Comparison pics, tribike vs. wanna be tribike

I figured since I got my new bike I would share a few pics. The bikes for comparison are a 10' Kestrel Talon and a 10' Kestrel Airfoil Pro. The Talon is a 57 cm and the Airfoil 56 cm.

Short story, I got the Talon last fall as I couldn't afford the Airfoil or the Fuji D6 I wanted. I could have got them, but didn't want to make the wife to mad. We have been living debt free other than the house and one car for about 2 years so I didn't want to change that or wait any longer, anyway, back on track. I really love the Talon, still do. It's a great bike, but since last Aug I have been working on a more and more agressive position and the Talon is actually a hybrid tri bike, if thats the correct word. It's actually an aero road frame with tri bike cockpit. It is adverstised as being capable of a 79 degree seat angle. I'm not sure that's 100% true, maybe if the seat is all the way down. The frame also rises up where the stem is.

Over the course of the last 6 months I have gotten used to a more aero position, I ended up with the seat as far forward as it will go and the handlebars as low as they will go, I know I could have gone lower with a differant stem, but still the seat problem. The seat problem was actually even worse in the 2 tri's I did this year, I would actually fall off the front.

Anyway, I just wanted to share these pics to show the differances between the 2 bikes as far as a real tri bike seat angle and the regular road frame, just looking at them before and comparing pics, it didn't look this drastic to the nekkid eye. What I did was take all the measurements from my Talon and apply them to the Airfoil; seat height, distance behind bb, seat to arm pad lentgh, seat to shifter, floor to shifter, floor to armpad etc so eveything is the same and feels the same before I made any of the adjustments I needed to do that I couldn't get with the Talon.

On the Talon, the seat was as far forward as It could possible get, on the Airfoil, to get the same position, as far back as possible. I know had 3" I can come forward. I also have room to go lower in front, the Talon I had all the spacers out, and the stem flipped, the Airfoil, about 1" of spacers in, so room to go down.

Can't wait to get more Aero, just thought I'd share the differances for anyone new out there that might be looking at getting a new bike, make sure you know what your getting, I love the Talon, but at the end of the day it's just a road bike with tri bars.