Triathlon - Women specific tri bike recommendations?

I'm more of a road bike, well, more of a fixed gear person. But a young lady I know asked me about opinions on Tri specific bikes. And I don't know JACK about them... I have a cannondale road frame, but AL is pretty stiff for someone of her weight (IMHO)... She already has a Giant road bike (older model, very low end), so she's looking to upgrade. The limiter, she wants to keep it under 1300. She's small size too.

Can any of the help folks here let me know what they ride, what they like don't and what they'd do different? Thanks in advance!

There are two main differences between a road bike geometry and a tri-bike geometry. 1) The seat tube angle on a tri-bike is steeper - usually around 78 degrees. 2) The head tube is shorter to allow a lower handlebar for the aero position.

The seat tube angle is steepened by moving the bottom bracket shell further back (the front-center dimension is longer on a tri-bike) so that the weight distribution between front and rear wheels remains well balanced.

Since there is a practical lower limit to the size of a head tube (usu around 90-100mm), a tri-bike smaller than about 54 or 55 cm should use 650C wheels.

I don't think there is a whole lot of choices at the $1300 price point. That is entry level for tri-bikes. I know Fuji makes one somewhere around there.

I ride a Softride Powerwing 700 (similar in geometry to the current Softride Qualifier). It's kind of between road and tri geometry so that it can be outfitted for either. The front-center is not quite long enough for really steep riding (only about 1/2cm longer than my road bike) and the head tube is not quite short enough for a really aggressive aero position (only 1cm shorter than my road bike).

Check out Cervelo One
http://cervelo.com/bikes/one.html

Hey thanks! I"ll take it to her tonight to see what she thinks.. can't hurt for her to have a lot of information.

Here is good article:
http://mbikeworld.com/women-bike/triathlon-bikes-for-women.html

Sweet bump. THIS THREAD IS 7 years old!

Sweet bump. THIS THREAD IS 7 years old!

Oh damn. I was thinking the same.

Sweet bump. THIS THREAD IS 7 years old!

Shall we throw it a party?

:bday::beer::popcorn