What is the best next step for me? tt questions

Triathlon Forum
1

Hello, I know this is a tri forum but a lot of tt questions apply. I am a roadie, but I have recently done well in some TTs and dualathons. I have just used some clip on “century” bars and standard 27mm aluminum wheels. I do have an aero helmet and I know that is prob the best bang for buck.

So I know in TTS and tris, it is frustrating to compete against others with $8000 tri bikes and zipps, but I will never have that. So with a few hundred bucks, what would be my best way to spend it?

  1. Cheap used tri bike. I found a motobecane nemesis close to me for $450. I would still have plain wheels.

  2. Newer wheels. I will not spend hundreds on crazy carbon wheels, but maybe I could build up a set of kinlin xr380s even the cheap vuelta 37mm aluminum wheels at nashbar. Any other inexpensive option would be good.

3.?

Any advice is great. Thanks

2
  1. power meter
  2. wheel cover to make any rear wheel a disc
  3. fast front racing wheel and good tires
    .
3

Yesterday at the Kansas 5150, I was trading leads with a 25-year old on a road bike, floppy jersey, and road helmet. Me with full tri rig and very aero wheels, and this youngster just kept coming around and leading for 200-300 yards before I took my pull (never drafting, thank you). The point is, you can be fully functional on a road bike and competitive, too.

Follow the forum long enough and you’ll see that a lot of people go for high-zoot (and expensive) wheels when there’s so much speed available elsewhere for little or no money. What are the top 5 (let the discussion begin) from my perspective (my perspective)?:

  1. Good aero position, a bit hard(er) on a road bike, but you can get pretty close without closing the hip angle too much if you’re careful.
  2. Tight-fitting tri kit, with no loose pockets
  3. Aero helmet
  4. Wheel cover for rear wheel. Wheelbuilder cover is about $100, but you can build one for about $15. There’s a thread on this forum (search for it) on the ultimate wheel cover build.
  5. Tri-specific frame, which opens the door to running off the bike and being a bit more aero on positioning.
4

Good question. Also a tough question if you want to keep the budget very strict, say a few hundred dollars. My $0.02, in approximately increasing order of cost.

(1) Make sure you shave your legs! (You might think I’m joking, and prior to a couple weeks ago I would have been. Not anymore. Free speed.)

(2) The cheapest speed comes from changing your position. I don’t know what your current setup looks like, but if you can find a bike where you have a lot of flexibility with changing the front end around, then you should be able to run some tests and get a bunch faster. Maybe someone can recommend a good cheap bar solution. I’m not up on that, but I’ll bet you can get some alloy bars for cheap that will help a lot. You’ll need flexibility to go lower, narrower, and longer, which among other things will mean that the “stack” on your bike can’t be too high or it will limit you. (Note: you do not necessarily need a “tri” bike to accomplish this. You may need to change your seatpost to get farther forward though.)

(3) Rear wheel cover = $80 new and less used

(4) Make sure you’re not on slow tires. Next time you buy new tires get something decent (lots of threads here on that topic). For races you may also want to consider latex tubes. They’re expensive, but a bit faster, and you can save them for races only if you want.

(5) Tight fitting clothing – does not necessarily have to be a skin suit. A good tight fitting current kit (e.g. Pearl Izumi Pro speed jersey/shorts) will not cost you much time from a skin suit.

(6) Front wheel. You ought to be able to find a good used option for a few hundred dollars.

This last one is the most expensive option I’m listing. If you do all these 6 things you can be almost as fast as those guys on the $10,000 bikes at very low cost.

In my opinion a power meter would be low on the list of speed/price ratio for TTs (and I love my PM) until you get really heavily into detailed aero testing, at which point it’s very useful. I also think an aero frame would be low on the list of speed/price ratio.

5

Yesterday at the Kansas 5150, I was trading leads with a 25-year old on a road bike, floppy jersey, and road helmet. Me with full tri rig and very aero wheels, and this youngster just kept coming around and leading for 200-300 yards before I took my pull (never drafting, thank you). The point is, you can be fully functional on a road bike and competitive, too.

Follow the forum long enough and you’ll see that a lot of people go for high-zoot (and expensive) wheels when there’s so much speed available elsewhere for little or no money. What are the top 5 (let the discussion begin) from my perspective (my perspective)?:

  1. Good aero position, a bit hard(er) on a road bike, but you can get pretty close without closing the hip angle too much if you’re careful.
  2. Tight-fitting tri kit, with no loose pockets
  3. Aero helmet
  4. Wheel cover for rear wheel. Wheelbuilder cover is about $100, but you can build one for about $15. There’s a thread on this forum (search for it) on the ultimate wheel cover build.
  5. Tri-specific frame, which opens the door to running off the bike and being a bit more aero on positioning.

thanks, this was along the lines of my question. I think that the disk is intriguing. I have read things that show it is as good as a zip full disc, and others that say it makes almost no difference. It is hard to know what to think. I had a skin suit the other day(borrowed), and it is nice. I don’t own one though. I also have a giro selector which is quite nice.

6

Good question. Also a tough question if you want to keep the budget very strict, say a few hundred dollars. My $0.02, in approximately increasing order of cost.

(1) Make sure you shave your legs! (You might think I’m joking, and prior to a couple weeks ago I would have been. Not anymore. Free speed.)

(2) The cheapest speed comes from changing your position. I don’t know what your current setup looks like, but if you can find a bike where you have a lot of flexibility with changing the front end around, then you should be able to run some tests and get a bunch faster. Maybe someone can recommend a good cheap bar solution. I’m not up on that, but I’ll bet you can get some alloy bars for cheap that will help a lot. You’ll need flexibility to go lower, narrower, and longer, which among other things will mean that the “stack” on your bike can’t be too high or it will limit you. (Note: you do not necessarily need a “tri” bike to accomplish this. You may need to change your seatpost to get farther forward though.)

(3) Rear wheel cover = $80 new and less used

(4) Make sure you’re not on slow tires. Next time you buy new tires get something decent (lots of threads here on that topic). For races you may also want to consider latex tubes. They’re expensive, but a bit faster, and you can save them for races only if you want.

(5) Tight fitting clothing – does not necessarily have to be a skin suit. A good tight fitting current kit (e.g. Pearl Izumi Pro speed jersey/shorts) will not cost you much time from a skin suit.

(6) Front wheel. You ought to be able to find a good used option for a few hundred dollars.

This last one is the most expensive option I’m listing. If you do all these 6 things you can be almost as fast as those guys on the $10,000 bikes at very low cost.

In my opinion a power meter would be low on the list of speed/price ratio for TTs (and I love my PM) until you get really heavily into detailed aero testing, at which point it’s very useful. I also think an aero frame would be low on the list of speed/price ratio.

thank you for your help as well. I am thinking about that rear disc if I can find out more information on it. I am also considering the leg shaving thing after the whole news from specialized and their wind tunnel. I would like to find out more about the kinlin xr380 or other aluminum aero wheels too.

7

You didn’t mention if you own a heart rate monitor. When I was started to do TTs I found a HRM to be extremely valuable for the cash spent.

8

Thanks. I do have an hr monitor and I like it.

9

Have any of you guys personally used the disc cover?

10

My wife has gone low 58 for a 40k tt with an aluminum P3 ($800) which is several years old and a disc cover. She does use 404’s now as I got a set of them (they cost more than her bike). The most important thing is that she is aero as hell and can maintain that position for the whole race. I would suggest working on position as that is the single most important thing for going fast no matter what kind of watts you are putting out.

11

Thank you all for the help. It seems that through the more and more research I do, that all of these upgrades are small and incremental. One or two may not do much, but if you do 10, then it adds up. It is crazy to think that wheels, while costing 2000, may only help 20seconds or so. Crazy! I just did a hilly 7.5mi TT, so a set of 404s may have only given me 15seconds on a distance that short. Seems I am not missing out on much.

I have a good aero helmet, and looking to get some better aero bars. I am considering a bang for the buck wheelset like some flo30s or building some like that. The carbon wheels may never happen for me, which if fine as I am a lowly cat 5.

Thanks for everyone’s help, and any more comments would be great.

12

How to build your own wheel cover:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3552095;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;
.

13

  1. Position (video tape yourself from a right angle, you should be able to see how low you are… try it and see how comfortable it is, find a balance between comfort and aero…) Post here if you wanna hear how high your seat is and potentially some other advice. This one may be free or the cost of a different stem. You will likely want to get adjustable aero bars vs. the ones I am assuming you have. Porfile design T2 and carbon stryke are both great IMO. Fully adjustable can be had for 100-175, and less used on ebay all the time.

  2. Aero helmet 100-200 dollars

  3. Disc cover about the same cost as the helmet.

  4. Good tubes and tires.

  5. Deep front wheel (get one used if you can find one)