I’ve put a time trial bike on my Christmas list

Up until recently these were the territory of the rich & sponsored!!! But they seem to be coming down in price….

Latest evidence… a review on Bike Radar.

I’ve done a triathlon and a duathlon, and one thing I noticed, especially on the duathlon when everyone set off at the same time, was the difference an aerodynamic bike made.

I’m no elite cyclist (by any means) but during the duathlon I was pretty much able to stay with anyone on a conventional road bike, and went past quite a few. Only one rider overtook me through the whole 20K on a normal spec road bike. But I was overtaken ALL the time by riders on time trial (TT) and triathlon specific bikes.

Now, obviously, if they are serious about triathlon/duathlon, they will be fitter and faster than me anyway, so would go past me on a conventional road bike. But they were all on TT spec bikes, and it just makes me wonder what additional benefit something like that would have.

I discussed this at one point with my Local Bike Shop (LBS) and they reckon the aerodynamics take effect at about 18mph and above.

I have a regular loop I do that’s about 28k and always try and beat my previous time. It’s not particularly flat so might not an ideal TT route but I like the idea of me against the clock. And that’s what a time trial is, in a nutshell.

So how much quicker could I go on a TT bike???

For most, this is just a pipe dream. After all, the aerodynamics are no good if you go out with anyone else, and going for more than about an hour apparantly is bordering on torture. So it’s pretty hard to justify spending multiple thousands of £’s on a bike you wouldn’t use a lot.

Did I mention rich or sponsored? But with a sub £1,000 TT bike, maybe not quite so rich. And if prices keep dropping at this rate, it might not be so long until I can justify finding out the difference for myself!!!