General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Road Bike -> Tri Bike Critique (video) Rss Feed  
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2013-06-18 7:24 PM

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Subject: Road Bike -> Tri Bike Critique (video)
Hey all,

Little background first. I'm in my second year of tri training. Completed my first and only Tri last year (Poconos 70.3), and have B2B on the calendar as my A-Race this year. Although B2B (super flat course) is a great course for a Tri-Bike, I don't have it in the budget for this year, so I'm going to have to attack this race with my road bike (Podium 6), "decked" out into Tri mode. What you see in the video (link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBcja9wj4Ok

3 of the 4 spacers out from underneath the stem
Profile Design Forward seat post
Easton Aero Bars

I'm sure with 18 weeks until the race, I'll have more than enough time to get used to this position.

I was looking for some suggestions, either what I could add onto this set up, or what I could change from what I have now.

Thanks for your time/help, I really appreciate it

Chris


2013-06-19 8:34 AM
in reply to: crr5071

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Subject: RE: Road Bike -> Tri Bike Critique (video)
I'm not a professional, my advice is worth what you pay it.
No joking around (this isn't ST) but your seat looks too high. Are you experiencing any discomfort in the sensitive regions, or having trouble getting in a good spot on the saddle? You could probably bring it down anywhere from 5-10mm from what I see. You should get both power and comfort from that.

I'll make a couple of assumptions -
1) you're making this change to gain speed, not comfort. If comfort were king, you'd ride in road position.
2) Holding 1 constant, you're willing to be mildly uncomfortable to gain aerodynamic speed

It not being a tri bike your position is obviously pretty crunched up and not relaxed, but it *is* more aerodynamic than riding with road bars. I tried the same thing last year using a Cervelo S1 with an Vision TriMax aerobar setup, and I found it was fine for Olympics or less, but really started to hurt my back for anything longer than an hour. As I'm moving up distances, it became necessary to have a properly fit tri bike to hold that aero advantage but have the comfort needed to ride that long. So long as you can hold that position on that bike, there isn't much more you can do to improve it, as it's not designed to be what you're trying to make it. It looks like you're falling off the front of those extensions, but I can't tell for sure because your arm and hand are obscuring them. If it's a J-bend, is it bending down? It should be up. Possibly those could come out a little farther.
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General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Road Bike -> Tri Bike Critique (video) Rss Feed  
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