TT or Road Bike?

[JJGreenfield]

I ride mostly on fairly flat roads, (I live in Norfolk). I also do the occassional Triathlon.

I've come into some money - enough to buy a really good bike - around £5,500

My question is.......should I go for a road bike or TT bike?

What would you do? What make/kit would you buy?

 

[palinurus]

Have you already got a road bike? If I was going to spend that amount I'd probably get myself a new road bike with £1500 and see what sort of TT bike I could get with the rest.

 

[Noodley]

Yep, I'd be getting a road bike and a TT bike from Planet X.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

I ride mostly on fairly flat roads, (I live in Norfolk). I also do the occassional Triathlon.

I've come into some money - enough to buy a really good bike - around £5,500

My question is.......should I go for a road bike or TT bike?

What would you do? What make/kit would you buy?

Only occasional? And you want to spend that amount on a bike?? Seems rather extreme to me, but each to their own.

Personally I'd get a recumbent trike, a decent road bike and a nice fixie... a bike for all seasons.

 

[mudplugger]

There is a diminishing return once you get beyond a certain value, so unless you intend to win races, I would stop at about 2500 for the road bike.
If you use a quality bike in winter it will do it no good so get a fully equipped winter bike for 500-1k. You can pick up a carbon Planet X TT bike for 1k. With 3 bikes, this will allow you to do everything effectively and still have a bit spare to buy better cakes at the cafe.

 

[Will1985]

You could get both, but it would be better to get a decent road bike, clip-on tri bars and some deep wheels which should do you fine as an occasional triathlete. You could also enter TTs. Depends on wherebouts you live in Norfolk, but there are plenty put on by Godric, CC Breckland, NABC, North Norfolk Wheelers etc...

 

[mad al]

I recently bought a pre-owned PlanetX Stealth Carbon and also a Specialised S-Works (don't ask, sore point).
I really didn't want to, but in the cold light of day, one had to go, I loved the TT bike but the S-Works is something else and as already said, clip on aero bars will do the job, well definitely with my limited capabilities.

I hated selling the TT bike, but I think I made the right choice at the end of the day and with that in mind, I'd be looking at a road bike

 

[andyhunter]

i would go for a tt bike it would benefit you better for traitholons and you can train on it and you would get a better spec than if you buy a road bike and add tt bits to it to make it faster for triatholons.

what about this frame it will do the job and its very light and aerodynamic at £2000 prob get cheaper searching on google
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/16548/LOOK_496_TriathalonTT_Frame_2008
and the new 1 2010 is priced at £4,500 and
you just get urself tt wheels such as zipp or fulcrums etc and rest of it such as groupset and tt bars etc, building bike cheaper than buying a whole bike.

 

[Dave5N]

With all that money, I'd stop doing triathlons.

 

[Sam Kennedy]

Can I have some?
With 5,500 I would reiterate what others have said, get yourself a road bike AND a TT bike, you may as well get a recumbent and a singlespeed with a flip-flop hub as well. Make sure you get them insured! Save some money for a decent U-lock, or just pay someone £10 an hour to watch your bike(s)!

 

[Keith Oates]

I would go for the best road bike you can buy, stipulate the wheels, group set etc. that you want and then fit tri bars for the occassioal TT. It may not be the most value for money purchase you ever maks but riding a top of the range roadie makes you feel good every time you take it out for a spin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wafflycat]

With your budget you could get BOTH a decent road bike and a decent triathlon bike. See here:-

http://www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk/

There's quite a few folk I know with Planet X bikes and they are more than happy with them.

Edit: My son has both decent road bikes & time trial bikes. In his case, Cervelo ones, and yes, there is a difference when doing a time trial between a road bike with clip-on bars and a proper TT bike. He's glad he has both.