Road bike vs TT bike

[SickBoy]

I bought a TT bike and immediately won my AG where I finished something like 10th on AG the year before. And then I had a 4th in AG even after crashing mid race and then a massive PB at standard dist. Without doing any training. Technological doping, as Jack says is the way forward. I may only be cheating myself bit next year if I buy some more bits to make me faster I have no doubt I'll be conquering IM or turning pro - and have more spare time. Tell heather you won't need to spend as much time training!

[CCS]

Have to admit that at first, I am not sure I was that much faster on the TT - but definitely am now. Is that increased fitness; is it equipment; is it the fact that one is a compact and the other a standard... who knows? Very difficult to compare, as one bike only gets used for fast flat stuff, and the other for slogging slowly around the hills. Definitely glad that I got the TT though - and my initial fears that I wouldn't use it enough proved unfounded.

Get one, Will!

P.S. the main thing that I take away from JH's original post is that the weather has been a bit crappy oop north this year!

[Jack Hughes]

To be fair, I wasn't specifically aiming this at Will.

Just interested in general. Although my TT was second hand. It still represented a reasonably amount of cash - 3 x the road bike. So I was interested in seeing what difference it made.

It actually represents the cheapest way of increasing speed. As to get those sorts of improvements on a road bike I would have to give up work

[jonathon.e]

If Will does decide to delve into the TT bike market, perhaps he should be aware that the Scottish Time Trial association or whatever the governing body is, is affiliated to the UCI, where as English and Welsh are governed by the RTTC, which thinks the UCI are a bunch of Luddites when it comes to bike design, but to put a point to the rambling, if Will decides to compete in TTs in Scotland his brand new shiny TT bike must be UCI compliant.

This Irish club page tells you how to do it (snigger)
http://www.ballymoneycyclingclub.com/Ti ... -Spec.html

Please note:
All TT bikes are triathlon bikes, but not all triathlon bikes are TT bikes. ( none drafting events ).

TT bikes are faster, for the majority of courses, one will not dispute this, but, if for the sake of argument the average triathlete has two bikes, a road bike, standard or compact group set , alloy wheels, clinchers used for training, and a nice carbon TT bike, carbon wheels,maybe a disc wheel, carbon braking surface, 53/39, what bike would they race on for say Challenge Rimini, hopefully the link will go to the bike course and profile, early season race, possibility of rain, the course is basically, out and back, the out is uphill, the back is downhill. The bike handling is better on the road bike than TT, adding to the mix, the other 1500 idiots in Lycra going downhill at the same time.?
http://www.challenge-rimini.it/pdf/bike.pdf

[SickBoy]

I was definitely slower to begin with, I think everyone is, they do take getting used to. I don't think my bike has saved me as much time as Jack but I don't have many direct comparisons. For the Henley sprint I was about 3 mins quicker over 25k ish. The splits include transition time. The bike is definitely faster on the flat, I would say my cruising speed goes up 2 to 3 km/h with the bike. At the same time though I think I have learned how to pace better and being on that bike makes me want to be fast, I think I get some.mental benefit too!

[Jack Hughes]

Interesting.

All my times have been considerably faster (with the exception that my fastest road bike time on a fast course was faster than a couple of 10s done in awful conditions/slow course.

I only ride the TT in races really. (Probably Only 2 or 3 rides on it outside of a race).

[Bopomofo]

My TT bike is more comfortable than my road bike (both have been fitted) and I have always been faster in a TT position than normal road position. EVen just using clip-ons on my old Halfords bike years ago... getting onto the bars was always worth an extra gear.

Maybe, as suggested, Will could get a frame then slowly build a bike up from second hand bits and spares.

Which reminds me - I must put my entire TT front end, brakes and bar-end shifters onto the For Sale section.