robbyville

Thanks, me too! Been a dream to ride, fits so nicely, did my longest ride of 122 miles on it last month straight through one quick nature stop and felt great after other than being tired of course!

OldTryGuy

Back home relaxing after my 110 miler this morning with winds in the 10/15mph area and super happy for the aero bars.

noodle soup

I know you said you don’t want a bargain basement TT bike, but I’d look for an older 10spd Cervelo P2 or P3, without wheels. Tubular 10spd aero wheelsets are really cheap, and 10spd isn’t going to hold you back in any way. I’m sure you have a wheelset to use for training.

Bah Humbug

And the old ones aren’t even slower, just less integration and less tire clearance. Fantastic bikes.

noodle soup

The frame/components are a tiny bit less aero, but the geometry/body position is where the big benefits are anyway.

Bah Humbug

Within the context of comparison to a Speedwagen... and like-for-like, ST hasn’t seen a difference in independent tunnel tests.

By contrast, my P2 saves 50 watts at the same speed vs my old S1, which is pretty aero for a roadie.

bruce19

That is a special bike.

canklecat

That's darned clever. I might try one if I get serious about tackling a time trial later this year.

Although as other folks pointed out, good used TT bikes are often available pretty cheaply. I guess folks either get upgrade fever or just get tired of the whole tri thing. But I see more bargains in TT bikes than comparable road bikes.

robbyville

yep, starting to agree, much as I’m enjoying the idea of swapping out bars which I might still do. Won’t be able to do a seat post topper with SV effectively. I’ve found some good deals on bar stem combos to swap and I’ll continue to look. I’m going to try and ride some tri bikes of people in our club just to see how I like it. May get the oppotunity to train and use one for the upcoming race and go from there. The project guy in me though is still planning on the cockpit conversion, I think it will be fun for the first while

yep that seat post is freaking neat. But yes so good deals out there.

Bah Humbug

Upgrade fever in tri geeks puts roadies to shame. I have a friend - real life friend, as in go swimming with him - who was so smitten by the 858 that he had to go and immediately sell his one-season-old 808FCs for and buy a pair. And yes, he’s literally a dentist.

Every year there’s a new wunderbike. Some of us need to buy it every year. I’m running a NOS 2016 P2 retrofitted with UI2, and would probably only swap it if I got serious about doing fulls and wanted more integrated storage.

canklecat

This thread reminded me, I had a project bike tucked away that I hadn't really looked at. A friend is into the tri-thing and is an expert bargain hunter. He has persistent problems in the sit-down region and had been scouring craigslist and other sites for better saddles. He snagged an older Trek Equinox, one of their entry level aero frames that's well designed but quite heavy aluminum. It had a cracked seat tube, probably not dangerous where it's located. But he only wanted the Cobb saddle. The entire bike cost less than a new Cobb. He gave me the rest of the bike to scavenge for parts. I didn't even look at it right away, figuring it was all entry level stuff considering it was Trek's base model Equinox from around a decade ago. But when I finally got around to stripping it, I discovered the previous owner had upgraded to some really nice components, including some Dura Ace goodies.

And I also have a 2014 era Diamondback Podium 5 frame and fork with only the original Ultegra crankset. I wasn't sure what to do with it (I'm pretty satisfied with my old '89 Ironman steelie and '93 Trek 5900). But now I might cobble together a hybrid road/TT bike from that Diamondback frame and parts from the Trek tri-bike. It'll probably look goofy with bullhorn bars and Profile carbon fiber aero bars, but I'm gonna give it a try.

Couldn't be any worse than the old school Scott bars on my Ironman. There's no way to adjust the arm rests on the older Scott bars to support my elbows and get the upper arms vertical. Best I can do is place the armrests under the forearms just in front of the elbows with some angle to the upper arms. And I've set up a compromise fit that's not terribly uncomfortable in the aero bars, while still being able to pedal more or less normally using the drop bar -- if I don't mind the Jacques Anquetil toe-down style. Maitre Jacques was always my favorite of the TdF heroes, as much for his libertine lifestyle as for his cycling. And a friend who owns many local KOMs happens to ride that toe-down style. Looks oddly graceful and sure works for him. I suspect it's uncomfortable on longer rides and best suited to time trials and short, fast rides. It sorta forces us to sit heavily in the saddle. But it may take awhile to strengthen those lower leg muscles that don't get used as much with more flat footed pedaling.

Cypress

canklecat I'd take that frame to a Trek dealer and see what Trek has to say about warrantying it. I bought some hella old Bontrager carbon wheels for $50 about 7 years ago that had a cracked rim and Trek warrantied them for a brand new set of Aeolus full carbon hoops.

Worth a shot.