Roadies who say tri bike are uncomfortable have no clue what they are talking about. I would rather ride a properly setup tri bike for just about any ride (with the exceptions of REALLY hilly or group rides) Tri geomoetry does help save the legs, but its not a night and day difference to me. It IS more comfy in the aerobars, which in the end is the goal.

If a shop wont let you test ride, theyre not worth your time,a s you seem to already find. No Trek, QR, or Cervelo dealers in the area? The Javelin looks like a nice ride, with some good specs for the price. Some places spec the TCR Aero as a tri bike with bullhorns. Dont be fooled, its a road bike.

by the way...the s32 is frickin sweet...i've had mine for 3 months and i love it.

Like I wrote earlier, I already have a road bike, albeit an older one.

To be honest, the aero position on the tri bike vs. the aero position on a road bike does not convince me that I'll be saving tons of time during my races...at my current level of ability.

Other than just looking cool, the only attractive feature of a tri bike so far is the alleged fact that the geometry saves your legs a bit for the run.

Is there any truth to this?

hak

I can say compared to my mountain bike, the tri-bike geometry takes some getting used to.

I would even venture to say that you won't realize the benefits of the tri-specific frame until your muscles have adapted to riding in that position. That is, if you ride nothing but mountain bikes (which is what I've been doing solid since last September) hoping on a tri-bike won't always make it easier to switch to running. I've felt like I was faster on my knobbies in comparision to my tri-specific bike.

This last week I've switched modes and started riding the tri-bike more. The legs have established a better nerve-response and I'm feeling stronger on the bike.

One thing I am not convinced of is the switch-to-run advantage. If you train for it (by doing bricks) it shouldn't matter what bike you ride, you'll be ready for the switch. It's all dependant on your training. What we need are some solid statistical studies on racers switching from bike to run at different training intervals, with different bikes.

There's definitely a master's thesis in here somewhere...

There are some CRAZY fast mountain bikers out there! Beware! :D

Folks, thanks for the replies. I haven't seen much one way or the other that tri bikes save much on the legs. Come to think of it, the only place I've seen that is when people talk about the conceptual theory behind the tri geometry. I haven't seen anything from actual users who say, "Yeah, using a tri bike was noticably different than using my road bike."

Again, I'm looking at upgrading an old road bike...not a MTB. So, either I get a newer road bike and mothball my old sweetheart (which I'm not keen on doing), or I get a new tri bike IF there are appreciable advantages in aerodynamics and saving the leg muscles.

Hell, I don't know how much faster today's pros are then the pros from the late 80s and early 90s when bikes like mine were being used. It's definitely the engine that makes the biggest difference. No arguments from me on that.

I do know, however, when I did ride with aero bars on my Trek, the bike was VERY squirrely and I didn't much care for using them. My understanding is that tri bike geometry eliminates that issue by putting more weight on the back end of the bike.

For my $1,500 budget, I can get an entry level tri bike, or a pretty decent road bike. It's simply an issue of what one will best serve my purposes.

I stopped by the LBS today who's the local Cervelo and Felt dealer. Again, no test ridey. Nada. Zip. Zero. Apparently, I'm not in the inner circle with these clowns, which is a shame because I believe they have one of the more knowledgable owners in the area and he is a big supporter of the tri community.

At this point, for the LBSs who will let me test ride, I have a choice between:

1) Giant TCR3
2) Javelin Sizzano
3) Specialized something or another
4) Cervelo Dual (although no other dealers in town)

hak

At the very least, they should let you toss the bike on a trainer in the store for a decent spin. You have to have some way to see if you like the bike before they'd expect you to buy it.

If not, are there any other LBSs in neighboring cities that you might be able to visit and try things out?

It shocks the hell out of me that the LBS wouldn't let you test ride a bike... I'd tell them to go to hell and make the 4 hour drive... then I'd get on EVERY TRI SITE with a forum and complain about them (and give the address and phone number)

(but I tend to go off a little half-cocked when I see a business in the service industry acting like they are doing you a favor by letting you walk in the door)

OK, I think we may have determined (unscientifically) at this point that there's not much in the way of benefit from tri frame geometry for the legs...at least nothing that sound training (bricks) can compensate for.

The main issue would then be comfort and handling in the aero position?

Roadies have said, "Ah, just put a pair of clip ons your road bike and you'll be fine."

True?

hak

Really? How do you respond to the 2000 UK study mentioned in the slowtwitch article. (recap: athletes in a 40k/10k time trial were about 2 minutes faster on the bike and 4 minutes faster on the run when using 81 degree seat angles versus 73 degree angles) If this has stood up to scrutiny, it may be a good argument in favor of tri geometry.

The wildcards, of course, are that I don't know if the study's protocol has stood up to examination, if the results have been replicated, or if it is accurately reported.

Understood. I didn't catch the personal experience qualifier earlier. For what it's worth, I switched from road to tri bike this year. I have no idea how much it has helped the legs on runs, because I have been training much more this year, and for a different distance of race. My guess is that a lot of people switching to tri bikes are getting more serious about their training in general, which makes it really hard to tell how much it is the bike, versus the training, that is leading to improvements on an individual basis. There are probably too many variables at play for anyone's individual experience to matter much. Only big group studies can show things one way or the other, and even those studies can only show us what works better in general, not in each specific case (if they did that, every pro would ride the exact same geometry, etc.)

My own view: the different geometry hasn't noticeably hurt, and the fact that I am much more comfy in the aerobars on a tri bike (and can shift in them) keeps me aero for longer periods, which should lead to better bike times.

I use clipons on my road bike, too. In the aero position on each bike, it's no contest-- the tri bike is more comfortable. The bike geometry is designed to make it easier to stay aero and it shows. Since the key to racing fast is staying in the aerobars as much as possible, tri bike is the logical choice for me.

But I think another part of your question is, are my aerobars objectively "comfortable?" I did have to gain some back/neck flexibility even with my very non-aggressive setup when I got the tri bike. Things feel more comfortable every week, and it has never been all that bad.

I'm slightly more comfortable on both road and tri setups being up on the hoods. But racing up out of the aerobars is not the faster choice when you can't draft--I consistently see a 1 to 2 MPH gain from getting aero-- so I train in the aerobars as much as possible. I think it's sort of like how I'm more comfortable when doing breaststroke than freestyle swimming, but I'm faster and more efficient at freestyle, so that's how I train & race.

My completely wild guess is that some roadies think riding aero is uncomfortable because (1) they've never been fitted to ride aero and (2) they haven't done it frequently enough to get get their bodies adjusted to the different demands of aerobars (more upper body flexibility, holding the head slightly higher to see forward, etc.) Thoughts?

I would think our best source of information on this topic would come from someone who has done tris for a while and has just recently competed in several with a road bike (after having used a tri bike as their primary bike before that)..

anyone like this out there??

Maybe we can get an informal Trifuel study on this? Say for a month? Every Saturday, do a brick workout. One week it's the tri-bike, the next it's the road bike, the next is the mountain bike. This is assuming those that do the informal study have access to the bikes. To be consistent in the unofficial study, we'd want same time of day, same course, same/similar level of intensity. It'd be interesting at least, and would prepare you future adventure racers, or Xterra racers for mountain biking to run transitions. :D

-Brandon