Do you train on a road or tri bike? (Page 2)

I also wanted to add that it is in any triathletes best interest to train on a tri-bike if that is what you are going to race on.  Its important to get your tri-bike handling skills down pat and to get your core musculature used to riding in the aero position.  That means many hours on your tri-bike because if you can't stay aero, you are better off racing on the road bike.

And I would counter that if you are truly properly fit to the TT bike, this wouldn't be an issue to begin with .......

The important thing is to train on a bike, period.  As long as your fit is solid on them, it doesn't matter so much which one you use.  Just having a little adaptation to the TT position for handling and such makes sense, I'll give you that.

Not true.  People that include their swim rest intervals are padding their training TIME in their logs.  That is what I've claimed.

I was 100% on my tri bike (because that's all I had).

Now that I bought my road bike, I have put a little more time on that since it's new and I did a road race and group ride.

However, my P2 frame is toast, so I need to send it back to Cervelo for repair/replace.  So I will be doing all my road riding on the road bike...

The most important thing is time in the saddle.  I would also make sure you are comfortable on whatever bike you plan to use during your race for the time your will be on it...  If you back hurts half way through an IM and you have to ride the hoods, you just negated any advantage a tri bike would have given you.

I know .. and I agree, philosophically.  I have a great position (FIST certified, etc, blah, blah) and like I said, I am comfortable in it (70 miles was my longest distance this year).  But every year when I get on the roads again from a long winter on the computrainor, it takes me a couple hundred miles to get back the aero comfort.  I feel that I somehow "lost" some of my conditioning in my shoulders and neck.  N=1?  Possibly - I don't know, but I suspect by talking with a lot of athletes over the years, than there is something to the idea that bike-fit and conditioning go hand-in-hand to give a ride a comfortable position.

March - October I probably do 75% tri bike and 25% road bike. The other few months it's probably reverse.

Actually I haven't ridden my tri bike in 2 weeks now! I also use my road bike more when riding in the dark in the mornings, which is going to be more and more now.

I only own a tri bike, well 99.9% tri bike, I do cart my 4 year old around on the mb once in a while.

I agree with the handling part and I learned it the hard way taking a bad crash in a race because of the forward weight, and differences in both the brakes' interaction with my Zipps and the levers with my hands.

After that crash I decided to ride my TT bike (Trek TTX 9.9) until it felt perfect even with sustained climbing and especially descending. The bike felt pretty terrible at first and it took about a month (riding and fit tweaks) before it felt perfect.

After two months on my TTX (~1700 miles), I switched back to my road bike and adapted well after just a couple rides but my legs were a bit sore due to the different position and I felt a bit weak while climbing unless I rode the nose of the saddle. I altered the fit slightly to rotate myself forward a bit which immediately felt great since it was more like my TTX. I've now ridden my road bike (Trek Madone 5.9SL) in that position for seven rides (355 miles).

Now, I'm going to switch back to my TTX and see how it feels. My goal is to get both bikes to fit/feel as close as possible to the same but not lose the characteristics for which they were designed. Then I'm going to ride them about 50/50 because while the Madone is much better in the mountains, I am currently racing triathlons so I want to be perfectly accustomed to the TTX as well.

ETA:
When I'm talking about how the bikes "feel", I'm not talking "comfort". Both are perfectly comfortable for 100+ mile rides. I'm talking about power/handling as the two bikes compare.

Edited by breckview 2009-09-22 4:17 PM

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I've got a road bike, tri bike, and MTB. I ride each about a third of the time.