TT Bike vs Standard Road Bike

[grellboy]

I made my own Strava segment which I use as my own personal ten mile time trial. My current record is 29:21 - hardly awe inspiring I know but I have improved quite considerably since I created it. Anyway, others have obviously ridden it and their times are loads better - KoM is 21.25, although intriguingly that ride is entitled "Motor pacing" -as my route mostly follows the route that the local cycling club use for their time trials, so my poor showing is no surprise. Now it occurred to me that lots of these times have been recorded on Aero/TT Bikes, so my question is, for those that regularly do 10 mile TT style routes, if you do them on standard road bikes and then again on bikes with a TT set up, how great a difference do you notice in times recorded on these different bikes?

 

[johnnyb47]

That's not to shabby a time at all buddy. When i was young I could manage around 24/25 minutes but the real fast guys were doing 22/23 minutes. There bikes were were usually the high end of what you could get back in the early 80s shodded with campag gears and 531 tubing on their bikes. Today the top end bikes in the cycling club cost £££££s and times often break 20 minutes. I've got no chance of ever getting anywhere near that as my bike is virtually an old antique ( as well as me ).
Years ago the difference between a mid range bike and a top end bike was not that much different so the gulf between times where not much apart between cyclist but nowadays top end carbon bikes built for TT are light year's away from you average road going bike.

 

[si_c]

That's not to shabby a time at all buddy. When i was young I could manage around 24/25 minutes but the real fast guys were doing 22/23 minutes. There bikes were were usually the high end of what you could get back in the early 80s shodded with campag gears and 531 tubing on their bikes. Today the top end bikes in the cycling club cost £££££s and times often break 20 minutes. I've got no chance of ever getting anywhere near that as my bike is virtually an old antique ( as well as me ).
Years ago the difference between a mid range bike and a top end bike was not that much different so the gulf between times where not much apart between cyclist but nowadays top end carbon bikes built for TT are light year's away from you average road going bike.

And that's before you get into skin suits, aero position on the bike etc etc

 

[Tin Pot]

if you do them on standard road bikes and then again on bikes with a TT set up, how great a difference do you notice in times recorded on these different bikes?

...why?

 

[palinurus]

f you do them on standard road bikes and then again on bikes with a TT set up, how great a difference do you notice in times recorded on these different bikes?

Tribars make a lot of difference. Difficult to hang a number on it, obviously, but 10 mile times can come down by minutes.

I have some sort of data from a few years of events, but it's on the laptop I keep at work. A good summary of this information in words would be 'all my fastest times were done on a TT bike'

 

[palinurus]

for those that regularly do 10 mile TT style routes, if you do them on standard road bikes and then again on bikes with a TT set up, how great a difference do you notice in times recorded on these different bikes?

Usually riders will use their TT bike for every event once they have one, you'd need a whole bunch of riders to do a season where they ride one or the other in a randomised order!

 

[Shortandcrisp]

Reckon you'd take about a couple of minutes off that time on a TT bike. Not quite as simple as that though. Riding such a bike takes a little practice. Might even find you're slower the first few times out.
Over ten miles doesn't really matter how good the bike is; more a matter of position, how it fits and how comfortable you feel.
But, as others have said, why do you care?

 

[Mugshot]

...why?

Why not?

 

[Tin Pot]

Why not?

But why?

 

[Mugshot]

But why?

Because why not? Why can't someone ask a perfectly reasonable "I was wondering [this] does anybody know the answer?" Without some berk or other pitching up with why, what does it matter, why do you need to know etc etc etc, it doesn't farking matter why they were asking a question, they were interested in the answer, why does there always have to be an explanation why someone asked a question?

 

[bianchi1]

We have a few 10 mile TT's that I regularly ride with a full TT Bike, disc wheel, aero helmet etc. Now and again we have a road bike event on the same course and Im approximately 1 min 30 slower. Heart rate and cadence match up mostly.

 

[palinurus]

But, as others have said, why do you care?

One possibility is you're riding along on your road bike, thinking about how you're not as quick as the club riders using the course and wondering about how much that is related to fitness, technique, equipment and the like. Then, if you're anything like me, you think 'I'll ask that on the cycling forum'

Anyway, I'll have a pop at answering the question I have imagined the OP proposing (always easier that way) by giving a breakdown of why club riders are faster, using my guesstimates of influence over time to cover the distance.

1. It's a race, that number on your back and what you have to do to get it* makes a difference.
=1. Regular racing makes you faster, and better at pacing (also it helps if you've just got back from the annual club trip to the Alps)
2. Tribars make a difference
3. So does a bunch of other stuff potentially, but the first two are important.

*it's easy, it's not like you have to pass a test, but the personal commitment helps.

 

[palinurus]

Now and again we have a road bike event on the same course and Im approximately 1 min 30 slower.

I was thinking that sort of data would exist where clubs had events that had to be run on a standard bike (like an 'athlete's 10, or similar) on the same course. It would take some work to compile it all though!

 

[grellboy]

We have a few 10 mile TT's that I regularly ride with a full TT Bike, disc wheel, aero helmet etc. Now and again we have a road bike event on the same course and Im approximately 1 min 30 slower. Heart rate and cadence match up mostly.

Thank you for a straightforward answer. That was all I wanted.

 

[grellboy]

One possibility is you're riding along on your road bike, thinking about how you're not as quick as the club riders using the course and wondering about how much that is related to fitness, technique, equipment and the like. Then, if you're anything like me, you think 'I'll ask that on the cycling forum'

Anyway, I'll have a pop at answering the question I have imagined the OP proposing (always easier that way) by giving a breakdown of why club riders are faster, using my guesstimates of influence over time to cover the distance.

1. It's a race, that number on your back and what you have to do to get it* makes a difference.
=1. Regular racing makes you faster, and better at pacing (also it helps if you've just got back from the annual club trip to the Alps)
2. Tribars make a difference
3. So does a bunch of other stuff potentially, but the first two are important.

*it's easy, it's not like you have to pass a test, but the personal commitment helps.

Thank you too