Tri bike vs. Road Bike

well tri bikes are designed when you can not draft are better designed to save your legs for running. UTI have draft tris and they use road bikes.

a road bike might be good but you are also assuming you have someone to draft off of.

Road bike is about being light weight.

tri bikes are about areo dymamics. TRi bikes might have more weight in order to be more aerodynamic.

Hmmmm I didn't take drafting into consideration...

DerekL must have hit the submit button before me - so this is a bit of a repeat....

There are people out there that can elaborate much more than I want to, but in a nutshell:

The main difference of a tri bike is aerodynamics and bike geometry (seat tube angle, head tube, etc) which allows you to set up in an aerodynamic position while maintaining as much power you can. This geometry also allows for better handling and control while in the aero position. They are designed to be ridden aero for efficiency and speed.

Tri bikes are just plain faster in the applications used for tri's. Tri's are basically time trials book ended with a swim and run. Speed, speed, speed while being efficient aerodynamically is what they are built for. But they need to be ridden in aero.

As a side bonus, the same setup that reduces drag and helps with aerodynamics also saves your legs for the run by being more efficient (less power to maintain same speed due to less drag), and moving some of the effort to different muscles in the legs to save the quads for the run.

Again, flat out speed is what they are for. Hence the universal use by elite triathletes AND road cyclists when they do time trials.




Edited by Aikidoman 2007-08-22 6:31 PM

Can you do a half ironman in a road bike?? Or does it make it much more difficult?

Some people do and some do not notice a difference. I notice a significant difference in my run off my road and tri bike (I am much fresher off my tri bike).

That's useful information to consider.
Maybe someday (probably 10-15 years from now) I can buy a tri bike. Until then I'll keep working on getting my speed up on my vintage '95 Bianchi

there are alot of roadies with or without clip ons during a him just like you would get during an IM. Though I yet to see a mountain bike or hybrid but there are a few out there I am sure.

heck I heard people done ims on folding bikes.

The guys at bikesportmichigan.com have alot of tips, info and how-to's, I ended up buying my tri bike from them. Pretty good folks and some great deals too!

http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/difference.shtml

Edited by gearbri 2007-08-22 9:46 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think rode bikes are better for climbing. This morning I did a 35 mile Mt. repeat with 4600 ft climbing and it always seems like the roadies can climb better then me on the tri bike. Last weekend I did a 14 mile climb out of a lake with a roadie friend. We were side by side all the way out giving about the same effort, once we hit the top for a 15 mile flat I gained 2 miles on him over the that 15 miles. Whenever I climb with my tri bike I find it hard to dig when you are at that angle. Some people choose to ride road bikes over tri bikes in certain IM races based on the climbing, however you never see a pro on a raod bike and they usually have the fastest bike splits.

yes but you will not typically have to climb 4600 ft during a tri plus you will lose speed on the way down with a road bike. 6% grade over 24 miles and lighter wins over areo dynamics and that is assuming you do not go down.