The "Fastest"...?
 

Hi all. I built out my fist real TT bike on a 2017 Cannondale Slice frame. I got everything on the cheap, but all parts are very good. My wheels are DT Swiss ARC 1400 "Dicut". I have DA brakes, pedals, shifters, and cassette. Only my brakes are 1015 (rim) and the crank is an "off-tier" RS 510. It's got solid crank arms and is heavy, but is rock-solid. It got it thinking it was an Ultegra crankset, and kept it because its 165mm. I switched the large ring to a 52T 105 ring. Other than that, I have an Ultegra FD and a Tiagra RD (I'm not a hierarchy snob and I needed an RD that would function best on a 10 speed cassette in friction, which happens to be the Tiagra.) I'm much faster on this bike than on any of my road bikes, at least in a straight line. But am I missing out of some real performance changing speed with such a build? A competitor I know swears that his brand new Quintana Rood is way faster than his circa 2016 Canyon.

My feelings on a bike is that it needs to be triathlon specific and and have good wheels (I'm much faster on my 2012 Kestrel Tri-bike than my 2024 Canyon road bike). I do think that tri-specific bikes are better today than a decade ago, but I see it as incremental gains. Again, my opinion, if you have a reasonable bike, that fits well, then it's how aero you are and how strong is your engine. Now, with all that said, I would never try to talk someone out of buying or upgrading a bike.....

I've seen people on $10K tri bikes that weren't in a good aero position (or would only go aero for a few minutes) that I've passed on a vintage steel bike with no aero-bars and down tube shifters. Again, my opinion, the engine is critical, being able to get (and stay) aero will gain a lot (thus a tri-bike to get aero), the rest is incremental.

I bought an old Felt S32 TT bike that's sitting in a barn in Wisconsin waiting for me to arrive in June. I'm going to feel how it compares to my more modern Slice. That may give me an idea as to whether an upgrade would be worth it.

Funny you mention this. I am in my taper for StG now and have vowed to put the Shiv up and just do prep on it until race day. In the meantime, I'm riding my 2015 Cannondale Synapse for short maintenance/training rides. They're both the same age and in comparable shape. I do have a set of Profile Designs aero bars on the Synapse so I can get kind of low on it, and considering my back and neck, I'm really not a whole lot lower on the Shiv. But I have noticed the last couple times I rode the Synapse, I can just feel it's not as fast for the same amount of effort. I don't have a power meter (but I do have a bike computer) so I'm just ball-parking it, but I would say that at the same power level, I can hold better than a 1mph faster pace on the Shiv than the Synapse. Might even be as much as 2mph. I'm really not sure where all that is coming from. I suspect it's a combination of factors. I'm more comfortable on the Shiv, it has shorter cranks and I'm running tubeless Reynolds carbon wheels. There might be a couple other factors, but whatever they are, I can just feel it.

I am kind of drawing the line at "upgrading" to electronic shifting and disc brakes. But if I could find another frame that allowed me to get an even more aggressive position, I would consider that. I really prefer a steep seat tube angle and I've struggled to find a set up that is comfortable and I can put power to the pedals.

Jen, same here. I can just "feel" my speed on the Slice. I see it too on my little speed-computer-gizmo. In a straight line I easily get 2-3 mph's faster than my roadie, even in the drops. BUT, I'm thinking about the Lake Castaic Oly in June. If I do it, I'll use my backup bike, which is an aluminum roadie with Zipp Aeros. Reason is that it's got some hills and lots of turns, which kind of negates the aero TT benefits. I think.

Hey Argoman,Be careful taking a road bike to a triathlon. About a decade ago my wife and I did the HITS 1/2 distance Tri iNapa (actually Lake Berryessa). The bike course was about 2500 ft of elevation gain on the 56 miles, multiple turns, always rolling. The first year we both used our tri-bikes. The second year my wife decided to take her Trek Emonda, a very light and nimble climbing bike. Even with the climbing, her statement after the race was "I took a knife to a gun fight". She was slightly faster than people around her on the climbs, but they were way faster in areas where they were on the aerobars. In generally she lost a lot of time to people who were not as strong of riders as she is.

Is this an instance when the road bike with clip-ons might have been an advantage over the tri bikes?

Dan

Good advice! Thank you!

The bike I was thinking about using has clip-ons. I'm also thinking about installing one of those "zero set back" seat posts to give me a bit more forward position. Maybe even a reversible seatpost?

Back in the 90's I used a bike with a "forward" seat post and clip on's. It worked pretty well for me. I did find the forward seat post a key to get me in a good aero position. I'd try the two bikes on a time trail on a similar course and see how the difference. A lot with depend on the set-up and your ability to get aero and comfortable. Good luck!

So I purchased a zero set back post (Origin 8). Aluminum, plenty of length, which will allow me to cut it down. Surprisingly light. I'm going to dial in my "back up" TT roadie and then compare my speed on it to my speed on my racing TT.

I hope that works for you. Prior to finding good deals on the TT bikes I currently have, I spent a lot of time and effort to set up a roadie for triathlon. I did the clamp on aero bars and zero offset seat post among other things. The end result was that it was better than a conventional roadie set up, but still fell short of an actual triathlon bike. I think it can be made fast, for what it is, but it will take a lot of time, effort and expense to modify a roadie just to make it comparable to a dedicated tri bike.

Thanks. I got an "Origin 8" zero set back post. Super high quality aluminum post. Problem is that with the saddle I have there isn't sufficient forward tilt, to allow me to tilt the nose of the saddle downward enough to make it comfortable. I actually have to get a new saddle that has a natural downward tilt, like a Selle SMP. More money thrown out the window. But, I'm clearly getting a much more forward seating position. The bike feels so "light" and nimble now, much more so than my TT bike. I can't wait to get a new saddle and then compare the two. I'm waiting on some dude from Japan to on eBay to reply to an offer that I made to him fora while SMP Dynamic saddle.

Aghhh, I forgot that I started this thread, and continued it under a new thread! I'm sn idiot!