i am doing my first tri the end of october. It is sort of an adventure tri: kayak, bike, run ( on trails). the problem is the bike portion is 20 miles, on back country roads. 75% of it is roughly paved roads which will not be a problem for my road bike ( a new klein) although maybe a bit jarring at times. however there are about 5 miles on a dirt road in the woods which would be very difficult if not impossible to ride a road bike on. I asked the race director and he said it is usually half mountain bikes and half road bikes, but sometimes the road bike people have to carry their bikes. I dont like the idea of riding my mountain bike 15 miles on pavement but dont like the idea of carrying my road bike 4 miles (especially with a 5.2 mile run coming up after the bike). i am thinking of changing the tires on either bike to make it better. should I put smoother tires on my mountain bike or try and find wider sort of cyclocross tires on my road bike. sorry for the long post. I need to decide soon so I can train on whichever bike i am going to use.
thanks
barleyrocket
09-20-05, 07:39 AM
wider cycloscross tires might not fit a traditional road bike. The spacing in the forks, rear triangle and the breaks aren't up to it normally. My suggestion would be to just use the MT. bike. If you would feel better then get a little less agressive tread to the mt. bike. then do a time trial with it to see what you should be able to do.
Have fun.
jdtschida
09-20-05, 08:54 AM
I too was thinking cyclocross tires would probably work. I doubt the race director meant that some people actually carried their bikes 5 miles. Probably just over a few sandy spots.
clfjmpr44
09-20-05, 09:39 AM
Really tough call, especially without being able to see the actual terrain...any chance of that for you?
If that is not an option, then you might be better off going the safe route of using your MTB. Just raise the seatpost, possibly get less aggressive-tread tires and inflate the tires to the max.
Good Luck,
A
mooch
09-20-05, 12:21 PM
I did drive the course last weekend with my suburban. there is no way i could have driven about 2 miles of the course in my car. It wasnt single track, but very rough washed out dirt road. I do have an old steel road bike that I am thinking of putting slitghtly larger tires on and then I wont care if I break it.