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4th half ironman this year and really want to smash my PB and do a time I'm proud of.
What are your real-world times between road bike and TT bike? Will it really make it easier to run off the bike and improve my run time, or is that marketing BS?
Remember what the P of PB stands for, maybe you could use flippers to help with the swim?
You could just flip your seatpost around to try the steeper STA that is said to help with running.Makes sense for using low aero bars anyway. It may look a bit odd, but nowhere near as odd as TT bikes, long socks and aero lids look : )
Quite an old article but gives you an idea...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/how-aero-is-aero/
Clip ons, aero helmet and skin suit will give you much of the gains.
Regarding running off the bike, that’s all down to position, adaptation and training.
Hmmmmm wife is doing a 70.3 this year and does a few shorter ones a year, currently got tri bars, different seatpost and deep section wheels to put on her Supersix and already has Aero helmet. Not sure if tri bike would be worth it although might try getting her to try a lower position on her road bike. The problem is not many small tri bikes out there.
I thought the time gains from a tt bike were about aerodynamics. Most of which come from rider position. An extreme very aerodynamic position can be difficult to hold over a long event. Good position and adaptation help with this.
On my tt bike I could sit in an aero position for an hour maximum give or take a little. Which was great for 10 and 25 mile tt events.
Most of the riders in my local tri club ran their bars quite high, especially if they rode longer distance triathlons. Their logic was about being in a position they could hold over the distance they were riding. I used to think they would have been better on standard road bikes.
Cheers for the replies. I've read all the articles, and I get the science behind it all but just wondered how things played out in real-life with 'normal' people.
I want to take 10-15 mins off my bike time for that course. The calculators suggest I could just hop on a tri bike and it's job done, but not sure if those time savings are realistic.
Appreciate it is very individual and lots of factors but was hoping to see lots of people jumping on here saying how much time they'd saved after making the switch.
I've got a 19 mile local, fairly hilly loop that I ride a lot. I've got it recorded 74 times on Strava over the last 4 years. My PB on road bike (54:55) was done in perfect conditions and absolutely smashing it all the way round.
I've done it once on a TT bike (deep section front, disc rear, no skinsuit or pointy hat) on a very average day in March and took 1m20s off my PB. This is on a course which isn't obviously suited to a TT bike - 1600' of elevation, and a few descents that are too fiddly to get on the bars for.
But definitely what Picto said. It's difficult to hold the position for a long time.
I used my TT bike for Outlaw iron distance tri a couple of years ago. Stayed in the position for the 6 hours that it took me to do the course. Not blisteringly fast but it was my first iron distance. Was comfortable all the way round.
in reality it meant I could just sit and spin in comfort in a reasonably aero position. To do 112 miles on the road bike would have been a bit more upright and a bit more weight on the wrists.
i suspect that I was 20+ minutes quicker on the TT bike, but very comfortable and no problems on the run.
i had Retul fitting on both biles.
it was also much less faff than switching saddle position and tri bars on and off the roadie. I used to do that - had a separate seat post with saddle for easy swapping too, but it was still a faff. So I kept the road bike as just that, and had the TT for tris and tri training.
i have since moved to hilly Wales, so the TT bike hasn't been ridden for a couple of years, so if you fancy a nice carbon Felt my email is in my profile. (Stealth ad alert!).
i did ironman Wales last year on my road bike as it was a hilly twisty course and we had high winds and lots of rain so not TT bike friendly for me.
TT bike great if you can adapt your riding position to benefit from the aero gains - if you're riding with 2" of spacers under your stem, then the gains may be more marginal. Bike-run transition as much about your adaptive training and flexibility.
Remember what the P of PB stands for, maybe you could use flippers to help with the swim?
Someone piss on your cornflakes this morning?
Flippers are not permitted under the rules
TT bikes are in a majority of events.
Level playing field innit.... TT bikes can be faster in the right hands