Originally Posted by
RacerOne
I'm going to buck the trend here and say get a road bike. No you don't need it, but you probably aren't wearing hiking boots for the run section are you? Use the right equipment for the job, even if it is cheap / older stuff.
The advice I've seen with regard to Tris is do a few Sprint/Oly distances and then see if you're still interested, and then get a tri bike. Bad idea to spend $300+repairs on an old beater for your very first race, find out you love it and have to spend even more to replace it with a proper Tri rig