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Triathlon bikes - how aero??

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  • 03-07-2017 1:33pm
    #1
    joey100
    Registered Users Posts: 3,425 ✭✭✭


    I'd say a few people have seen this already, on slowtwitch one of the people on the forum crowd sourced the money to independently test a few triathlon bikes and see how they fare against each other.

    http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Triathlon_Bikes_in_the_Age_of_Peak_Aero_6429.html

    There's more detail available on the white paper and within the forum itself.

    Not a huge difference across the bikes, the felt bike was an older B series frame,with some upgrades made, and tested well compared to some of the newer bikes. Looks like comfort, position on the bike and how you fit it make more of a difference than the bike (but we all knew that already!), very little difference in drag across the frames.

    3 fairly radical frames in there too, dimond back andean, P5-X and Ventum, and while the P5-x is the fastest, it's also 15,000 euro. The more traditional frames held up well against these too.

    No speed concept in there (bike I use) but it originally tested not far off a P5 and looks like a similar frame to the Tactical so would probably fair pretty well too.

    Have we reached peak aero? Will the next move by manufacturers be to make bikes more integrated, can be seen on P5-X and andean, as a way to make us part with our money. We all like new shiney things but is a bike upgrade really worth it? Would some of the money be better spent on cleaning up our existing bike and upgrading a few parts.

    I know I recently changed my TT bike, mainly cos I got a good deal on a second hand speed concept and worked out very little to change after selling my own. Will I be any faster on the new bike, probably not. It does feel more comfortable though, maybe that's worth the cost of upgrading alone.

    Just as an add on at the end, I have no problem with people spending how ever much they want on a bike. If people can afford it fire away, and I don't buy into the whole you have to be a certain ability to have a top end bike. We do this sport for fun and if you can afford and want a top end bike there is no problem with that.


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