Riding Hills on a Tri Bike

The answer (to this and most other questions) is that it depends.I live at the base of the Rockies. I don't enjoy climbing on a tri bike. I feel like I lose a lot of power when climbing on a tri bike as compared to my road bike. But, when in the mountains, I see a number of people on a tri bike doing perfectly fine.I am a little faster on my tri bike on flat ground than on my road bike, but only a little (meaning the increase is under 1 mph). Others see bigger increases. it depends on a lot of factors, including how well you are fit on both bikes, and how aggressive a position you ride on your road bike.

I actually seem faster in the tri-bike, even using the same training wheels (race wheels only go on the tri-bike).  I don't necessarily mean in the aero position either.  Might take a little getting used to not having both brakes and shifting at your fingertips, but I adjusted pretty quickly.  Learned to anticipate and also have a decently wide cadence range.

It all depends on the hills... the longer and the steeper, the more disadvantage you will have on a tri bike (in general, a tri bike will be heavier than a road bike due to tube shaping, deeper rims, etc. and also, the steeper seat angle allows less power to be generated from your hamstrings). On rolling terrain (i.e. shorter hills), you can actually be faster on a tri bike, as it many times will be stiffer and allowing even more of your power to generate forward momentum (excellent on power hills!).

Living in NH, we do have a fair amount of hills around here and it really depends on the race if I pick my tri bike or road bike (although, this year, I haven't had a single race where I didn't race my tri bike... although my wife had two where she was faster on her road bike so that's what she raced on).

If you can get both, I would keep the S1 and get the P2. I have a Soloist and P2 and they make a nice couple. I usually ride the Soloist for training and riding in groups. I am significantly faster on my P2  but pretty much only use it for racing. The P2 climbs perfectly fine compared to the Soloist with similar gearing but you don't have as many options with hand placement on the Tri bike and descents with your hands off the brakes in the aerobars can be unnerving.  I will ride the mountains occasionally on my Tri-bike but I prefer to do it on my roadie.

IME difficulties in hills on tribikes on most hills are due to gear selection as opposed to geometry. With the appropriate gearing, I am as comfortable climbing on my tribike and faster descending non-technical hills than on my road bike.

Shane