Road bike for TT's

[Andy_G]

I want to get into TT and i was looking for a new bike to get early next year.

Im looking at spending around £3-4k but riding time trials once maybe twice a week i cant really justify that amount on a TT bike, so i thought id try and get aero road bike.
As far as im aware the seat post angle should be steeper angle, Neil Pryde does the Alize with an optional 78 deg seat post and is at a decent price.
Can anyone reccommend any other decent bikes to use, until then ill use my Domane 4.5 with Aeros but its not the most aero dynamic bike.

 

[Rob3rt]

I say either stick with what you have got or buy a TT bike, a pointy hat, skinsuit and a good set of wheels, i.e. all or nothing! You will gain next to nothing from doing what you describe as the actual savings from an aerodynamic frame pale in comparison to almost any other thing you can do or invest in.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

The Venge is a pretty reasonable TT bike imho its areo and has a flipable seat post, I can get a pretty good position on mine with TT bars.

 

[zizou]

By all means get a nice new bike but dont buy it expecting it to give you much advantage compared to what you already have - You'll get a much bigger gain by wearing a skin suit than going from a Domane to a more aero road bike. Actually you get a bigger gain wearing shoe covers than the difference between the frames!

 

[Hacienda71]

Cervelo do some aero road frames

 

[Andy_G]

@Rob3rt, The idea for using a road bike was so I can still use it for club runs etc and if I'm not to bad then the following year I'd get a tt bike.
@Mr H, I've looked at that one to and it looks ok, plus the Felt.

 

[Andy_G]

Cervelo do some aero road frames

That will be my £3-4k budget gone straight away on a frame. Lol

 

[Rob3rt]

I fully understand the idea, but my advice remains, either race on what you have, focussing on position or jump in with both feet and get all the gear. Otherwise you are sinking thousands for a handful of seconds and it will literally be a few seconds. You would likely save 3 times as much time buying a pointy hat for £100 than you would spending £3k an an aero bike. As Zizou says, a set of £10 shoe covers will potentially give the same savings as the £3k bike.

Of course it is your money...........

 

[Andy_G]

This is supposed to sound sarcastic but if just buying a pointy hat and shoe covers will only save you a few seconds why bother with TT bikes.

 

[Rob3rt]

This is supposed to sound sarcastic but if just buying a pointy hat and shoe covers will only save you a few seconds why bother with TT bikes.

Because of the position the geometry affords you whilst maintaining desirable handling characteristics.

 

[Andy_G]

Because of the position the geometry affords you whilst maintaining desirable handling characteristics.

Ok so I'm now swaying more to the idea of buying a TT bike maybe for about £1500-2k next year and then buying a pointy hat and shoe covers.

 

[Rob3rt]

TBH, if it will be your 1st go at time trialling, I would just have a go riding the drops.

BTW, I am not claiming that the aerodynamics of a frame don't matter or are not worthwhile pursuing, but in terms of sheer gains they are one of the smaller gains you can seek and in terms of £ spent for seconds saved, they are absolutely the worst investment.

The best investment is position! Followed by relatively cheap, but large time savings such as pointy hat, skinsuit and shoe covers.

 

[Andy_G]

TBH, if it will be your 1st go at time trialling, I would just have a go riding the drops.

That's what I'll hopefully be doing once my stomachs sorted, hence why I'm waiting until next year to get the bike, I don't think I'm going to be to bad at it, ie: sometimes when I ride home (8miles) I will have a rucksack which weighs about 6 kgs and I weigh about 100kgs, baggy shorts, crap in my pockets and I can average 20 mph.

 

[goody]

sometimes when I ride home (8miles) I will have a rucksack which weighs about 6 kgs and I weigh about 100kgs, baggy shorts, crap in my pockets and I can average 20 mph.

You crap in your pockets? How does that make you faster?

 

[bianchi1]

If I were you I would just time trial on your road bike with some clip on aero bars. The truth (sadly) is that you can't buy your way to speed. Just get out there and push as hard as you can week after week and take note of your times and average speed. Ignore your placings, who is beating you and what others are riding or wearing. Hopefully your times will improve as you get stronger and you will appreciate that it is all down to you and not expensive kit.

Then, to take the next step, start spending on expensive kit as it will give you marginal gains in your times, but lets face it, who cares? If your dream is to to smash a 20 min 10 mile then forget the kit and get yourself to some dragstrip of a course that starts with a 1/2 mile downhill and has lorries thrashing past at 60 mph.