Triathlon - Race coming up got a "new" Tri bike what would you do?

Ok so I have 2 races left planned for my season both sprints (Aug 30 and Sept 12 possibly a duathlon in Oct not confirmed yet). I just got a nice deal on a used Argon 18 Mercury on slowtwitch, its Ultegra/Dura Ace w/mavic open pros. I should hopefully have it late next week.

Heres my issue, my current bike is all Campagnolo and I have a wheelbuilder disc for my Fulcrum Racing 5 wheel. The race coming up has a lot of climbs as well. So using my rear disc or the whole wheel is out cause of the Shimano parts, plus I really won't have much if any time riding the new bike. My road bike has a compact double, the Argon has a standard double crankset.

Would you use the new bike, or stick to my converted road bike for now and get fitted set up the new bike to my liking later?

My other thought was getting a hub converter to make the Fulcrum Shimano so I can use those wheels instead...

You have two weeks. I'd go with the Argon with the bar end levers in friction running the Fulcrum with Disc cover.

If you are concerned about gearing. Check a gear calculator and see the range offered by both the standard and compact setup to see if the Standard will be fine on these climbs?

You have two weeks. I'd go with the Argon with the bar end levers in friction running the Fulcrum with Disc cover.

If you are concerned about gearing. Check a gear calculator and see the range offered by both the standard and compact setup to see if the Standard will be fine on these climbs?

Ahh good call I forgot about that.

There is 1 climb I know will be tough with the standard, I'll try and get up there with the bike the weekend before, but I'll probably just have to suck it up.

With a bit of fiddling I've heard a few people have run 10 speed Campag cassettes with 10 speed shimano SIS working okay also if you need that reassuring click on the levers.

Personally I'd just go friction though, just to reminding me of when I first started riding pre SIS on the down tube levers...

With a bit of fiddling I've heard a few people have run 10 speed Campag cassettes with 10 speed shimano SIS working okay also if you need that reassuring click on the levers.

Personally I'd just go friction though, just to reminding me of when I first started riding pre SIS on the down tube levers...

I've thought about it a bit and looked around too. The local tri-shop has Fulcrum 5's with Shimano hubs on clearance for $299, and I would like to keep my road bike intact and I totally can't afford carbon wheels anytime soon. So I'm thinking pick those up this weekend so I can mount my wheelbuilder disc and just leave it on there. Then i can just sell the mavics that are on it to offset the cost (They go for around $200-$300 on ebay from what i see).

I'm vaguely worried about the climb but I'm not gonna go change out the whole crankset over it, I'll just suck it up like I said. This is the only race I do that I'd say I really need the 34/25 gear ratio for. If I can pick up a compact crankset/derailer cheap maybe I'll get it in the future... Or I'll break my ass more at spin class over the winter to improve my climb even more.

your doing tobay? its not that bad of a climb, just gotta get past all the people walking their bikes up =D you probably still have enough time to convert the parts over

your doing tobay? its not that bad of a climb, just gotta get past all the people walking their bikes up =D you probably still have enough time to convert the parts over

Oh yeah Ive done the climb a bunch of times before, last time I did it was a month or so ago on my compact 5 mph and I was huffing by the top lol. So this will be worse, but I'll live.

yeah I hate when the walkers are in the middle of the lane! Slow traffic keep right!

you will probably need at least two weeks to get used to the new geometry. If i were you, i would race the august one on your road bike, and september on the argon 18

you will probably need at least two weeks to get used to the new geometry. If i were you, i would race the august one on your road bike, and september on the argon 18

That was my feeling too, the seller and others have said the Argon is easy to adapt to and is less twitchy than some, but who knows. I'm gonna hopefully put it all together on the 22nd and have a week to take it for a few rides and see. Its a sprint tri so only 9.5 mile bike. If I feel uncomfortable i'm really not cannibalizing my road bike for parts too much so I can get it back going for the race in about an hour.

It might be because I'd taken a long-ish break from cycling too, but I found the tri geometry took a LOT of getting used to.

After riding my road bike again today I realize something may still be wrong. I went over the whole thing after my "incident" at the NYC Tri (I hit a water bottle... HARD) and adjusted everything but now a week later the derailers are out of tune again, plus my handlebar even looks a little funny now that I take a close look. Hope I didn't bend one of the rear triangles or something. Time to take it apart tomorrow...

Guess this new ride couldn't come at a better time.....

nah its not bent... however when i was all done I managed to break my front shifter, time to call Campagnolo and warranty it!. LOL , only me.

So thanks to the weather and time constraints I've rode this bike a grand total of 2 miles since I got it. Its pouring right now and the only place I have to store it at the moment is my living room, wet bike? no thanks! And the race is tomorrow...

This should be interesting.