newbies should always go with a road bike first. They are better handling and more versatile. Tri bikes are designed for triathlon or TT’s and are virtually useless for anything else. They handle poorly and shouldn’t be used when riding in a group.
My advice is get a road bike and join some roadies and go for rides with them. You’ll learn about pace line riding and how to develop your bike skills. For triathlons get a set of shorty aero bars and you’re all set. If it turns out that you really like triathlon then later consider a tri bike.
I’ll use my wife as an example. For her first two years in sprint tris she rode a Giant OCR-3 road bike fitted with aero bars in tris. She joined a roadie group, learned to ride very well and had several AG wins and placings in local area sprint tris on the Giant. She found that she really liked tri and has since bought a more expensive road bike and a Cervelo P2K tri bike.
There are a lot of good road bikes out there. You have to tell us what your budget is. If you are thinking of entry level bikes both the Giant OCR line and Felt make some good values for the money. There are also others and you can get better deals on the second hand market if you know your product.
Sorry, I misread this when giving advice on entry level road bikes. If you go with a tri bike look at the Cervelo Dual, but don’t, get a road bike first.
I agree with Cerveloguy. TT bikes are too limited. With the road bike, you never have to be subject to those dirty looks you’d get from roadies if you show up for the group ride with a TT bike.
Another thing, for me at least, is safety. Riding the streets of San Diego, I think I’m better off on the road bike, since my hands are on/near the brakes all the time. It gets a bit sketchy when I’m out on a training ride on 101 on the TT bike and some jackass whips his surfboard out of the back of his VW bus and across the bike lane.
You are going to spend 99% of the time on your bike training and 1% racing. Buy what you will want to ride on Monday through Friday. Let the weekend races take care of themselves. If you only have one bike, get one you will be comfortable training on. Remember - those folks on the mountain bikes passed you because they actually like riding their mountain bikes and therefore they ride alot. Any bike can be fast if it gets out of the garage on a regular basis.
Personally, I have a road bike because I am more comforatable on the road with my hands near the brakes, I feel more manuverable not riding on aerobars and I can do group rides on it. For me, all this adds up to more fun training so I train more. When it comes to race day, this is worth alot more than a pair of aerobars.
A tri bike might be the right choise for you but the worst thing you can do is feel you have to buy a tri bike just because you do tris.
I agree with Cerveloguy. I have both types of bikes and love both of them. However, if I was told that I could only have one bike, then it would be my road bike, since I ride it most. My tri bike is just that, a tri bike. I do train on it, and race exclusively on it, but the road bike is the most versatile. (I have actually ridden my road bike in some tri’s even this year).
I started my first two years of tri on a road bike. I fitted it with Cobb bars and I was off to the races, so to speak. It worked grear and I did well. Then, I upgraded to a better road bike and a tri bike. I also spend a lot of time riding with a road bike group. This has improved my bike handling skills and also my abilities as a rider. (My bike splits have reduced a lot since riding with the group-- I have to work harder to stay with them and this has certainly made me stronger in my races).
So, in short, go with the road bike. It is more versatile for all of the riding that you will be doing. In terms of which one, that depends on your budget and also your size. I know that some of the people who post here may be the average sized male, but when you are a small woman, the choices of good fitting bikes becomes incredibly limited, especially if your budget is also limited. Giants are good, but if you are under 5’3", then you may find it tough to fit well. I had a small Giant OCR and it just never really fit me. (But, I did love riding it)
Cervelo makes a good road bike and in the smaller sizes that may fit you well, if you are a smaller woman. (They also cater to the taller people of the population). And if you want the best bang for your buck, you can never go wrong with a Cervelo. The Prodigy and the Soloist are a good starting point.
Good luck with your shopping. I just love shopping for tri toys!
Do you have any other aches/pains than your knees? Beam bikes are a good choice if you want that isolation from the road to protect your lower back. Like many others said, road geometry is preferable, but, if you got a bike that could do both…and there are some out there…you could get STI brake/shifting and clip on aero bars. Things to consider.
The only thing that gives me problems is my knees, several surgeries in the past and some lingering tracking problems. According to what I read the road bike with aero bars will give me a smaller angel btw torso and thigh. Does this present any problems?
Just because you have a road bike with aero bars, it doesn’t mean your torso/femur angle is any different than on a tri-bike. Picture your “ideal” position on a bike. Now, rotate that position around the bottom bracket. You can be “road position”, “triathlete position” or even “recumbent position” by simply rotating the whole shebang around a fixed point. Now, you may be more aerodynamic in the triathlete position compared to the road position, and therefore be faster. You will probably be fastest on the recumbent for this reason, but, I don’t believe recumbents are legal! Your neck may get too tired in the triathlete position, or, you could be like me and have your hands go numb in the road position. All that being said, the road position probably offers the best compromise for someone that is new and isn’t looking to do this more than they have to in order to be comfortable.
All that said, you are correct, the tighter angle between the torso and femur can be a problem, but, it is a matter of degree. For some people, it’s a real problem, for others (Bjorn), it’s not. There are a few reasons it could be a problem, one is flexibility, another is stabilizing strength of your torso, another is compressing your chest so that your breathing is impaired, and I’m sure there are others. If you go the road bike route, and decide to try aerobars, just get the ones that fit your style the best, and it shouldn’t be a problem.
In your original post you said you “don’t like biking”. Do you dislike biking, or is it just that you like swimming and running better than biking, but love triathlon. If you dislike biking then ignore getting a bike, spend your training time on the swimming and running that you enjoy, and if you like the triathlon community then hook up with a biking friend (or your husband) for a relay where you swim and run and they bike. No point in spending money on the bike if you can’t see yourself having FUN on the bike.
If you like biking but you just like it a lot less than the other two, I would actually recommend a cyclo-cross bike - the geometry tends to be a little more forgiving than many pure road bikes, you can swap out tires for pure road riding vs. cruising around/commuting vs. knobbies for playing in the dirt some if that sounds fun. With some smooth tires and some aerobars you would be just as set for a triathlon as most of the people that show up. You would also have a lot more flexibility in the riding you do than if you bought more of a pure tri bike.
In the interest of full disclosure I do not own a pure tri bike nor have I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time on a really sweet one. If I had buckets of money and a bigger garage I would guess that I would have a tri bike in my corral. Despite the fact that my road bike (which I put clip-on aero bars on for tri racing) is a wonderful all carbon fiber ride with full Ultegra and my new cross bike is a simple aluminum frame with a Frankenstein mix of components I would have to do a lot of very hard thinking if my wife suddenly declared that I was only allowed ONE bike. My road bike is comfortable, precise, light, and fast but my cross bike gives a wider variety of options for fun.
Todd Pilger - recent cyclocross junkie. (My opinions may change in the spring.)
You can get a SoftRide qualifier for under 2k. I forget where I saw them on sale last week.
You can get it as a road geometry, and later, convert it to tri geometry. Very few softride owners DON’T like their bikes. Besides you can tinker all over with fit and geometry.
I KNOW, I KNOW. I perseverate a lot about beam bikes.
Thanks for the advice, Todder. I actually do NOT like bike riding (road riding), but enjoy triathlons and can suffer through the bike. I’m hoping to “see the light” now that I will have a well fitting bike. I own a mtn bike, which I do enjoy and usually ride that around with the family, so this bike will be for racing/training. I’ll have to get some more info on the cyclocross option. Any suggestions on brand?
Thanks, Titan! That answers my main question. I think road bike it is. I am only a couple of hours from Tom’s store, so I think I’ll head down that way and take a look
No, not at all because your knee angle is determined by your seat height which ideally should put your knee angle at 145-155 degrees and has nothing at all to do with torso angle.
Not inclusive, but as a general rule of thumb by where you have knee pain:
About a year ago, I decided to get a tri-bike over a tri-bike to replace my old too-big for me “steel beast.” It was a big mistake. Riding my tri-bike in races are great and for some training rides, but riding it all the time is sucks. It is not comfortible for long slow distance rides, climbing, I can’t ride with roadies, and hilly races where a road bike with clip-on aerobars would be better. I will be selling my tri-bike as soon as I can afford the road bike that I want and will race tri-races with clip-ons. After that I will buy a set of race wheels and then I will buy tri-bike. Tri-bikes are great for racing and some very specific training, but road bikes are far more versatile…unless you can afford a second good bike stick with a road bike.
Miss puss, if you are only two hours away from the shrine of bike fit in Nth America, go see that man they call Mr. Demerley. It strikes me, admittedly from a distance, that that man has forgotten more about bikes than most of us here will ever know.
