Bigblock119

Well I'm gona buy a ne bike soon. I have just started doing triathlons. I am not totally sure i want to commit to buyin a tri bike yet. But I was told there is a cervelo road bike that if you flip the seat around it has the geometry of a tri bike. I was wondering if anybody had any info on the bike what model and if this is actually true.

OldTryGuy

Can't answer your question but in the same boat regarding not willing to purchase a tri-specific bike. Aero bars on my Giant Propel are working fine.

BTM87

I've never heard of that, but sounds a little odd I can't really wrap my head around how they would do it. The seat tube angle is a big determining factor in geometry, but it's top tube length and head tube angle as well, in addition to the rear wheel being moved forward. Basically to re-stabilize your weight in a steeper position further forward on the bike. If such a bike did it exist, it'd be hard to imagine that the geometry for both road and tri setups wasn't compromised. You might be able to set up a road bike with a steeper drop by reversing one of those bent seat posts?

Cervelo does however make bikes called the S Series which it touts as "aero road' which are basically road bikes with more aerodynamic consideration given to the frame design.

Bigblock119

Found it its the soloist it's a few years old here's a link about it.

https://www.bikesportmichigan.com/reviews/soloist.shtml

BTM87

I still question being able to change fits by simply rotating the seat post. Both positions must be compromised. Riding in the drops would be either too steep or riding the aerobars wouldn't be steep enough. As most people move to a steeper (effective) seat tube they are basically being rotated around an axis, and like the stack lowered accordingly. Everything I've come across says it's a great road bike and passable TT bike. Still better than nothing if you really only want one bike. My 2c at least.

needmoreair

Many tri bikes have an adjustable seat post, including the Cervelos. You can generally go somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-80 degrees depending on setback.

The point of being steeper is to get your front end lower.

On a road bike you may be further back to use more glute and hamstrings and get more power, especially climbing. On a TT bike you can sacrifice a bit of power to improve aerodynamics and gain speed.

As already mentioned, though, if you go steeper then you'll want to drop the front end. If you're adding clip on bars to a road bar then your stack height is already going to be super high (and not aero) and you're likely not going to be able to lower it enough, even if you have spacers under your stem for your road fit.

So, to reiterate, you're either going to have an awkward road bike or an awkward TT bike. Either is better than nothing, of course, but if you're serious about triathlons and speed then you're likely going to need a properly low front end assuming you've got the form and flexibility to get actually get low.

Trekathlete

If you read thru the forum's on people trying to decide on a road bike or a triathlon specific bike you will find that having a triathlon bike will only give you a slight advantage on shorter races. If you have already done triathlons you can look at your times and see if 1 minute will produce podium results, otherwise you need to invest more time and money in training. I understand the dual purpose reasoning but in my opinion if you are already thinking of buying a road bike why don't you just buy an aero one? Something like the Cervelo S5 or S2 so you get an aero advantage but you have the ability to do road races, group rides etcetera. I have a road bike and tri bike but I end up riding my road bike more often because most of the people I ride with ride road bikes. There is a local tri group in the area and when I ride with them I ride my tri bike but there is a large number of people in the group on road bikes, who still smoke me. My point is that a road bike is more versatile and won't hurt you as much as you would think until your training is absolutely maxed out and the only option is to start upgrading equipment and at that point you can get a tri specific bike and have two bikes like me.