You can buy speed

Go ahead an totally discount seven months of training and perhaps a new attitude/incentive that comes with the new bike.

No way, under identical conditions and efforts, does that bike upgrade alone give you over 4mph.

You're absolutely right - the new bike does not give me 4mph. In the same way, I don't believe my fitness alone has given me 4mph either. I've been riding further, but still only doing 2 rides per week.

I think the new bike has given me a maximum of 2mph, and the rest is fitness.

You can think what you want ( and that's part of the equation for sure) but changing from one road bike to another isn't going to give you 1mph, even with aerobars, unless you had a pretty crappy fit on the old bike.

You're definitely right - I don't believe a new bike would give you 3-4mph under identical conditions. But I think there's definitely 1-2mph to be gained, especially when you add aerobars into the equation.

There was an article on here that quantified the advantage of aerobars, based on wind tunnel tests. I can't remember what the results were, so I'm not saying you're wrong. I would like to see it again though, if anyone has a link to it.

Nice bike choice. I'm enjoying it myself. Congratulations on the gains, regardless of where they are coming from. That is a big difference.BTW, curious as to what clip-ons you went with.

Give your legs more credit.

I went from Road bike to TT bike and maybe got 1mph.

Thanks. I went with some Vision clip ons. I'm not sure what model they are, but they're not the S-bend type. The arm rests are more cupped than some other clip ones I've seen, which I definitely prefer.

When I went from road bike to TT, I maybe gained 1 mph (at the 16-17mph area), but what I did gain was a big incentive to train harder, ride more, and my whole attitude was just boosted.  Now ride 20+ and I credit it to my training, not the bike.

I agree that you can buy speed but so far my experience has been less than most people believe.

I rode a Trek Madone 5.9 w/a road fit, stock except for clip-on carbon aero bars. On that bike I was FOP in every race I've done since returning to tri's on 04/25/08 (and with about one year of previous bike training).

I'm now racing on a Trek TTX 9.9 w/Zipp 1080s (ceramic), which is the matching TT bike to my Madone.

My second ride on the TTX was a race and I don't think I was any faster than what I'd have been on my Madone. After lots of fit tweaks and 10-12 training rides on the TTX, in my second race I think I was 0.5-1.0 mph faster but I can't tell for sure because I crashed right before the timing mat and so my official mph pace on the bike is skewed low.

Admittedly, I went from one high-end road bike to an equally high-end TT bike. But I think for me, because I've ridden many 10s of thousands of miles on road geometry w/clip-ons over the years, it's taking me longer to adapt to a 77-78 degree effective seat angle so I think my "bought speed" will improve later in the season as I adjust better. But so far, I'm not super impressed by any kind of "instant bought speed" for me.

(BTW, I train the bike at a relatively high intensity and I keep lots of training time trial records on all kinds of courses in terms of length, climbing, etc. I think I'm as accurate as is possible in terms of estimating how my average speeds are being effected by effort/equipment)

I should probably add that my old bike was pretty old, and was not in great shape. It used to rattle a lot, and frequently the chain would slip when changing gears. I used to have my LBS tune it up as best they could, but they said a lot of the parts needed replacing, and it just wasn't worth doing as I was planning on buying a new one anyway.

I agree that the difference between a brand new entry level bike and a brand new $3k bike would not be that great. But I was going from an old, battered piece of cr*p to a brand new quality machine, the differences are definitely greater. 

i think i got 1.5-2 mph, but my old road bike was a mid-80's bike and the drive train was pretty choppy. . i think having a smooth drive train, smooth crankset etc made a big difference. . plus it is so much more aerodynamic. . then again, it could have been the back to back 400+ mile months once i got my TT bike as well

Best bang for the buck on buying speed - Hire a coach! That will give you the best improvement.

please let me know who's selling it....

I'm ready, willing and able to back up the car......


on a serious note, thats some great improvement, and I'd think you did an outstanding job training to get where you are....

Says Coach Tryon...

I've upgraded bikes twice over the last two years--each time I gained 1 to 1.25 mph on average, no doubt about it.  Significantly less weight, more aero frame in each upgrade...that will equal some speed.  I don't think you can make an informed comparison a year apart, but the weeks immediately before and after the purchase will tell you something.

I got faster after I bought my P2, however I think that's mostly due to the mental aspect of spending so much on a bike and making me train harder. I'm sure there are some gains over the Giant OCR3, but I think it's stll mainly the improvement I've made to the engine with the motivation.

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Have the old bike? In the same week try to mimic all variables as possible (weather, food consumption, attitude, etc.) and ride the same route to compare the two.

I know that I would improve my time greatly like you did goming from my 54 frame 650-wheeled Cannondale Multisport2000 to the Felt B16 with a 58 frame and 700 wheels that I'm looking at this summer. I'm 6'2 and 167 lbs.

Congrats regardless of how it happened though! :D

I went from a 09 Specialized Allez Elite to a P2C (aluminum to a bada$$ full carbon tt) and the gains were real.  The P2C is not only lighter, but way more aero of course, and the gains are easily 1-2mph, and more on descents where aero makes a huge difference.