A few questions
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Member
1189 days
WayNorth posted 3 years ago.
Welcome,
I suspect your knowledge of bikes and geometry beats mine but what I have gleaned so far is that the steeper seat angle of a triathlon-oriented (rather than a TT bike) bike is meant to engage the quads more, saving more leg for the run. This is arguable but slowtwitch.com is a big advocate and explains it well . In his "ideal tri geometry" section he advocates a slack head angle (like the Cannondale) to make things less twitchy when your weight is moved so far foreward.
If you have buckets of experience on road racing bikes you will have an efficient pedal stroke that you might not want to mess with. Sticking with the Orbea and trying a forward positioning seat post and a long (15 cm? ) stem would be A reasonable way to fiddle with the geometry.
As for the standard gearing, I think it's because we are exhausted from the swim and scared of the run. In a moment of hubris I was thinking a single speed might actually do the trick for some of the flatter courses. Maybe even take the brakes off .
Others will have more details.
Garth
I am new to triathlons however I have been racing road, mtb, and cyclocross for a few years now and decided to give triathlons a shot, I love the sport and think of it as great cross trainng. My training has gotten to the point where I am now considering buying a triathlon/TT specific bike however I have a few questions:
1. I currently ride a road bike with a 54cm effective TT and 100mm stem. I am a HUGE fan of Orbea, three out of four of my bikes are Orbeas, and was looking at purchasing an Orbea Aletta in a size 51cm which has a 53cm TT, 76.0 seat angle, and 72.8 head angle. What would be the advantage of getting the orbea which the above geometry compared to something like a Cannondale Ironman which seems to have a (more?) agressive geometry, ie. 52cm has a 51cm TT, 78.0 seat angle, and 71.5 head angle?
2. If I were to buy the orbea, what would I most likely be using for a stem size and bars length? I don't have a tri specific shop in the area otherwise I'd get a fitting.
3. Why do triathlon bikes have standard gearing? ie. Almost all triathlon bikes i have seen speced has a 53/39T crankset, would you want something more like a 55/42T or 56/44T since riding a triathlon is pretty similar to a time trial?
Thanks,
Dave