Question for those who own a road and Tri bike

I bought a tribike after having only a road bike.  For the next two years, I only road the tribike and never the roadbike unless the tribike was in the shop or something.  However, this year started riding group rides to improve my bike leg (which has dramatically improved btw) so now its reverse, I rarely ride the tribike except for races and tri-specific training rides.  I also found that I enjoy road races, and tri-bars are not allowed in these events.  Tribars are allowed and really  needed for time trial races which are more suited for your tribike.

Riding the tribike is not welcome in group rides, so if you don't have a roadbike, you miss out on this opportunity.  Sure you can show up at group rides w/your tribike, but its really unfair to the other riders as you jeopardize their safety as well as your own.   

Only other downfall of not having a roadbike I can think of is if you want to do casual rides say in the mountains where a road bike is more suited to climbing & descending.  And, usually a road bike stock is geared for climbing vs. standard gearing for a tribike. 

I definitely ride my TT bike more (I'd say 90/10), but that is mostly because I don't do a lot of group rides... my schedule has me training at somewhat wacky hours.  I'll only ride the roadie if I'm out on the occasional weekend ride with my wife or something like that.

That said, my situation is a bit unique.  If I had the ability to, I would do a bunch more group rides where the roadie would get used.

I used to ride group rides at least once a week. But do to time I usually start my rides earlier than the local group rides. If I ride with anyone we usually dont draft or I do the pulling (since i can't draft in tri's anyway).

I live in NW Ohio so its really flat, my biggest mountain is a bridge.

I don't really want to sell my road bike but I'm afraid I would not ride it very often.  With 2 young kids and tri training I'm lucky to get out 2 and sometimes 3 days per week to ride. I already have a high end mountain bike that only gets used 2-3 times a year when I find time to leave town to ride.

i ride my road bike much more than my TT bike. I enjoy it much more, and also race on it more frequently.

even on my solo rides, i prefer my roadie, it is just much more easy to maneuver and climb, which i end up doing a lot of both during a ride. For me the TT bike is prep for a race and race bike only, and sees significantly less miles than my road bike. The only time my TT bike got more miles than my roadie was when i had no roadie.

There is a guy who shows up on a Felt DA and wears headphones on our Wednesday group rides which start with 20+ people in a group.  He rides like in the group but then goes and does his own thing at a slow pace at some point since he gets dropped at 20mph. 

I only have a roadie and am ok with tribikes as long as they keep with regular group pacing and such.  I also get pissed at headphone people because they ride like most of the time from what I have seen.  And by riding like I mean not watching for other rides, no hand signals, swerving in the whole lane, and probably more.

I have thought about a tribike but realize a roadie with clipons may be a better option as I love group rides. 

During race season, I ride my tri bike quite a bit, as the position takes some time to get adjusted to for longer periods of time, and I believe it's important even on trainer rides to work on head position (turtling). After the big races are over, I generally put most of my miles on my roadie, as it's better suited for day to day riding.

On large group rides and any time I expect traffic, I ALWAYS use my road bike. Even when riding with just one or two people, I'm leary of riding my tri bike.

My tri bike sees a lot more use than my road bike.  Probably 80/20.

My group rides are usually with tri friends, we all ride tri bikes.  My solo training rides are almost all on the tri bike.  I only used the road bike when it was bad weather because I have fenders on it.

Whenever I do take it out I really enjoy riding it.  It's a different experience than the tri bike.  But in truth I could sell my road bike, and be totally fine with it. This summer I plan to do some rides with my 16 year old daughter, and we'll both use road bikes.  If I didn't have one, then I'd use tri and she'd use road and that would be fine too.

I have no concerns at all riding my road bike in traffic, large groups, small groups, etc.  Handling, position, comfort are all fine.  For those of you who have problems with tri bike comfort and handling, you have a problem to solve.  Tri bikes shouldn't be less comfortable and handle worse than road bikes.  Different, yes, but not in a bad way.

If your tri bike isn't a bit uncomfortable, you've got a some low hanging fruit to pick IMO... that or your road bike position looks like Greg LeMond's.

And not having immediate access to your brakes is a "real" issue... maybe not one that comes up often, but it's there. 1-2 seconds can be a lifetime in an emergency situation. Just saying.

Sign me up for using my tri bike much more than my roadie. I almost always ride alone. I figure if I am going to race on the tri I better train on it.

That said my tri bike is significantly nicer than my roadie. Perhaps if I had a smooth high quality road bike my opinion would be different. I am going to put some TLC into the roadie this fall and see if I can't make it a better running machine.

Interesting opinion. I am slowly coming to the realization that I will not ever be comfy cozy on my tri bike. Bearable, yes. But totally comfortable? I doubt it.

I am only half of an ironman so far, so how does one deal with the comfort issue during the 112 mile IM bike?

a 6 hour trainer ride on my tri bike (along with a lot more time in the position over the year of course) did it for me... 112 was no sweat after that

So you just get used to the slight discomfort eh?

Figured as much, no wonder you have HTFU painted on your wheel.

But my tri bike is new and I need to spend a lot of time in it to get used to it.  My road bike is a nice entry level bike.  Which was great for my first bike since i was a teen.  It is in storage without pedals at the moment - but that's really just a space issue.  I expect to get out the roadie after we move in August and use it on occassion but it won't be my main bike for training or racing.  i am exclusively using the tri bike. 

Like many things, "comfortable" is a spectrum.  Of course a tri bike is different than a road bike, and the comfort level will be on a different spot on that spectrum.  Riding on the horn of a tri bike base bar may not be as riding on the tops of a road bar.  Should it veer all the way into "as comfy as Mom's hybrid"?  No of course not, and if it is you're probably leaving some aero advantage on the table. Should it veer all the way into "unconfortable'?  No, and if it does you have problem. 

My tri bike wasn't as comfortable as I wanted, so I fixed it.  The horns on the Vision base bar were uncomfortable on long rides, and the R-bends aerobars hurt my wrists on long rides.  The PD seat was wearing out.  I put a new seat, ski-bends, and new base bar on it and was re-fitted.  Problem solved.  That's what I'm talking about.

I'm a believer in specificity, and thus I ride my tri bike a lot, in race setup, with my Zipp wheels.  I know exactly how that bike will handle and respond on race day because that's 80% of my riding.  Everything is second nature.

As for the brake issue, there's a time and place for using the aerobars.  If the 1-2 seconds is going to make the difference then that's not the time and place to use them - whether you're on a tri bike's aerobars or a road bike's aerobars.  Tri bike != riding on aerobars all the time.

double post

Indeed. I'll have to practice more then...

I'm roughly 2/1 in favor of my roadie in terms of number of rides.  Probably about even in miles.

My weekday rides I use the roadie.  I go out at 5am and while the Booty Loop is a great route, there are a LOT of intersections where a car can pull out in front of me suddenly.  For better or worse, I'm just more comfortable having my hands beside the brakes in those situations. 

My tri bike only comes out when I head out after the sun comes up and I'm either alone or with tri-friends.