Upgrading bike for a triathlon?

[Buck815]

I am a newbie and was looking for some basic info or some sort of starting point. I am going to participate in my 1st triathlon in August. I currently have a Trek 7200 FX hybrid that i bought a year and a half ago for recreation and I am now looking to see if there are some good upgrades that I can make to my bike that will aid in the cycling part of a half ironman (i am trying to avoid buying a new bike if there are cheaper ways to upgrade the one I already have) I appreciate any help you can offer.

[rplong]

If you are going 56 miles, I would suggest renting or purchasing a road bike. Since you are taking on a serious distance, a hybrid bike would not be the best tool, but it will suffice. You said that you purchased the bike for recreation and that is what the bike is intended for. Aero bars would create odd fitting situations. It should already have slick tires, but if not, get ones that do not have knobs all over.

[caloso]

I'd go with a road bike. I'd recommend looking at the "$700 Roadbike" sticky thread. Seems to me that there are some good deals out there right now on 105 or Centaur equipped bikes.

[Garfield Cat]

Get a used Cervelo tri bike, the Dual. That's a starter tri bike and many Cervelo owners will trade up to the P2 or P3. So there should be some around.

[C Law]

if you are going to use the hybrid in the 1/2, make sure and put on zipp 808's and get an aero helmet. That should even out the playing field