General Cycling Discussion - New Bike Advice, please help!!

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pilotzs
07-13-09, 04:26 PM
I'm looking for advice on purchasing a bike. I want to start training for small sprint triathlons and maybe build up eventually to Olympic distance tris.

I may want to use the bike for commuting also, and wasn't sure if i should start out with a hybrid commuter bike, such as the Trek Valencia (add aero bars), or try to start with a road bike (Specialized Allez or Trek 2.1, maybe). My price range is $1000 to $1100.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Trying to figure out what's best starting out for my purposes...

demoncyclist
07-13-09, 04:29 PM
Start out with a road bike. A hybrid is NOT going to do a thing for your training for triathlons. But just so you know, you will wind up with a tri-specific bike at some point. Trust me...
chewybrian
07-13-09, 05:08 PM
It sounds like a road bike would be the way to go. You can't do any tri effectively on a hybrid, so scratch that. You could experiment with a tri on a road bike with aero bars.

I would consider a used road bike. You could 'tri' a little of everything, and figure out how serious you are. Then, if you want a serious tri bike, or something else, you won't get crushed on resale.

Don't get caught thinking that spending up front makes you more committed. That's why half the garages in America have NOS Bowflexes in them. Get some miles before you make that commitment.

trustnoone
07-13-09, 07:24 PM
There is absolutely no reason you can't commute on an Allez or 1.2 or any other performance orientated road bike. One of the reasons I think I've commuted by bike for so many years is that up until this spring I road a '92 Allez. It was fun, light (relatively), and fast. If you are going to ride roads a road bike is good enough.