Hi, need advice on a new TT bike please. Been riding a Giant TCR due to reading it’s great for someone with a long torso and little legs, and has been a great bike for me. Deciding between Cervelo P Series, Canyon Speed max, Trek Speed Concept and the latest Giant TT?
It’s for a fairly flat Ironman distance course. Hope you can help. Budget is £5000 maximum. Don’t want Di2 and would rather disc breaks.
Thank you.
What are your fit numbers?
You need to give us more.
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If you have Pad X/Y, great. If not, at least the total height, inseam and seat height for your Giant TCR.
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Location? You wrote GBP, right?
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You don’t want Di2 or don’t want electronic shifting at all, brand agnostic?
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You really want disc brakes but not necessarily Di2 (assuming: electronic shifting)? For pure TT I can understand, but for triathlon I’d like to be able to shift at basebar.
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First or second hand? 5’000 GBP doesn’t give you any new Speed Concept nor Giant.
Thanks for your reply.
5ft 7"
Inside inseam 30.5" (short legs for my height)
Tibial varum
Seat height for Giant TCR 70" to Bottom bracket (155 cranks)
Cardiff, S Wales
Yes GBP.
That’s right don’t wan’t want electronic shifting at all.
Yeah I get what you meant re: shifting at basebar now, hmm, just dislike electronic gearing because if it gets knocked it goes into crash mode, or can easily break and not be fixed as easily cable gearing.
Don’t mind second hand, but hoping to use £3000 from Ride to Work Scheme.
I don’t think a disc brake cable shift bike exists. The last of the cable shift group sets for TT were rim brake if my memory is correct
Cervelo P-Series had an 11-speed ultegra / mechanical option, and the frameset can route mechanical shifting.
They do have a 105 mechanical series now in addition to the Di2 105. Should work with TT-bar end shifters. Microshift and other brands also make perfectly good cable mech group sets. I do think though TT bikes are worth the spend for Di2 for the extra shift buttons.
In essence you are right, whilst technically you can build something then we’ve moved on.
@Nat0109 My ‘new’ TT bike (Speed Concept) is the first of the fleet to move to DI2/electronic shifting, and that was only within the last year. I’m equally running 9, 10 and 11 speed cable shifting, including ultegra cable shift, hydraulic disk brakes on my roadbike, commuter, cyclo cross etc. I’ll not lie then there are some parts that I don’t really like with DI2, but on the TT bike then overall it is way better for many many reasons for me. Even with my retro grumpiness and love of being able to do all my own fettling.
Being able to change from base and aero is a significant game changer for the postitive. The hydraulic disk brakes are light years ahead of anything I managed to tune on my old TT bike. And so I will put up with the negatives for the positives. Full sychroshift is something I’m still hoping will get updated to allow manual control, but even then after 3 months of just TT riding I jumped on the road bike for the first time and ‘forgot’ I needed to change FD last time I commuted. So you do get used to it.
If you’re spending near to UKP5k (the RTW leveraged amount) then today it’s going to cost you more headaches if you end up with a cable based drivetrain than just accepting DI2 (or SRAM equivalent).
I wouldn’t discount Di2 for this. I’ve had Di2 on my road bike for almost 5 years and have both crashed and toppled over on several occasions and not once has it put itself in crash mode.
I’ve never ‘knocked it’ or had anyone knock it so not really sure when you’re expecting to do this? And honestly, it doesn’t break any easier than any other groupset I’ve run with (it hasn’t broken yet, touch wood).
Also, is it harder to repair than mechanical? I personally don’t think so. More expensive yes, but harder no. If you’re comfortable replacing cabling and doing your own general maintenance then you won’t have many problems with Di2.
Considering your non-typical requirements (mechanical gear shifting, crank length), you’ll be best with finding a local shop to spec the bike to your needs. My favourite would’ve been Cervelo P-Series 105 in mechanical, size 54, that retails for GBP 3’499. You’d want to change the crank length (quite cheap for 105) and buy yourself a race wheelset. A shop would be happy to accommodate you and present with a single invoice for b2w schema.
That being said, I’d never buy mechanical geared TT/TRI bike for myself.
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