Recently, a great friend of mine has decided to give Triathlon a go. As I now have some experience of training, racing and kit demands, I've been happily sharing some of my approaches to a lot of questions any newcomer is bound to ask themselves of a sport that encompasses three different disciplines.
For me, one of the biggest and most agonizing decisions centered around the bike. Now, having been a bike rider for ever, since I was a youngster, I already had a couple of bikes to my name when I decided to take up Triathlon. However, my road bike had been neglected somewhat in favour of my (at the time) new found passion for mountain biking.
I didn't fancy riding an MTB in a triathlon event ( I hadn't realised there were off road events at this point) and as my circa 1990's steel frame road bike was showing its age, I knew that a new road bike was required for my first adventure into triathlon. But should it be a TT bike, or just a normal road bike.
Given an unlimited budget and space to store them, then my 'ideal' set up would be a winter bike, a summer bike, a TT machine AND a mountain bike. I'd probably want an 'old' hack for the turbo also ! So that's five already...but that was never going to happen really.
So, a key decision for me was, if I'm going to add one bike, what do I get? A road bike, a decent one that will serve me well for training and racing. Or, a TT bike? I loved the idea of a TT bike and started to canvas views of friends who had them. Of course, they loved these machines and the speed they allowed you to achieve but there were some caveats. They were predominately one-off bikes. You use it to race and for some training rides. But I got the sense they were not the most comfortable bikes to ride (over a distance) and they weren't so great going up hills/climbs and possibly for some technical courses.
Regardless then of the cost of a TT, it seemed like it wouldn't get so much use, making it hard to justify. So, I made my mind up, as much as I wanted a TT bike, I was going to focus on getting the best road bike I could afford and use it for both training rides and racing.
So....you know what comes next...research. I made my mind up, I was going to spend £1500 tops and I wanted a Boardman. I was distracted in my research by the idea of a second hand TT, the prices looked reasonable and the bikes were also so good looking. Again, using friends to discuss, I decided that second hand probably wasn't the way to go for now.
I head off then to the local bike shop and ask to see some Boardman bikes and talk about my budget...an hour later, I've bought a Trek and spent beyond my budget ! Of course I have.
But, I was super happy with my purchase. When it comes to bikes (and other bits of kit) I'm not averse to buying a previous years model to save some money and in the case of my Trek, get a better spec'd bike than I could afford new. Compared to the steel frame I'd been using previously, any new bike was a massive upgrade.....even if it was the previous years model.
So how do I get on with my 'one bike' strategy? Do I regret my choice?
Well its not quite one bike only. I have the 'luxury' of my old road bike which I'm now using for indoor turbo rides, but my Trek is covering all outdoor training duties and racing. I'm happy with my choice of taking a road bike instead of adding a TT as it does provide good value for money being able to be used for training as well as racing duties.
As you can read from other posts, I have spent some money on upgrading my road bike. adding aero wheels, tri bars and a tri specific saddle, all of which I can remove when training through winter. So, although I have 'one bike' as it were, it does cover a couple of bases nicely. Ok, its not a full TT machine, but with the addition of the aforementioned items, there are some gains to be made for sure, but then I have the convenience of all those things being removable and I don't have to explain to my main sponsor why I spent thousands on another bike which doesn't get much use.
I don't feel disadvantaged in races. Ok, so I'm not operating at the sharp end where perhaps a TT machine could deliver the marginal difference that might get you onto a podium - so that isn't a worry for me. That said, although I regularly get overtaken by rapid ladies and men on TT machines, I have myself overtaken a few people on pure TT machines myself. So all is not lost with just going down the road bike route.
By covering so many more miles on the one bike, I get used to riding it, how it handles and rides in different conditions, so this gives me confidence when I'm on the bike trying to get the most out of it - which is important for me.
So, there you go, my view for what its worth. If you are thinking of getting into Triathlon and are unsure about the TT versus road bike question, then you can consider a road bike only to cover all your requirements for training and racing.
I didn't fancy riding an MTB in a triathlon event ( I hadn't realised there were off road events at this point) and as my circa 1990's steel frame road bike was showing its age, I knew that a new road bike was required for my first adventure into triathlon. But should it be a TT bike, or just a normal road bike.
Given an unlimited budget and space to store them, then my 'ideal' set up would be a winter bike, a summer bike, a TT machine AND a mountain bike. I'd probably want an 'old' hack for the turbo also ! So that's five already...but that was never going to happen really.
So, a key decision for me was, if I'm going to add one bike, what do I get? A road bike, a decent one that will serve me well for training and racing. Or, a TT bike? I loved the idea of a TT bike and started to canvas views of friends who had them. Of course, they loved these machines and the speed they allowed you to achieve but there were some caveats. They were predominately one-off bikes. You use it to race and for some training rides. But I got the sense they were not the most comfortable bikes to ride (over a distance) and they weren't so great going up hills/climbs and possibly for some technical courses.
Regardless then of the cost of a TT, it seemed like it wouldn't get so much use, making it hard to justify. So, I made my mind up, as much as I wanted a TT bike, I was going to focus on getting the best road bike I could afford and use it for both training rides and racing.
So....you know what comes next...research. I made my mind up, I was going to spend £1500 tops and I wanted a Boardman. I was distracted in my research by the idea of a second hand TT, the prices looked reasonable and the bikes were also so good looking. Again, using friends to discuss, I decided that second hand probably wasn't the way to go for now.
I head off then to the local bike shop and ask to see some Boardman bikes and talk about my budget...an hour later, I've bought a Trek and spent beyond my budget ! Of course I have.
But, I was super happy with my purchase. When it comes to bikes (and other bits of kit) I'm not averse to buying a previous years model to save some money and in the case of my Trek, get a better spec'd bike than I could afford new. Compared to the steel frame I'd been using previously, any new bike was a massive upgrade.....even if it was the previous years model.
So how do I get on with my 'one bike' strategy? Do I regret my choice?
Well its not quite one bike only. I have the 'luxury' of my old road bike which I'm now using for indoor turbo rides, but my Trek is covering all outdoor training duties and racing. I'm happy with my choice of taking a road bike instead of adding a TT as it does provide good value for money being able to be used for training as well as racing duties.
As you can read from other posts, I have spent some money on upgrading my road bike. adding aero wheels, tri bars and a tri specific saddle, all of which I can remove when training through winter. So, although I have 'one bike' as it were, it does cover a couple of bases nicely. Ok, its not a full TT machine, but with the addition of the aforementioned items, there are some gains to be made for sure, but then I have the convenience of all those things being removable and I don't have to explain to my main sponsor why I spent thousands on another bike which doesn't get much use.
I don't feel disadvantaged in races. Ok, so I'm not operating at the sharp end where perhaps a TT machine could deliver the marginal difference that might get you onto a podium - so that isn't a worry for me. That said, although I regularly get overtaken by rapid ladies and men on TT machines, I have myself overtaken a few people on pure TT machines myself. So all is not lost with just going down the road bike route.
By covering so many more miles on the one bike, I get used to riding it, how it handles and rides in different conditions, so this gives me confidence when I'm on the bike trying to get the most out of it - which is important for me.
So, there you go, my view for what its worth. If you are thinking of getting into Triathlon and are unsure about the TT versus road bike question, then you can consider a road bike only to cover all your requirements for training and racing.