Which bike will be faster overall?

Triathlon Forum
1

Titan Flex or Yaqui Carbo?

I already know the Titan Flex coasts downhill faster. I have yet to put them to a head-to-head test. I guess it would behoove me to try and follow Dr. Coggan’s recent example of comparing two bikes in order to make as good a guess as reasonably possible. Adding in hills would make it even more difficult to get meaningful data.

It may be that I simply take both bikes to a race, check out the condition of the road surface, and choose accordingly.

Any guesses from the peanut gallery?

2

The one you do more training on.

3

Not a bad answer, but, don’t know if that will be accurate. If the stiffness of the Yaqui’s rear triangle is more efficient (and I don’t know this to be true, although it is dang-stiff) to the point more power gets to the chain, maybe it will be faster. If the Titan Flex is sufficiently more aero (which I suspect to be true due to the faster coasting speeds down big hills), maybe it will be faster. If I move around too much due to the slight flexing that can occur on the Titan Flex when I pedal, I may not be as efficient getting power to the road on it. If I can stay in the aero position with less discomfort…especially on really rough road surfaces, maybe the comfort of the Titan Flex will allow me to present less frontal area and/or power through the rough stuff (instead of raising off the seat while the cranks are held horizontal for a bit), thus making it faster.

It’s going to be close, and it may be that for some courses one will be faster, or, maybe not.

I know which one is more comfortable…and I’d always ride the most comfortable during an Iron Distance. But, although I participate in the long stuff, I don’t race that distance. I do, however, race the shorter distances.

4

I’m gonna have to guess the Titan-flex is faster.
If only for the fact it tells the UCi it can take it’s collective rules and thrust them where the sun don’t shine.
I can’t imagine you losing much in terms of stiffness with the Titan flex, it’s got a pretty beafy rear-end.

On a side note, if you decide you don’t need one of them…

5

Ultimately the bike that wil faster, much faster, is the one that most closely matches your body dimenions and is then positioned to facilitate your strengths and accomodate your weaknesses.

6

According to your principles the question should be which one look faster.

8

The P3 of course.
This is so obvious that the question does not even include it as an option. What I am puzzled with with why bother with titans & carbos if one can have a P3, strange dilemas some people have.

10

How about the Huffy that Scott Molina rode an average of 27.1 for 40k at Hilton Head Island on September 27, 1986. The bike was tricked out with a rear wheel disk, 32 spoke front wheel, and bullhorns without aerobars.
Bikes are pretty, people are fast.

Bob Sigerson

11

This is an interesting and timely comment for me. I have a P3. I have had it for five years now and I really like it.

I am thinking of getting a Titanflex anyway. The reason is that I am hoping it will help me stay more comfortable for long races, especially IM Lake Placid.

The rough roads on the out and back in LP really beat me up the second time through. Maybe I would get beat up by that time even if we had smooth roads, but I am hoping the Titanflex will help me stay aero for more of the race.

Does this reasoning make any sense?

12

If the stiffness of the Yaqui’s rear triangle is more efficient (and I don’t know this to be true, although it is dang-stiff) to the point more power gets to the chain, maybe it will be faster.

Are you sure that a stiffer rear triangle results in more power to the chain, and higher speed? I asked about this a while back, and it was suggested that flames with more flex might in fact operate as “near perfect” springs. It seemed as if people’s preference for stiff frames was more a subjective taste than actual speed enhancer.

How similar are the other components on the two bikes? It was also brought to my attention that wheels differ not only in aero attributes, but also stiffness.

13

Titan,

If you do a study like AC, you better be ready to take the heat from Frank. :slight_smile:

greg from the peanut gallery

14

Art, as Tom D wrote: Ultimately the bike that will be faster, much faster, is the one that most closely matches your body dimensions and is then positioned to facilitate your strengths and accomodate your weaknesses.

I know for a fact I can stay more aero for longer on the Titan Flex, simply because I don’t get lower back pain, nor taint numbness, although I have the bikes set up to as close to exactly the same as I can measure. The thing that has really surprised me, is that I can rotate my pelvis more forward for long periods of time when riding the Titan Flex…simply because it doesn’t hurt the taint to go over bumps. My glutes therefore get more work (to the point that they actually get sore at the top and at the hamstring insertion area). It’s this better pelvis positioning that I think may make me faster on the Titan Flex on longer races. Although I might be able to race more steeply on the Titan Flex, I don’t know if steeper will be faster…there’s always the issue of being so steep I can’t bend my aged stiff neck up enough to see the road, plus, at some point, steeper isn’t more aero.

FWIW, last year, at least on shorter races on the Yaqui, I would go ahead and rotate my pelvis forward despite the resultant taint pain, and after those short races, that gluteal soreness always appeared for a day or two. So, if nothing else, the Titan Flex is allowing me to train MANY more miles in a more powerful position…I’m hoping I’ll be faster on any bike with so many more miles in this better position.

As someone else mentioned, they both seem very stiff in the rear triangle. When standing and cranking hard on the handlebars, the Titan Flex is stiffer feeling torsionally from my hand to my opposite foot…BUT, I never ride like that in a triathlon. Maybe the suspension effect makes the Titan Flex corner better on rougher surfaces, then again, I don’t purposefully make that kind of aggressive cornering in a triathlon.

If you decide to get a beam bike for long races, you won’t be disappointed with the Titan Flex…it’s so beautifully simple in design, and just as simple to adjust. You can get it really stiff, or not so stiff…whatever floats your boat. So, yeah, your reasoning makes sense to me.

I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to tell if one is faster than the other in shorter stuff.

15

I know for a fact I can stay more aero for longer on the Titan Flex, simply because I don’t get lower back pain, nor taint numbness, although I have the bikes set up to as close to exactly the same as I can measure. The thing that has really surprised me, is that I can rotate my pelvis more forward for long periods of time when riding the Titan Flex

I think you just answered your own question.

16

Yours is the BEST reason to get the Titan Flex, IMHO. It is very comfy. I rode one for a year and loved it, but as an old critter I really missed twitchy bikes so I just had to get something with impossibly quick steering. :slight_smile:

-Robert

17

Tom over at Titanflex has been kind enough to offer me a bike frame for a few weeks to try out. I will give it a spin. I hope I can evaluate it effectively. I will report back, if I can give it a decent test.

18

Art, buddy, don’t try and kid yourself. You might as well write the check right now. If you are interested in a beam bike, and ride this one, you’ll be hooked. Really. Be sure and get the paint job you want, because you’ll be riding this bike a LONG time.

I was riding with some buddies the other day, and they are great at pointing to the ground to warn when rough road is ahead. I told them to save their pointing for only something like an exposed manhole, because rough patches are nothing to me. OTOH, I have to make sure I let them know when I’m just going to plow through a rough section. I’ll not be surprised if I have more flats when riding the Titan Flex, because I just don’t bother trying to miss every chink in the road any more.

I wish it were warmer, I’d be testing these two bikes against one another on different terrain. Like desert dude said, I know which one I’ll do almost all my training upon, and all my long races. Just want to know how both bikes act with disc wheel rear and H3 front…all I know right now is the Titan Flex coasts better downhill when there are spoked wheels on both bikes…come to think of it, since I didn’t compare the bikes with the same set of wheels, I can’t even be positive of this coasting difference.

19

Buying a new bike is so trying. We have so many great choices. It’s like walking into a room full of naked Vassar Freshmen. :slight_smile: Or, something…

-Robert

20

I think thousands of scientific double-blind experiments have proved that the placebo effect is very, very real. I would say that simply “deciding” one bike is faster will probably cause enough placebo to actually make that bike faster. It will hopefully cause more difference between the bikes than any other factor, since they seem to be equally matched. So I say, choose your favorite bike, and hopefully it is the one that looks really fast.

21

Big Ben wrote: choose your favorite bike, and hopefully it is the one that looks really fast.

I think most will agree the Yaqui looks darn fast, especially with a disc and tri-spoke. I haven’t dressed the Titan that way to see what it looks like, yet. Unfortunately, I bugger up both bikes with a NeverReach water system…that is fugly…but, it’s so practical for me I use it all the time. It’s supposed to hit 56 degrees today…if it gets to 60, I just might do a few preliminary runs out there.

22

"It’s like walking into a room full of naked Vassar Freshmen. :slight_smile: "

I had a Vassar graduate once and she wasn’t too bad, either.