jtenright

Hey everyone,
I will be doing TTs for the 1st time this season and will be racing them in the Collegiate races primarily

My main bike is a Giant TCR C1 Ultrgra 6600 groupe and Ksyrium elites
I have carbon 31.8mm bars so not sure if I should try to get clip-ons or not.

my old bike is a Douglas Fusion 9sp Ultegra in good shape...but maybe a bit to big for me. its a 53 and I fit a 51-52 best

Would it be worth it to get a TT bar/shifter/brake setup for that bike and how much would it cost.

Problem w/ my carbon bars on my Giant is that they taper rather qucikly and doubt clip-ons will work.

Or I can just ride my Giant as is and not be as competative....I like Crits best anyways

any advice/opinions would be helpful

cslone

I would typically say convert you old bike. If you go the cheap route, you can get aerobars and bullhorns for ~50, brake levers for ~20 and barcon shifters for ~50.

The problem comes in the fact that your other bike is too big. I am positive that will rob you of power because you are too stretched out. So, in your case, I would ride your present bike and see if there's anything you may be able to throw on there aerobar wise. Any little bit will help. I don't know about carbon bars and clip-ons though, but I do know that some base bars come in carbon. I'd say as long as they will fit the tapering of your bars, they would be alright.

2Rodies

Yeah what Chris said. I used my LOOK 381 for a TT bike for a while and it fit me perfectly as a roadie but as a TT bike it wasn't ideal. I cold never get far enough forward to really get any power when on the extentions. One good thing about TT bikes is that they have pretty lousey resale on the used market. You could always sell the Douglas and go that route.

Phatman

I know a few guys on my team that have picked up a cheap frame thats a tad too small and used it as a TT frame. look for one with a slackish headangle and cost <100 bucks, then swap your douglas components over onto the new frame w/ clipons. or go all out and get the barend shifters/base bar.

a dedicated TT bike can be built up fairly cheaply this way, however its funny when you see guys riding a trek 1000 frame with borrowed zipps.

...or even a lemond with borrowed zipps...hehe

jbhowat

If it doesn't fit you then this is the way to go. Also know that you can save some money in the base bar dept is you are ok with not having the latest carbon fiber winged bar. Get some Syntace bullhorns from chucksbikes.com for either 12 or 14 bucks, and then get the Tektro 4.1 levers for the same place for $15. For $27 you could have a complete base bar with levers.

Then get some performance aero bars (get some that will accomodate shifters), they'll probably be like $40.00 retail. Then get some bar-end shifters <- if you have to go new these will probably be the most expensive part.

Alternatively you could jsut put your STI's on the bull-horns. I've seen pro's actually do this depending on the course.

Skuda25

I have the same dilemma. Last year I set up an old Cannondale for a TT set. I did not like the results and felt a little stretched out. It is a very old Black Lighting 56 center-to-top. I was thinking of switching over to my other (extra) bike; but it is steel. This bike is 53.5 center to center. The Cannondale also has limited rear drop out spacing of 125mm. This limits my wheel choices. I could use lighter wheels with the steel bike.