Originally Posted by
carleton
It's mostly angles. To sum things up:
- Sprinters want to be aerodynamic and are willing to sacrifice comfort being that their races are around 1-2 minutes long but can reach very fast speeds. Weight is on the arms/shoulders.
- Endurance racers are willing to sacrifice aerodynamics for the sake of comfort being that their races can be over 15 minutes long. Weight is on the butt (much like a road racer's position).
- Pursuiters/Kilo riders need the optimal TT position
thanks for the explanation. I had no idea there was that much frame variation within a single niche of cycling.
Originally Posted by
carleton
No. I said see what other, more experienced people are using. Just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's good. It's very easy to waste money on bike parts.
Sorry that was supposed to be a joke. 10 years ago I bought my allez and hem'd and haw'd over what group to get. After looking at some other riders and the recommendation of the bike shop I got the 105. I still love it today, but back then it seemed like a hefty price.
Originally Posted by
carleton
Understand that if you start taking the sport seriously, you may buy LOTS of different pieces of equipment (bar shapes, bar widths, crank lengths, frames, etc...) until you settle on what works for you. I am 10x more particular about my track equipment than I am about my road equipment. As one bike shop owner said to me, "THE most particular customers I have are track racers. They know every millimeter of their bikes back and forth."
Oh trust me, I understand that 100% (I'm the same way with my race car), but I want to make sure that I can still have fun on a budget right now. if I knew I was going to stay with this sport for 10 years, I'd buy a great bike, but right now I'm sort of dipping my toe in the water and seeing how it goes. But I do know to get better is going to take training more than one night a week (like i currently do on a rental bike).