Help!! What roadbike to build up for triathlon??

[Castle]

 

Hey there

 

I'm looking for a triathlon bike. but rather than buying cheap triathlon bike I want to cell my existing alminium bike pay up on that, go carbon and slap on some tribars(and get best of both worlds)

 

The problem is I don't know what bike to set my sights on. The ones I have been looking at are Shwinn, Silverback, Scott and Felt(the last being very expensive). I will go secondhand aswell.

 

Anybody have some advice on which is better for what I want to do or if there is a brand I have to be looking at? My budget is about 13000

 

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[Old school]

What size are you looking for?

[turtlek]

Schwinn has the best bang for your buck and most Tri friendly geometry aswell

[Old school]

I've got a brand new 1 of these for R11 695

Small

http://www.downcycles.com/store/images/PELOTON.jpg Mercx2008-09-11 02:07:55

[Castle]

Thanks people. Heard that you should go smaller on a tribike. So that would say Im looking for a 49 cm. Shwinn you say?

[turtlek]

what size bike do you normally ride??????turtlek2008-09-11 01:23:17

[Castle]

I have a small Silverback I baught secondhand.My  innerleg is 74cm. What Model Shwinn is that? Full Carb?

[turtlek]

the small schwinn should do just fine then

[Castle]

Is a small 49cm or 50 ?

[Ox_Wagon]

What distance Tri do you want to do? <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Here is a nice buy.

http://www.bikebay.co.za/Products/ProductProfile.aspx?ProdGuid=205e8ac9-86d3-4789-a1a4-0ac5a5a5b161

[Castle]

Longest distance is 150k

[Ox_Wagon]

A steep angle tri bike would work better for longer distances like Ironman etc but most of us can?t justify a bike that may be used for a maximum of 3 non-draft legal races a year.  

 

There is a number of problems in using road bikes as tri-bikes the biggest is that in moving forward, to save the legs for the run, your putting a lot of weight on the front wheel (upsetting the weight distribution between the front and rear wheel).  You tend to end up with a twitch ride and it doesn?t help that you trying to stear with your elbows with most of your weight on them.  <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Tri bikes usually have longer wheelbases, steeper seat tubes, shorter chainstays and tend to steer sluggisher that their road counterpart.  This help when you?re in the aero bars. T

 

There is a few manufactures building multi-sport bikes which is a sort of a cross between a road bike and a tri bike, a sort of jack of all trades, master of non.

 

My favorite being the old aluminum Cervelo soloist and no I don?t own one.  It has a rotateable seatpost adapter that allows you to run the bike as a road bike and intermediate angle TT/tri-bike.    

 

The other option is to look at a more relaxed geometry bike like the Specialized Roubaix that should handle forward weighty distribution better than a criticum inspired road bike that most of us ride in this country

Ox_Wagon2008-09-11 10:23:15

[Castle]

Thanks!!! It looks like I have to rather start looking at a tri bike

[Ox_Wagon]

Not realy, most of the people do Ironman on converted roadbikes.

[GIRR]

Just to add my little bit, a Specialized Roubaix is a definite no no to convert to a tri bike if you dont already have one.  The geometry just doesn't work nicely.

[Skaap]

my advise:

Dont go for the schwinn or the Specialized. The top tube slope is not right for triathlon. I was in the some boat about a year ago.

You must decide which is more important to you. road cycling events or triathlons. If you answer is road then maybe you have many obtions like the schwinn, specialized... etc

If your answer is tri, go for something like a karbona with a road bike setup. removable bars etc.

oh, but R13 000 is not enough to go carbon (new bike) sorry..