General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Check out my bike - do I need alterations? Rss Feed  
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2015-05-29 10:03 AM


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Subject: Check out my bike - do I need alterations?
I am entering my first sprint triathlon. The bike I own is a 2013 Women's Specialized Vita Hybrid. I'm wondering what, if any, alterations I should get to make a difference and what I should expect to pay for them.

My main concern is the tires, because it seems like I should have road tires rather than my hybrid tires. It also seems like everyone else has aero bars. A third thing I would consider is clipless tires.

Lastly, I have noticed in the gym that when I ride on their stationary bikes, I can pretty easily do 20 mph, but on my bike I currently ride closer to 13.5 mph. This might be because at the gym I pay close attention to keeping my RPM at or around 90 - so maybe a tachometer would be good for me?

I do plan on making triathlons a long-lived hobby of mine, so I don't need to get all my gear all at once. I still have to get a helmet (so I'll take suggestions for that too, if you have them). The point of my post is to prioritize my purchases so that I don't spend all my money at once on improvements that will only make marginal differences.


2015-05-29 4:57 PM
in reply to: #5118905

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Subject: RE: Check out my bike - do I need alterations?
I think the biggest improvements you can make would be road tires and aero bars (not necessarily at the same time, depending on your budget and the cost of the equipment you go with). I can't speak to clipless tires as I have no experience with them, but I'm sure someone else will chime in on that subject.

As to the workout bike/actual bike question - I did an indoor tri on a stationary bike awhile back and was able to cover the "mileage" needed for that race far faster than I could on my bike. To the tune of almost twice as fast. So I wouldn't worry about the discrepancy - I think it's a pretty common difference between stationary bikes and real bikes.
2015-05-29 9:31 PM
in reply to: beccafool

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Subject: RE: Check out my bike - do I need alterations?

I wouldn't do anything for your first race except have fun .  Sure maybe some road tires if you want.  But honestly, if you plan on continuing, save your money to get a road (or tri) bike.  You will see a others on mountain bikes and hybrids.  Just ride what you have for now.  A helmet--get one that fits and that is comfortable.

The only comment I have on the stationary bike questions is that I don't know how accurate the speedometers on those things are...  Good luck and enjoy!

2015-05-30 7:19 AM
in reply to: beccafool

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Subject: RE: Check out my bike - do I need alterations?
I've never heard of clipless tires. Do you mean clipless pedals? if so, they do save a bit of time once you get used to them as they encourage a more efficient pedal stroke, but you'd also need to get bike shoes and cleats. That can be kind of a big expense (both my pairs of bike shoes cost well over $100, and I had little choice in the matter as with my long, narrow feet I had to get whatever brand and model fit, and it was't the cheap ones.

As for the stationary bike, the "speeds" often don't correspond to road speeds. I used to do much of my training on one so have had a lot of experience with that. They use some kind of algorithm which seems to put a greater weight on cadence than resistance when calculating speed. So if you spin very quickly at pretty low resistance, which wouldn't get you moving very fast on the road, the stationary will show you going quite fast. But if you spin a bit more slowly at a higher resistance, the speed shown might be slower than if you did something similar on the road. I found that the values are most similar when you make sure the resistance is at a level that allows you to ride at a similar cadence (and heart rate or perceived exertion level) as on the road. There is still a gap of about 10%, though. As I recall I was usually about that much "faster" on the stationary. I'm pretty light and tend to be more of a higher-cadence, lower-resistance type rider, especially for long efforts, so this might be different depending on your riding style. A heavier, more powerful rider who pushes bigger "gears" at lower cadence might find a bigger discrepancy with his or her road speed.

If the stationary has a watt meter, you can find your threshold power and do power-based workouts on a stationary; if you ride the same one consistently you can also use speed/distance/power to compare different workouts on the same bike and see progress, but that's about it. You can't use it to accurately predict road speed, and the bikes are often calibrated differently so it's hard to compare workouts on different bikes. As I recall, one bike at our gym was "too easy" and I had to put the resistance on a much higher level, one had a weird glitch in the pedal stroke that drove me nuts, and one was "just right"!
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