Bike upgrades

Edited by Steve- 2005-02-04 2:42 PM

How much did you pay for that bike?

Looks fast...

I 2nd bear.

Use this bike for another 2 years and SAVE all of your money towards another bike.  Then you'll have enough cash to really get a freggin nice bike.

Buy a bike too soon before you're able to afford one you "really" want and you'll end up compromising again.  Wait it out and it'll pay off....just like endurance training. 

Trust me!

is The Cervelo Dual ($1700 w/Ultegra 10) and the Felt ($1850 w/DA 10) better than my road bike?

Not particularly better, just more suitable for racing in triathlons. 

what sort of road bike would be an upgrade to this bike that i have at the moment?

To get "significantly" better than this bike, you're going to have to spend significantly more than this bike would have cost NEW, which I figure to be close to that $2K price point you're looking at.

Really, to get significantly better, you'll have to find something with "better" materials (carbon fiber, titanium) or components (Dura Ace, Chorus, Record). Would that make it better for you? It wouldn't be significant for me. What would be significant (and was for me) would be a more appropriate bike for the racing that you do, one with tri geometry, aero frame, stiffer bottom bracket, bar-end shifters, aero wheels, yada yada.

isnt it better to buy a road bike though, because road bikes are made for road racing and it would get the most benefit out of riding on road because they are designed for the road only?

Again, what kind of racing are you doing? If it's triathlons (I can only assume that's why you're here) then a tri-bike is more appropriate. If it's stage racing (a la Tour de france ;-) ), criterium, lots of hills, or group riding, then a road bike is more appropriate. If you're racing cyclo-cross, then get a cyclo-cross bike. Etc., etc., etc.

I do a lot of group rides and centuries, so I have a nice (for me) road bike. I started doing tris last year, borrowed a friend's tri bike and got spoiled, so I had to buy a tri bike. I do the occasional adventure race, so I have a hard-tail mountain bike. I can do all three on the mountain bike, I can do each one better on the specific-design bike.

Hmm. Of course you're in a different country, different culture, so I don't know what goes on there. What are some of the races you've done, and their websites? Have you looked at other triathlon wesites to see what they allow? Is there a governing body (like our USA Triathlon) that you can check with?

I don't know why triathlon bikes would not be allowed in triathlons, but you chaps are peculiar. (That's a peculiar word, I guess I don't use it very often)

Check the regs.  They should be posted on the web somewhere.  Read through them and see what kind of "bikes" are allowed.

If you are racing in draft legal races then people may have road bars on their bikes but have tri geometry.  The other reason could simply be that your terrain is such that road bike geometry is much more suitable than tri-bike geometry.

Edited by Steve- 2005-02-04 3:46 PM