Disscusion: Why or Why not a Tri/Road bike (Page 2)

Agreed. If I could be competitive, I'd buy whatever speed I could.

For me though cost was an issue. I did not have unlimited funds to spend when I purchased my bike. I did do some research though. It seems like a tri-bike gains about 2 miles per hour over a road bike..  I obtained that info from a website referenced in another thread comparing speed of Tri's and roadies, from BT last year..

"How Aero is Aero"

The 2011 BT thread about

Tri bike vs Road bike speed gain

It seems like from what I've read... proper fit and comfort.. is everything..

Agreed - and without really factoring in all of the technical discussion, i think the riders experience level is important. 

My first 'adult' bike for which I intended to do triathlons and duathlons was a road bike and I am glad it was.  Mostly because I hadn't had a bike since I was 14.   It took me a while to get comfortable being on a skinny-tired, forward leaning (more aggressive forward position) road bike - i was scared! Yes, I was a weenie but it was great to have breaks and great accessible in the same hand position.  

I did buy a tribike later and I do love it. In the summer and training for tris it's the only bike i use.  It did take a while to get comfortable going aero, changing gears, etc but i think the transition was shorter because I was already comfortable on a road bike. 

If you can swing it having one of each is great but i think if you haven't been riding for some time getting a road bike is a great place to start. In addition to it being versatile for other uses.  You'll have enough work to do on the 'engine' that worrying about buying speed isn't too great a factor. 

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. I really appreciate it!

As a newbie cyclist, I'm going to go without the aero bars for now. I rather have the proper technique and control on a road bike first as opposed to doing everything at once.

I also feel like putting aero bars on a road bike is kind of like putting downhill ski bindings on cross country skis and pretending it is the same as downhill skis.

I looked at the aero articles and understand the importance, but at this time I just need cycling experience and the fitness to be able to cruz over mountains in this area. (I'm in the upstate NY Adirondeck region)

Take care all!

"As a newbie cyclist, I'm going to go without the aero bars for now."

Very strong decision.

Aerobars, and tri bikes by association, have gotten an unfair bad rep from new cyclists who put aero bars on a road bike then report discomfort and poor handling. By association they profer a damning opinion of triathlon bikes with aerobars (never mind that they haven't been fit on one, never rode one and road bikes aren't intended for aerobars) from their understandably bad experience with aerobars on their road bike.

Aerobars don't belong on a ride bike.

Putting aerobars on a road bike makes a good road bike worse and doesn't make a good tri bike.

The problems with aerobars on road bikes lead Dan Empfield and Ralph Ray to develop the first triathlon bikes specific to aerobar use. Athletes who still use aerobars on road bikes at the elite level are generally specialty ITU/draft legal triathletes and are usually using special ITU/draft legal shortened aerobars specific to road bikes.

If you have a road bike, ride it as a road bike. Don't mess up a good thing by hanging aerobars on it. It's like doing this:

"Aerobars don't belong on a ride bike."

Well, that was supposed to say, "Aerobars don't belong on a road bike", but I think you guys figured that out.

WoW!!!! I am not sure why u are so damming of it. How does properly fitted aero bars it make the bike "worse"? 

(speaking of shorty bars)

It might not be optimal.. but for me personally it was the difference between shelling out a few thousand dollars and about 6 thousand dollars for a properly fitted tri-bike. 

"WoW!!!! I am not sure why u are so damming of it. How does properly fitted aero bars it make the bike 'worse'?"

Super good question.

When the aerobar was invented by Boone Lennon in the mid 1980's it was installed on road bikes. It's all we had.

We quickly discovered problems. As you pedalled you slid forward on the saddle. It was uncomfrotable and it shifted weight onto the handlebars. That extra weight made the steering more sensitive, more responsive. A road bike is already designed to be responsive and handle quickly in a pack. Making it more responsive by shifting weight forward then makes it too responsive.

It's the exact oppositie of what you need on aerobars. Aerobars are intended for those of us who will ride solo, not drafting, not doing a lot of repetitive high speed corners like in a bike race called a criterium. We're out going basically straight, not drafting tightly in a group.  

Add to that the discomfort in your... crotch... from being slid forward on the nose of the road bike and you have an issue.

Solution? Well, ding-dong, slide the saddle forward...

We did that. We made special seatposts to slide the saddle forward. It fixed one thing (saddle comfort) but made another thing worse; the bike became very "twitchy" with too much weight on the handlebars. It was hard to look up and look araound, it was hard to reach for a water bottle or get something out of your jersey pocket.

Two clever lads, Dan Empfield and Ralph Ray, made a bike with a 90 degree seat tube angle (a road bike is about 73 degrees) and a 71 degree (about) head tube angle. Much more stable. It was designed "from the aerobars back" according to Dan. He founded Quintana Roo, Slowtwitch, invented the triathlon wetsuit according to many. Generally, he is a genius. Nice guy too.

So...

Road bikes were never intended to have aerobars. Installing them is a compromise at best, at not a good one. There are exceptions, as with everything. I used a road bike with slightly modified geometry and shortie aerobars at Ironman France since it has super technical descents.

So much of the misinformation and misunderstanding about aerobars, road bikes and tri bikes eminates from lack of experience with them, not understanding their history and origin along with the engineering behind them and the propencity of the internet to perpetuate lore and misconception.

There's a great article on ST about this. Dan talks about discussions with Ray, and how they disagreed on the design, but were really after the same thing -- one said "move the bottom bracket backwards!" while the other said "no! move the wheels forward".

I was referring shorty aero-bars.

Again, not optimal.. but awesome for me. 

I'd counter what your LBS said.

Yes you do train on the tri bike for tri's. It makes perfect sense. You can train on a road bike, but you need to be careful when you jump to a tri bike, your leg muscles will be used to the geometry of the road bike, and vice versa.  I do train on my road bike early in the season, and switch to my tri bike as I get closer to the race date. IMO, if I'm training for a tri, then the optimal choice for my training is my tri bike, since that is what I will race on. I chose to ride the road bike, because it's more comfortable, period.

As for group rides, it totally depends on the group you plan on riding with.  You shouldn't be pace lining/draft with a tri bike, but you might do group rides with your tri training friends, which is totally fine...just be mindful of when you're close behind someone, and don't be in the aero bars.

If you plan on doing mostly tri's, perhaps the tri bike is the best choice overall, you can add a road bike later. If you prefer versatility, get a road bike initially.