Worth buying low spec road bike for triathlon?

[Duke Caboom]

Last year I completed my first fill size triathlon in just over 3 hours (with some rookie mistakes) and want to go quite a lot faster in the same race this year. Last year I used my cyclocross bike, with road tyres, and I'm wondering about buying a second hand road bike for this year. Sort of thing I'm thinking of would be around £250 used and at the lower end of the range of good quality manufacturers. Sportive / allrounder rather than race. I don't think I'd use it for anything else as I have two other bikes and prefer riding off road. (I race shorter off road duathlons regularly)

I spend most of my time on the hoods, only using he drops for short spells at high speed. Current bike weighs 12.5kg with knobly cyclocross tyres. I'm short though, so its heavy for its size compared to a road bike. Has aluminum frame, steel fork and tough wheels (see blurb below), flat pedals (I've never used anything else).

How much faster would something like a Specialized Allez be? Course is fairly flat, I didn't spin out last year and I averaged 26kph over the 38km cycle leg. It took 1 hour 27. If I could go 10 minutes faster I'd be well on the way to my goal...

Thanks

Current bike:



The 317 Disc is one of the few 700C rim on the market, especially designed to withstand the stress of disc brake
Highly resilient tough rim for urban and 29er MTB use
Tough anodised finish resists the corrosive effects of winter streets
The result is a solid rim, featuring double eyelets, at a particularly low weight
Weight: 538g

[Gin and Ultrasonic]

I suspect a cheap road bike would have minimal improvement against a drop-bar CX bike for a fairly short 1.5 hour ride, especially if you aren't spinning out. A dedicated road bike might make sense if you're going to be doing 3 or 4 hours. CX bikes are designed to be fast for an hour (albeit not on the road!).

Have you thought about a set of used aero wheels and decent tyres for your existing CX bike? If you ever got a road bike you could re-use them. Used rim brake wheels should be pretty reasonable, and something like Conti GP5000 tyres instead of just road tyres can make a huge difference.

Also, are you allowed to use clip-on tri-bars, and working on getting comfortable in that position? They could make a big (and cheapish) difference.

[Harpoon]

I'd just start with a set of decent slick road tyres (like the mentioned GP 5000) on your existing wheels - they should make a big different to rolling resistance on tarmac.

[lauda]

As others have suggested, road-focused wheels and tyres on your existing bike will probably make the most difference.

And ride on the drops more. The rider is far more aerodynamically significant than the bike.

[Duke Caboom]

Thanks for the replies. For clarity I did use road tyres on the current wheels for last time. Wheels currently have cable disks.

How much hassle is changing the rear wheel? In practice do you need to reset the indexing each time?

Thanks

[outnumbered]

If you used road tyres last year, then you're already approaching what you can get for free out of a road bike on a flat course. I agree that adding some clip-on aero bars will be the biggest win, if you can set them up properly and ride in a position so you are actually more aero. I've seen a lot of amateur triathletes on aero bars in a less aero position than if they'd just used the drops.

[IroningMan]

Duke Caboom said:

Thanks for the replies. For clarity I did use road tyres on the current wheels for last time. Wheels currently have cable disks.

How much hassle is changing the rear wheel? In practice do you need to reset the indexing each time?

Thanks

No hassle at all, provided you use the right spacers and keep the installed position of the cassette the same.

I would expect a pair of reasonably good 50mm or deeper wheels, plus 25 or 28mm road tyres would make a difference you would notice; you might also get some gains out of a more aggressive position - swap or flip the stem - but only if you could actually use it.

[Gin and Ultrasonic]

Apologies I hadn't noticed you had a disc brake bike and not rim brake for new wheels.

Re. your 'road tyres' - as with car tyres, all road bike tyres are not equal. Tyres optimised for maximum puncture prevention (e.g. Schwalbe Marathon) can be far heavier and slower than high performance tyres (e.g. GP 5000) optimised for the lowest rolling resistance and best grip. The differences in maintaining speed can be quite significant, so it's worth checking what you have. The best tyres will likely also have better grip and give you a bit more confidence to corner faster.

[horseshoecrab]

I use a cx bike for all my races. I wouldn't bother with changing it. Spend the money on some cheap carbon tri bars, a short nose / split saddle, aero helmet, aero bottle and a bike fit.

My bike fit was the single most significant upgrade and payback I've made.

[Tim Cognito]

At 26kph avg the gains from the bike above what you had will be minimal. As others have said focus on your position, getting in the drops or on the hoods with forearms close to horizontal so you are nice and low. Tuck your head in.

Narrower bars may be worthwhile if they are hugely wide.

I wouldn't bother with clip on bars unless you want to change your whole bike fit to make them usable, and then spend lots of time so your body can adjust to riding in the new position.

[CambsBill]

Nobody's mentioned the pedals - I'd say a switch to clipless will make a big difference over that difference. It certainly did when I first switched from flats and I couldn't conceive going back for road cycling.

[oddman]

Quickest cheapest gain. Decent tyres.

A clean bike is a fast bike. Clean the drivetrain and lube the chain.

Are those flat pedals? Go clipless and get proper shoes.

After that it's your body that will be the biggest source of drag. It would be a shame to train to get extra watts and waste this on needless drag. This can only be addressed by changes to your bike set up.

You have lots of flexibility there to drop your stem and fit some aero bars. You will need to adapt to the position and may need to spend time off the bike working on flexibility and spend a lot of time on the turbo trainer getting used to the position. It should feel pretty comfortable once you're used to it and you should not be losing power due to difficulty breathing or discomfort.

You will probably need changes to saddle position and maybe saddle itself (split nose) to adapt to a more aero position. That pointy nose saddle doesn't look very perineum friendly.

It's a lot of change and I'd be inclined to take yourself and your bike to a decent fitter and spend the next £££ on a bike fit and advice.

This will be money well spent if you eventually want to shell out more. I have a TT bike for tri but road bikes have come a lonf way since I bought it. If I was starting from scratch today I would seriously consider a modern aero road bike and fit deep section wheels and tri bars as a one bike training/racing solution.

On a totally unrelated note, I've noticed from race results that quite a few of 'have a go' triathletes with your kind of times spend a ridiculous amount of time in transition. If this is you, you could get ten minutes 'free speed' by dialling your transitions.