Hi Slowtwich Community! I just completed my first Olympic triathlon and really enjoyed it! I would like to stick with it and do more, I’m already considering a new bike. I’ve been riding an old road bike from FB Marketplace that has been reliable although could use some tweaks to fit better. I have not gotten a bike fit. My question is should I be shopping for road bikes with the possibility of aero bars or a TT bike? My uses for the bike will basically be training for and competing in triathlon at a recreational level. Not necessarily looking for new, used seems to offer better bang for my buck. Thanks in advance!
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Having worked at a tri shop for nearly 10 years, I always told new people to triathlon. If you are wanting versatility stick with a road bike where you can just add clip on aero bars when you race. If you have gotten the “tri bug” and it sounds like you have (even if your doing it recreational), then a tri bike would be a fun/good investment because you’ll enjoy the benefits of the best option for you to have the fastest race times, etc. (assuming TT bike fits you properly )
Obviously if your budget concious, then a road bike w/ clip on will be fine.
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If you know you want to keep doing triathlons and that’s the main focus of your riding then I’d suggest getting a tri bike. A road bike is more versatile, obviously, but it’s just not as fast as a tri bike.
I also think clip on or aero bars on a tri bike is almost always a problem. The geometry of a road bike most often doesn’t lend itself to being bastardized into a tri bike.
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I did my whole tri 15ish year “career” up to and including IM on a road bike. Would I have been faster on a tri bike? Absolutely. Was that extra speed worth the thousands of dollars a tri bike would cost? For me, no, it wasn’t.
You can absolutely do triathlon and be somewhat competitive without a tri bike. The benefit of a tri bike also decreases as the courses you pick get more hilly and technical.
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Welcome and congrats on your first olympic tri!
You will get a TON of opinion, and there is a TON of opinion out there on the internet/youtube/etc. My 0.02 is that unless you are shooting to be competitive at only triathlons, then a road bike is your best bet for now.
a road bike is just generally more versatile and comfortable, and a better platform to cultivate your cycling skills and the enjoyment of riding. even for triathlons, if your only goals in the next few years are to “race yourself”, then its all relative anyways and whether you ride a road or TT bike doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of that competition against yourself. road bike also allows you to more easily get into things like cycling group rides, gran fondos, and/or explore more terrain more comfortably.
If your position is solid and/or you have clip on aerobars, a road bike can still be dang fast in triathlon. Based on what you said my vote is road bike.
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Also, I’m not sure what half-decent road bike that isn’t “budget” readily / easily accommodates clip-on bars. Integration and proprietary tops make that increasingly challenging these days.
I’ve seen a few Interbike videos where Deda (I think) are leaning heavily into “clip-ons for aero-bars” space, but couldn’t say if there are any marketed products yet.
When I started in the sport, I felt the same as you. But my conclusion was not that I wanted to shave off a couple minutes of my time, but rather I was setting myself up to actually enjoy the run because I’d feel fresher and be in a better bike position.
The faster time is nice, but I like the tri bike optimizations for conserving energy and having a better run. For what it’s worth, I’m approaching that from a half to full distance perspective.
If you are going to race once or maybe two olympics a year and aren’t ever on the bike trainer, perhaps the tri bike isn’t worth it.
If you are going to spend a lot of time on the trainer and racing at least two half or full distance races a year, strongly lean towards the tri bike.
Another factor to add in, is if you’re happy with your current road bike and would be fine to go on group rides with it as is, I’d give just a little more weighting to the tri bike purchase.
If you’re going to be doing a lot of rides out on the open road in groups and just feel the road bike you have is just “ok”, maybe consider going down the better road bike route and getting some aero bar clipsons if you’ll mainly be doing olympic distance and under. Yes, you can also race longer distance like that, but if you’re doing it regularly, I’d point to the tri bike for reasons I already explained.
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It’s a slippery slope. You say you want one bike but somehow they multiply like rabbits. I started with a tri bike and somehow I now have 2 road bikes, a gravel bike and a Tri bike. Not even sure how I got the 2nd road bike past my wife. But whatever you choose is the right choice. Personally I’d get a tri bike and continue using the current road bike as a trainer bike for the occasional group rides. Most of my training buddies are triathletes so we frequently ride tri bikes (but not in aero) together. The Pros Closet is back in business and has a lot of nice used bikes of all types.
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I’d def say if you are into tri and not excited about the prospect of close range road racing or training get the tri bike.
I’ve done it both ways, and the tribike is totally fine and even recommended for tri training and racing.
I didn’t find the road bike more versatile. It’s only more versatile if you are riding in close packs with heavy drafting and other road style racing. But otherwise the txt bike is def better for triathletes. We regularly do group rides in our Triclub no road bikes needed and we do draft on our tt bikes. Not dangerous in training, different from competitive crit riding.
The road bike will feel somewhat easier to ride because of the less aggressive position without the aerobars. But you should be aiming to spend more time in that aero position anyway as a triathlete.
Unless you know you are going to be into road racing, criteriums, I’d say get the tribike. The competitive road bike scene is also fast enough even at low levels that unless you are a pretty strong cyclist already you’re going to be in the back of the pack.
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I agree with most of the above. Stick with the road bike for now. It will be more versatile. And you can always keep your eye open for an insane deal to fall in your lap. I’m far from competitive so my 10 year old Shiv will do me just fine for the rest of my triathlon “career”. And I’ve been passed by plenty of people on roadies with and without the clamp on aero bars.
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Road bike will generally allow for more places to ride. A TT bike is great in a straight line type of riding. But if you go to many cities that are having a rise in greenway paths/trails, a TT bike on that type of setting is pretty useless when there are other walkers/bikers around; and generally you have “speed limits” on those things. Weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic on a TT bike would be a futile point, so the road bike will be way more comfortable and easier to manage.
Road bike also allows “group riding” which generally frowns upon TT bikes or makes you ride on the horns in the close quarters riding. Yes you’ll see occassional groups riding TT bikes wheel to wheel, but in general that’s not the norm.
So in general a road bike is always going to be more versatile vs the design of the TT for what it’s purpose is.
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I’ve never found that to be true honestly.
I can ride my Tt bike everywhere my road bike goes. Zero exceptions and zero compromise.
And close quarter group riding is really for competitive roadies. Most triathletes will never fit j to this group. Even pro triathletes hrarely train with roadies as the needs and skills are so different.
I’ve hear this trope about the versatility of the road bike for over a decade but I’ve never found it to be true for a predominant triathlete. You won’t even get excluded from group rides unless it’s again, a competitive roadie group ride. I even get swarmed by a fast roadie group ride here from time to time and it’s been no issue to be in the peloton - if you can keep up at their 24+ mph pace they know you are competent on a bike.
The main issue is that the tt position is more aggressive so a lot of folks prefer the more relaxed position of the road bike. But then you have to deal with that on race day and it’s better to train up the ttt position anyway.
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And that’s fine, your n = 1 can disagree. But in generalties it’s your assessment is not going to be what others think is an accurate assessment of road vs tri bike.
The main issue with a TT bike is that in order to get the most from the TT bike you have to be in the TT position. There’s no real point of going to the local greenway or trail system at 8am on a weekend morning when there are walkers / dogs / other cyclists all over the trail. You’ll just end up being on the bull horns, defeating the whole purpose of a TT bike. In that situation, the road bike will be a better option. For a “recreational” rider, they’ll be wasting the whole point of the TT in situations like that, as they’ll just be sitting up on the bull horns all ride.
So you saying there is zero compromise, I find there is no way to be true. But again you may not be riding in those areas that will need to be a compromise, as you noted you are doing TT group rides (which isn’t the norm).
Truly appreciate all the feedback so far, I know this topic has been discussed at nauseum on this forum and it’s understandably a complex discussion with no right or wrong answer. I know I need to train my legs more to make any new bike worth the purchase but I will continue to keep all this feedback in mind!
If you can’t ride the TT position on a local greenway/trail, it’s likely not suitable for triathlon training. Those trails typically have a max 15mph speed limit, which is like below recovery pace for most people. (15mph on a FLAT, not a hill.)
If it’s a much more sparsely used path with long stretches of nobody on it, zero problems with a TT bike for all those stretches, going fast. I’ve ridden the extensive Tucson path system (forgot what it’s called but it connects like everywhere) on my TT bike, and in a group, and we were doing 20-22mph on the sparsely populated areas zero problems only slowing when other people/bikes showed up, and we were out early enough that we could often do these speeds.
I really think getting a road bike as a predominant triathlete is a much bigger compromise than vice versa. If you end up going competitive roadie from time to time, you’ll know it as you’ll be a pretty strong cyclist with natural interest, but importantly, the odds of this happening are MUCH smaller than people mention. I’d guess less than 10% of triathletes-first end up also joining and regularly riding/racing with competitive road cyclists where you NEED a road bike. The ones who do are more than happy to get the road bike as a 2nd bike.
I started with TT bike only for 3-4 years, have had both for the last decade+, and I’ve never thought ‘wow my road bike is so much more versatile’. I can ride EVERY road with both bikes, and I’ve done plenty of super snaky descents on the TT bike, zero problems, every time. The ONLY area where the road bike > TT bike for me is if you want to ride close-quarters with the pure competitive roadie group in their paceline or do their road/crit races. You will need a road bike for those because they won’t allow a TT bike. Every single non-competitive roadie bike club has been cool with the TT bike especially once you show you’re not a rookie on a bike. And like I said, the competitive roadie crew will happily absorb you even there if you’re keeping up on a training ride and they can’t drop you.
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That’s the whole point of what versatility allows. You can still get in a workout on a road bike, where the TT bike is likely compromised cus your sitting on the bull horns likely more often than in them. And there are plenty of reasons to just “go ride” and not worry about your speed.
It really comes down to what is your goal as an athlete. If you like the sport and think your going to race often, then a TT is going to be a good investment. If your wanting to do everything, then a road bike is going to be a great option. And you don’t need to be a A personality finishing FOP to get the benefit from a TT, you just need to want to use it properly…we’ve all heard the stories of the people getting a $10k TT bike and on a flat section they are just riding upright in the wind on the bull horns. If you get a TT bike, it’s going to take a good fit, and some “time in aero” that you just can’t fake.
I know you love to use your n = 1 “experience” to discredit any general principles on this site, that’s kinda your mo. So it’s not surprising your arguing so hard against any well accepted general principles the sport simply accepts.
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The solution obviously is to get both bikes.
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There’s NOTHING compromised on a TT bike for triathlon training. In fact, most coaches advocate that people should be spending a lot more time on their TT bike than their road bike for triathlon training. Not sure where you’re coming up with “the TT bike is likely compromised cus your sitting on the bull horns likely more often than in them.” Even the bullhorns on a TT bike are pretty darn close and sometimes even more aggressive than the road bike position.
Show me where all these coaches are discrediting TT bike training, and I"ll reconsider my n=1 which really isn’t n=1 given I ride with a lot of other triathletes and none of them seem to be having any ‘versatility’ problems.
A post up you wrote “If you can’t ride the TT position on a local greenway/trail, it’s likely not suitable for triathlon training”. That’s completely inaccurate, fitness is fitness. You can pick and choose your equipment based on the needs of your workout, just like the goals you want to accomplish. If you want to get better at triathlon, then a TT bike is your answer. If you don’t want to invest in that, and/or have more “options” a road bike is the answer. Again I don’t really know why you are arguing what is generally accepted in the bike industry,
The best answer is always the n = +1 (both bikes as options)
If you’re not very serious but want to compete recreationally, a new road bike won’t be that much faster than an old one.
Budget solution: just fit aerobars on the old bike.
Non-budget solution: get a tt bike.
Notably, a TT bike is almost certain to be more comfortable than a road bike with aerobars! Oh, and try to get a used one.
Side note: a gravel bike is a lot more versatile than a road bike, and if you get a pair of road tires to put on it for races, it’s pretty much as fast.
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