gattia

Hey,
I'm wondering if its worth it or how I should go about converting my Argon mercury tri bike into a road bike. I just bought this tri bike last spring for an Ironman 70.3 I did and now I want to road ride in a group and don't want to fork out the money for an all new bike. I was hoping to be able to get some parts and maybe then be able to convert it back and forth between road and tri to get the best of both worlds.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Anthony

joejack951

What's keeping you from riding it as-is? You don't need to be on the aero bars to ride the bike.

HillRider

Is the seat tube angle too extreme (like 78°) to let you move the saddle back far enough to use a regular road riding position? If that isn't the case, joejack is right and all you do is stay off the aero bars while riding in a pack or pace line.

Rogue Leader

Its got a 76deg ST angle.

That said most group rides frown on tri bikes. You could just stay on the base bars, but it makes you slow to shift, which will likely slow you down in the group.

IMO buy a set of shifters and drop bars and just use that. Its not simple to convert every time you need to but it can be donw...

HillRider

That's not too bad as many set-back seatposts will let you move the saddle to a suitable position

One way to simplify this is to get a set of cable splitters for the shifter and rear brake cables. diVinci Designs and Bruce Gordon both sell them and they are very frequently used on S&S coupled bikes to allow the frame to be separated. I have them on a Co-Motion S&S bike and they are very reliable.

So, if you get a set of road bars and brifters and install cable splitters you could go back and forth between the Tri and road configurations quickly and easily.

BTW, Bruce Gordon sold a bike called the "Rock and Road" which came with flat bars and shifters for off-road use and drop bars and brifters for road use. It had his cable splitters so the conversion required only a few minutes.

rpyr

Geometry is too different...

gattia

Thanks for all the input. Ya the reason I want to do this is because the club I want to ride with not only frowns upon tri bikes but they don't allow them. My big question is will it be comfortable, or at least is there a way I can make it more comfortable then it would be with just a set of drop handlebars put on there. I know my shoulders and arms get quite soar when I ride out of the aero too much, or is the geometry just too different, and I wouldnt be switching all the time just like once a year if I know I have a longer tri race coming up, and I would then plan on leaving it in tri mode for a while before switching back. Belows a link to my bike at there website on the left hand side you can click to see the geometry
Thanks a million
https://www.argon18bike.com/main.cfm?...C=15&item=E-80

EjustE

I was going to propose a couple of solutions until I saw the pic of that beast... and that changes the story (because there is not much you can do to it, since it has a traditional seatpost and a drop bar would be hard to accommodate) , so I am going to propose a couple different ones:

assuming you still want to do tris:

-easiest/cheapest: either find a way to make the club accept tri bikes (that sounds like an asinine rule) or find another club; heck they allow drafting I suspect

-less cheaper, but good for you: get a vintage steel road bike for the club runs. It should not cost you more that $250 for a very good bike (research and spend lots of time at the classic and vintage forum here) and you could even pick one up for $100 or so in the right circumstances. That would help your tri training because you would be more efficient using a 6 or a 7 gear rear

If you don't want to do tris anymore:

-sell it an get a road bike

(I am a fellow triathlete... and would be sad if you go that way...)

operator

I suggest you try a different ride.

The donut ride for example doesn't give a **** what you ride or what you wear.