Road Bike vs Tri bike I can only afford one

I think you will get many opinions on this one.  If you are buying a bike for triathlons, I would buy a tri bike.  The tri bike will be more aero and leave you fresher for the run.

 Other people will fall into the roadbike camp.  As it stands now, I'm riding a 10 year old road bike but if I could get a new bike, I would get a tri bike.

I bought the Nemesis a year ago.  I am very happy with it.  It is very aero, fast and comes with good components for the money.  Don't skimp on the bike fit.  Get the best fitter in town.  It has the cow bars so you can ride it in the up position like a road bike also.  I told my fitter I will do group rides on the cow bars and would like to ride up also.  A great fitter can do anything. 

I had an old ten speed and it killed my wrists and hands to ride up all the time.  If nothing else it gives your hands a break in the aero position on 50+ milers.  Now I ride in the aero position 90% of the time.

Yeah, next to useless unless you want an indestructible material that offers a great ride.

Whatever do you base this assessment on?

Do the tri bike, and I'll tell you why:  I never rode a road bike.  I decided to do triathlons so I bought a tri-specific bike.  I immediately got used to the unique dimensions of a tri bike and the aero position because (aside from 15 years ago when I was a kid) I didn't know anything different.  If you buy a road bike then decide later you want a tri bike, you'll have to make physical adjustments.

I did a Sprint two days ago and I passed a lot of road bikes.  You could tell these are guys who are "roadies" and have been riding road bikes for many many years.  I've been riding a Tri bike for only seven months and I blow past them.  Unless it's a ridiculously hilly course, 9.5/10 times if someone passes me they are on a tri-bike (and usually they have a ridiculous wheel set up, not that it matters.)

When I was walking to my car after the Sprint I heard a twenty-something yr old talking to his dad and genuinely disappointed and shaking his head.  He was pushing a really nice road bike.  He was saying to his dad that he pushed as hard as he could on the bike, and couldn't believe how some guys where just blowing past him.  He remarked how it absolutley had to be the bike. 

Whenever I am on a descent in a race, and I get super aero and tucked, three or four times now I've breezed passed road bikes without even pedalling.  The tri bike is designed for speeeed.    

If you are going to do tri's, buy the Tri bike.  I have ZERO regrets.  And I'm yet to here of a single person who does triathlons buying a tri bike, who then later regrets it and buys a road bike.  But you always hear and read about people buying the road bike, regretting it, and saving for and eventually buying the TT bike. 

I'm going to have to disagree with most of your statements. Every rider is different and every bike, from all the major manufacturers, are different, far too much to be able to make generalities like these. I've ridden an all aluminum frame tri bike that was more compliant than an all carbon road bike. Personal fit plays more into one's comfort, over and above the geometries, which can vary greatly from one bike to the next, and an experienced fitter can mean more to one's comfort than frame material or geometry. 

And word has it that titanium truly rocks.

I'll agree that if your focus will be on tris, and your training will be predominantly solo rides, a tri bike will suit you well.

As for a tri bike being faster than a road bike, it just isn't so. I can guarantee that with a tri bike and your seven months of riding you did not blow past any "roadies who had been riding for years". It's all about the engine, and the advantage of a tri bike will only be to allow you to remain comfortably aero for an extended period. The bike isn't necessarily faster, you're just maintaining a more aerodynamic profile to the wind. For an entire bike leg there will be a small time savings to be had, no doubt, but we're definitely not talking additional large numbers of mph in speed. The true measure would be in a race with a rider of identical abilities on a road bike. A true roadie with a "ridiculous wheel set-ups" would leave you in the dust (and those ridiculous wheel set-up do matter).

I only speak from my experience, which admitted is very limited.  Several times I've been on long, steep descents next to road bikes and every single time, without pedalling, I gradually and easily pass a road bike.  Everytime.  Maybe it's the cervelo frame, my aero position, don't know.  Just know, for me, it's happened every time.       

Regarding my comments on the sick wheel set-up, I was referring to the race I did this past Sunday, where it was a 12 mile bike ride.  On a 12 mile ride a wheelset is going to make close to zero difference. 

From my experience, I did a Sprint in April -- the only bikes that passed me (which were two) were tri-bikes.  One guy on a road bike (no clip-ons or anything) passed me and I passed him back and he never could catch me.  At a super-hilly Olympic I did (net loss/gain 1500 feet) I constantly passed road bikes on bombing descents / and on the same descents the only bikes to pass me were Tri's.  The only time a road bike passed me was on the climbs.  And the same for an Olympic I did two weeks ago.  And the Sprint I did just this last Sunday one roadie passed me right out of the 'bike out', within a few hundred yards I caught and passed him and never saw him again. 

The big difference I notice is I am always in an agressive aero position (very forward, very aero - helmet and all -, I feel like 90% of my body and weight is on my front wheel) and my cadence is always a bit slower but smoother, and more powerfu,l and I just glide past them.  The roadies are always sitting straight up, spinning their legs off.  And again, this has been my experience so far.   

I just find it uncanny that in the first four tri's I've done I don't ever recall being passed by a road bike (and I pay close attention to all the bikes that pass me), except on the one exceptionally mountainous course, and I was only passed on long climbs; never on a flat or descent. 

Maybe it has something to do with my German heritage  

If so, riddle me this: Why wouldnt all the riders on the Tour De France be on TT bikes????

1.) A peleton of TT bikes would involve lots of crashes eventually.  2.) Road bikes climb better.  3.) Can you imagine staying aero for hours and days on end?  I could, but it'd be rough.  4.) The same reason they don't use drag cars on oval race tracks.  Drag cars are faster but for obvious reasons not practical to use on anything but a straight track. 

Two answers:

1. They are, during the time trial segments. As stated before, TT bikes have better aerodynamics but aren't as good for climbing.
2. However, IIRC, even their time trial bikes have slacker seat tube angles than triathlon bikes because the steeper seat tube angles are illegal on the bike racing circuits.

I believe that Sty's point was that it would be rare for a roadie with years of experience, regardless of the bike type, to be blown away by a triathlete who is a relatively new rider.

Nobody is saying that there is no benefit to riding a TT bike in a TT or bike leg of a tri; however, just pointing out that it is not magic.  If you consider two riders of similar abilities, if you give one a TT bike and a good position, they should be faster over a similar course (assuming it isn't a crazy course like an uphill TT).

As for the TdF, as the bear indicated, they do use TT bikes for the TT's but TT bikes are ill suited to peloton riding.  The reasons for this are many; in any drafting situation, you should never be in the aerobars (unless you are leading), the handling of a TT bike is not the same as a road bike (as they are designed to go fast in a straight line so you trade off some handling), they typically don't climb as well and since you are in a pack, being aero is not much of an advantage.

As to the OP, I would go with a road bike first unless you were 100% sure that you were only going to do tris and  knew that you wanted to try to ride in a fairly "aggressive" aero position.

Shane

I don't see my advice as poor; in fact, I prefaced one of my posts with the statement that a tri bike is a good choice if your focus is on tris. My first bike was a tri bike, and it remains the only bike I put real miles on (albeit I'll admit I'm not a "tri guy" like you, since I only do duathlons   ) However, it is poor advice to recommend that a tri-newbie be told to buy a tri bike without looking at their specific situation:experience, budget, goals, etc. It's a more common story to get wrapped -up in triathlon, buy the tri bike and then lose interest; a road bike will offer more versatility for that rider, and will still get ridden.

My statement re: a tri-bike being faster, I maintain just that; it's not necessarily the bike, but your aerodynamic profile to the wind, and it's realized in a few minutes on the bike leg as opposed to a huge increase in mph. A new rider on a tri bike will squeak out some small time-saving over the same rider in a road configuration, but it will not me miraculous.