Tri bike for ironman

Welcome to BT!

Plenty of people ride tri bikes in IM's and plenty ride road bikes.  And it is rarly course dependent.  It is whatever the rider has trained on, what they develop the most power on while balancing the aerodynamics and what sort of budget they have.

I've done 2 full irondistance events as well as an irondistance aquavelo (swim, bike) which I used as a preperation race for the first IM.  In the aquavelo and my first race I used my tri bike with aero helmet and disc wheel.  In my IM this year I used my road bike without aero bars.  The first ones I was going for aggressive bike splits and the other one I was only planning on a leisurely Sunday ride.  They were all successful rides.

If you search the forum you will see a lot of threads on tri bike versus road bike.

Edit: And you will see just as varied of a mix in Hawaii as you would at any other IM event.  They only focus on the pros most of the time for coverage and they almost all ride tri bikes.

Thanks Rick

 Would you be comfortable riding your tri bike at a leisurely pace or would you prefer your road bike. I've heard that a tri bike would be good for conserving energy for the run due to the geometry of the bike. You said you used your tri bike for quick times but i'm guessing you would be just as comfortable using it to finish an ironman distance race at a leisurely pace

Tom

Tom....Rick is a bike stud and used to bike race so he knows a lot but his leisurely Sunday ride pace kicks most of our butts.

I have a number of bikes but ride my tri bike most of the time in the summer unless I ride with my women's bike race team or a group that doesn't allow tri bikes. Winter I ride my road bike or will be riding my new cyclecross bike just to keep my tri bike off the salt and grim from winter roads in MA.

My tri bike fits me great (key to getting any bike) and I find it most comfortable as my skeleton supports my upper body not my arms and muscular system.

I used my tri bike for my HIM and IM. 

Just from being part of BT for 5 years I've observed who are wanting to start to do triathlons go to their local bike store and get advice to get a road bike as it is more flexible. So many that do that end up buying a tri bike in 1-2 years. If you want to be a triathlete I think getting a tri bike makes sense a it is geared for what you will be doing.

Bikesport in MI has a lot of articles about bike selection, road vs tri bike, and more...here is a link to one article but poke around and you can learn a lot.

Welcome to BT and the tri world!

And, plan on that fit changing.  I found that my position changed quite a bit as I developed flexibility and became use to my Tri-bike.  My LBS does free follow up fittings for a year in addition to the initial fit when they sell a bike.  Quite a nice service.