Please pardon the Newbie question, but I have searched old posts and have not found an adiquite answer.
I am new to Tri’s and want to purchase a new bike. I am a detail person and have done LOTS of research to know the bike lingo and understand what I am gettin for my hard earned dollar. This was the easy part. Now I am confronted by two major forks in the road: Geometry and Price.
I have quickly learned to spot cyclist over Triathlete as soon as they start to sell me a bike. The former sell me a road bike with aero bars and the latter argue for the superior form and function of a Tri bike.
As for price, I believe in buying things right, and if possible, once. I have been told that the land of the $ 1,000 bike is filled with junk, and I should pony up an extra few hundred to get a bike that I will be pleased with for many years to come.
I also understand the pit falls of test rides and the virtue of a “fitted” bike. My only problem with that is that the LBS’s I have gone to do one or the other. Since they have limited brands that don’t overlap it is impossible for me to compare bikes.
I’m assuming with a name like “bigsky” you might be from Montana. If so I would suggest corrosponding with Carl Strong of Strong Cycles in Bozeman. They custom build some nice frames for a very resonable price and seem very knowledgable on fitting/filling the needs of their customer.
Jay
I’m assuming with a name like “bigsky” you might be from Montana. If so I would suggest corrosponding with Carl Strong of Strong Cycles in Bozeman. They custom build some nice frames for a very resonable price and seem very knowledgable on fitting/filling the needs of their customer.
Jay
Sorry, no. I live in Detroit and just have aspirations of a western nature.
Well, that’s even better, with Tom Demerly’s shop in the area… I don’t think there would be a better place to get my questions answered and purchase a product. There are others, in this forum, that have dealt with him directly and would be a better source of reference.
Jay
A good (meaning national class) rider and Physical Therapist I know gave me some interesting advice:
Don’t buy a tri bike or use aero bars in you can’t maintain 20mph average in a race, addording to her the aero benefit isn’t worth much unless you are that fast. Me, I’m a 18-19 mph in most longer races, so now rethinking my idea for a new tri bike this year.
Felt, QR and others do make entry level bikes for less than $1500 that are probably as good as a $2500 bike was 5 yrs ago. See the bike picker, 2005 product info, bike reviews etc on this site.
There might be a significant difference to the original poster between $1,000 and $1,300. Or maybe not. If I had $1,000 to spend and that was my absolute limit, I think I’d be looking at used, rather than new.
As for the aero bars only being worthwhile at 20 mph or faster, I dunno- I’ve heard here that the rule of thumb is more like 13 or 14 mph.
Choose what type of bike (road or tri) you want to ride. You already understand the advantages and disadvantages of both road and tri set ups, so this should be fairly straight forward.
Go to a fitter that specializes in fitting riders to the type of bike you decided on.
Take your fitting dimensions and scour the internet to find the models that best fit your dimensions.
Eliminate the bikes that are too expensive or unavailable from the list of potentials.
Make your final decision based on subjective qualities, such as ride comfort/stiffness, looks, and availability.
I will stick my neck out here and say, yeah, it’s difficult to get a quality new bike for $1000. And for a tri bike, it’s near impossible. An extra $300-500 makes all the difference in the world at this stage.
Are you a roadie turned triathlete or have you started getting into tri’s from some other sport?
Either way, I would recommend getting a road bike so you can cross train without ALWAYS having to be in the aero position. I recently talked to Steve HED about converting my road bike to a more tri/TT setup. There are two rules of thought in doing it:
The way Steve did it for the Discovery Team in Mylasia: throw some clip-ons on and shove your seat as forward as possible (nose of saddle right on top of the BB)
if you’re still uncertain as to how involved you’ll be in tris, a road bike is a good way to go. for $1000, you can get some good road bikes from either felt or giant to get started with. if a year or two down the road you want to get a dedicated tri bike, you can do that then, and use the road bike for a majority of your training rides. the road bike is a much more versatile option to have.
depending on what your price limit, the cervelo soloist might be a good option, as it can function as a very good road bike, and a decent tri bike. the 05 soloist with centaur is about 1800, though you might be able to find last year’s closeouts for less, or get a good deal off ebay.
A good (meaning national class) rider and Physical Therapist I know gave me some interesting advice:
Don’t buy a tri bike or use aero bars in you can’t maintain 20mph average in a race, addording to her the aero benefit isn’t worth much unless you are that fast. Me, I’m a 18-19 mph in most longer races, so now rethinking
i dont buy but I have no empirical data to support me. Every time I get into this conversation I ask the proponent to do a simple test to prove the point. Out on the road, fix your cadence, ride on the hoods/base bar and then do the same on the aerobars with the same cadence. Typical speed is conversational pace so not fast or even moderately so. For a very unscientific test it never fails to show that bars make a difference in speed. Of course this does not test for optimum fit/comfort or anything else just that its faster being aero than not, at every slow speeds
Actually the tri bike is inferior in most form and function except for doing tris/TT’s on relatively flat surfaces. In general they don’t climb, corner, descend or handle as well as a road bike. There is a reason why nobody road races tri bikes while many people tri or TT on a road bike fitted with clip-ons. In otherwards, the road bike offers far more versatility if you are only going to own one bike. IMO, too many shops ar pushing tri bikes on newbie triathletes when they would be better served initially on a road bike.
Is your cycling experience limited, do you intend to group ride, will you be using this bike for anything else besides solo training or triathlon, do you live in a hilly area?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions then get a road bike. If “no” then you could consider also consider a tri bike.
