General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike Rss Feed  
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2013-05-24 10:11 AM

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Subject: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike
So how much faster are you on a tri-bike? I've been racing the last 5 years on just my old road bike because I swore when I got into this I was not going to spend a ton of money. I don't have aero bars or fancy wheels or anything. Since I don't mind coming in middle to back of the pack I'm OK with this. I'm just curious how much faster I could potentially be if I had a tricked out tri bike.


2013-05-24 11:04 AM
in reply to: kp73

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Subject: RE: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike
Not sure about tricked out tri bike but I have been professionally fitted to my road bike with clip on aerobars and use an aero helmet (Gyro Adv II) and I am 1-2 mph faster over 20-30 miles than the road bike w/o the aero setup. But it's not just as simple as installing aerobars on the roadie. I have a FF seatpost and a different steam than my road bike setup. But the cost of all that was in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands.
2013-05-24 11:40 AM
in reply to: kp73

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Subject: RE: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike

Likely 1-2.5 mph depending how fast you ride at with the RB. Here's a good read about a track testing vs wind tunnel testing for Road bike vs tri-bike setups. At 40 km/h (24.8mph) they measured about 60-70watts saved, if you ride the RB at 40 km/h then on a TB you should be over 44 km/h (+2.5 mph).

2017-04-01 9:47 AM
in reply to: kp73

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NH
Subject: RE: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike
Very unscientific n=1 result, but here's my experience:

I have a ~15 mile loop I ride relatively regularly as a time trial.

Road bike, completely setup for training only, vs. TT bike, fully kitted up with aero helmet and wheels, etc, it's a 3.5 mph difference.


2017-04-01 9:58 AM
in reply to: Donto

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Subject: RE: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike
Originally posted by Donto

Likely 1-2.5 mph depending how fast you ride at with the RB. Here's a good read about a track testing vs wind tunnel testing for Road bike vs tri-bike setups. At 40 km/h (24.8mph) they measured about 60-70watts saved, if you ride the RB at 40 km/h then on a TB you should be over 44 km/h (+2.5 mph).




I agree with Donto (MY experience).
2017-04-01 12:40 PM
in reply to: kp73

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Subject: RE: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike
Many years ago i wanted to test it out

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

tldr; ~2 minutes, and I wouldn't consider a Planet X Stealth a tricked out tri/tt bike even then.

(Note... just n=1, YMMV a LOT.)


2017-04-02 4:47 PM
in reply to: Leegoocrap

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Subject: RE: Time Difference b/w Tri-Bike and Road Bike
For me, from a typical road position, on the hoods, road helmet, training wheels, jersey and bibs, I was saving about 8s/km.

That was pretty good aero position, aero front plus disc cover, skinsuit and aero helmet. Plus I tried to take care of little things (horizontal bottle between bars), clean cable routing, avoiding cylinders exposed to air flow, etc.

This would be at oly effort so a difference of about 3km/h (and that's definitely not with a high end bike - Leader 730TT - basic alu tri bike).

Shane
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