Originally Posted by Heathpack

@Doug28450

The truth is that the bike DOES matter.

Theres all kinds of things your daughter could do to improve her time. Some of them happen to be improvements that are bike-related. Some of them are improvements that are fitness-related. Some of them are improvements that are equipment-related.

Just saying the bike doesn't matter does not make that true. Believing that it's marketing hype doesn't mean that it *is* marketing hype.

Everything has a cost. Everything has a benefit. You may decide that the benefit of any equipment changes is not worth the cost relative to the changes your daughter might make on the free side of the equation- namely technique & fitness changes. That is completely valid. She may not be to the point yet where the equipment changes make enough of a difference for her to be worth the expense. Plus she's a kid and presumably has no money, there is a real life lesson in her realizing this stuff isn't free of cheap.

But none of that the same thing as saying (or implying) that the bike doesn't matter. She understands (correctly) that the bike *does* matter. It is reasonable to require that cash-outlay expenditures on improvements come after she demonstrates that she is serious by improving her run & transition times. But say she does improve these things and show some decent aptitude for the sport? What then? Keep telling her the bike doesn't matter? There are way worse things she could desire than a tri bike.