Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

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Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?
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tri with 7000x23 tires
cyclocross bike with 700x32 tires

2012-04-16 5:05 PM

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Central VA
Subject: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?
Maybe a wet weekend for my sprint on Sunday. Which bike would you take out on a wet road?

Tri bike with 700x23 Hutchinson Carbon Comp tires

Or

Cyclocross bike with 700x32 Vitoria Randonneur Cross tires

Edited by pvfd304 2012-04-16 5:06 PM

2012-04-16 5:15 PM
in reply to: #4154378

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Regular
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Westfield, IN
Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

How are your bike handling skills and what's the course like?

I'd definitely go tri bike

2012-04-16 5:32 PM
in reply to: #4154394

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Central VA
Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?
Route starts out in downtown across James River out to River Road which is a rough country secondary road. 15 mile loop. It has a pretty good decent on the way back so speeds will be up there.

I rode about 1600 miles since last year. All on dry roads.
2012-04-16 5:39 PM
in reply to: #4154378

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Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

I'd always go with the tri bike but I live in a rainy state.

Get off the aero bars when you need to maneuver and start braking early before you get into corners.  Keep a generous distance away from other riders.

2012-04-16 5:44 PM
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Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?
Whichever one you care least if you lay it down.  You have to worry not just about your own skills, but the skills of those around you, and especially at a sprint, those can be suspect at best.  Personally I would go cyclocross given that the last 1600 miles have been on dry roads.  Good luck, and ride safe!
2012-04-16 5:48 PM
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Urbana, MD
Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

I picked up a set of 700x25 all-weather tires from my LBS for like 25 bucks a piece because someone didn't want them on his new bike - It may be worth stopping in to ask if they have any "used" ones. Stick those on the tri bike and you have the best of both worlds for pretty cheap (cheap in tri terms at least) 

I switched from CX tires to the all-weathers and haven't noticed a drop in performance on damp roads, although it hasn't rained on me enough for me to really test their wet road performance. They're also a LOT faster than CX tires and the road noise is a lot lower!

Which tri are you doing in central VA?



2012-04-16 6:22 PM
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Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

If conditions are so bad that you think you would crash your tri bike...I wouldn't race at all.

2012-04-16 6:32 PM
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Central VA
Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?
guitarfrk75 - 2012-04-16 6:48 PM

I picked up a set of 700x25 all-weather tires from my LBS for like 25 bucks a piece because someone didn't want them on his new bike - It may be worth stopping in to ask if they have any "used" ones. Stick those on the tri bike and you have the best of both worlds for pretty cheap (cheap in tri terms at least) 

I switched from CX tires to the all-weathers and haven't noticed a drop in performance on damp roads, although it hasn't rained on me enough for me to really test their wet road performance. They're also a LOT faster than CX tires and the road noise is a lot lower!

Which tri are you doing in central VA?



The tires on the cross bike are a all weather type tire, no knobbies. It's my rails to trails bike and it does pretty decent on the road too. Its a good all around ride.

My race is in Lynchburg. The Angels Race is a Set-Up events production.
2012-04-16 6:49 PM
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Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

Tri bike.

It stopped raining as we were setting up transition at my race yesterday, so the roads were still soaked and there was some standing water for the race.

A few years ago, I did a race where it poured the entire time.  There was several inches of water in the paved transition area.

Neither of these caused more than some adjustments to the ride, such as watching for standing water, slowing more for turns, coming out of aero for some curves where I would normally have stayed down, and avoiding pavement markings.  It's not really a huge issue, unless conditions are so bad that you still don't feel safe after these adjustments.  Then not racing is probably a wiser option.

2012-04-16 7:16 PM
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Subject: RE: Rain forecast for race day. Which bike?

Me?  I would take my Specialized Transition Comp instead of my . . . 

Oh, wait, I only have one bike Frown

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