£1000 towards TTing
After trying my hand at a time trial earlier this year, I have decided to work towards doing more next year.
I currently ride a Scott CR1, which although it has a tall head tube is a fast and responsive bike.
I also have a Trek 1400 frame sitting in the garage which has a very short headtube.
My question is this.
I have £1000 and was going to spend it on various biking things including a full Dura-Ace groupset, but think the money will be better spent.
Do I;-
a) But some deep section wheels to put on the Scott just for TT's?
b) Save up a little more and buy a TT bike for upto £1500?
c) Build the Trek up into a TT bike with what will probably be budget parts (although this was going to be my winter bike)?
d) Does it really not make any difference what I ride?
Thanks very much.
I currently ride a Scott CR1, which although it has a tall head tube is a fast and responsive bike.
I also have a Trek 1400 frame sitting in the garage which has a very short headtube.
My question is this.
I have £1000 and was going to spend it on various biking things including a full Dura-Ace groupset, but think the money will be better spent.
Do I;-
a) But some deep section wheels to put on the Scott just for TT's?
b) Save up a little more and buy a TT bike for upto £1500?
c) Build the Trek up into a TT bike with what will probably be budget parts (although this was going to be my winter bike)?
d) Does it really not make any difference what I ride?
Thanks very much.
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Comments
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buy a track bike instead and have some fun.
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Would love to, but there isn't any track near me
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e) Spend a grand on a Planet X TT bike with Ultrega and then buy some better wheels when you save more.0
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bummer. you could move?
the best way to spend 1k on a reasonable TT bike is ebay. i got a giant tcr aero built up minus wheels for £300 last year.
the bits that make a difference are wheels and bars. everything else is largely decorative.0 -
spend the money on a coach first, then a spring training camp, then wheels and tribars, skinsuit, aero helmet, frame, groupset in that order.
If you want to go faster then change your training first. Too many people (myself included) think that if they had bike x or wheels y or frame z or carbon tri bars then they'd go n% quicker with no extra effort.
Utter crud, train harder, train smarter, eat a better diet, drink more water, get more sleep, do more stretching, be more focused. I realised this FAR too late in life :oops:0 -
Matchstick Man wrote:spend the money on a coach first, then a spring training camp, then wheels and tribars, skinsuit, aero helmet, frame, groupset in that order.
If you want to go faster then change your training first. Too many people (myself included) think that if they had bike x or wheels y or frame z or carbon tri bars then they'd go n% quicker with no extra effort.
Utter crud, train harder, train smarter, eat a better diet, drink more water, get more sleep, do more stretching, be more focused. I realised this FAR too late in life :oops:
I always have this in the back of my head trying to get to the front, but it just can;t get past the carbon stuff in there!!0 -
powenb wrote:I always have this in the back of my head trying to get to the front, but it just can;t get past the carbon stuff in there!!
the minute you let this thought get to the forefront of your mind (images of Homer SImpson spring to mind) is the minute you start moving up in road races and doing better times in TT's and handing out kickings on the chaingang.....
spoke to a mate re-powermeters at the weekend. he said "power meters are sh t. Train hard when you can, rest when you get the chance, give it the b*ll*cks in races" Ok, it's not exactly Ric Stern, but you get the jist.
btw - my mate's self employed with a wife and 2 young children and is a 1st cat and 21min man....[/quote]0 -
It does make a difference, but not as much as your training, so I'm with Matchstick Man on your no. 1 priority.powenb wrote:My question is this.
I have £1000 and was going to spend it on various biking things including a full Dura-Ace groupset, but think the money will be better spent.
Do I;-
a) But some deep section wheels to put on the Scott just for TT's?
b) Save up a little more and buy a TT bike for upto £1500?
c) Build the Trek up into a TT bike with what will probably be budget parts (although this was going to be my winter bike)?
d) Does it really not make any difference what I ride?
But, what's probably the second most significant factor after your training is your position on your bike for racing. So how aerodynamic would your position be on the Scott or the Trek? Would you be able to lower the tri-bars on your Scott (assuming you'd use clip-ons) sufficiently to get an aerodynamic position? How good a position could you get on the Trek? If neither of these would be too great then maybe you'd be better off with a TT frame.
If you don't think the differences in position would be great then next I'd go for some really good wheels.
Ruth0 -
The head tube on the Trek is 4 cm's lower than the Scott, but the Trek is Alu. and the Scott is carbon and is faster. So I could get lower on the Trek, but not sure it is as efficient as the Scott.0
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Matchstick Man wrote:spend the money on a coach first, then a spring training camp, then wheels and tribars, skinsuit, aero helmet, frame, groupset in that order.
If you want to go faster then change your training first. Too many people (myself included) think that if they had bike x or wheels y or frame z or carbon tri bars then they'd go n% quicker with no extra effort.
Utter crud, train harder, train smarter, eat a better diet, drink more water, get more sleep, do more stretching, be more focused. I realised this FAR too late in life :oops:
Well put. I too realized this a bit late in life.
Dennis Noward0 -
Was in similar position to you last year, ended up exceeding me budget by about £500 and ended up with a Planet X Stealth, knocked about a minute of me times I reckon compared to me old road bike
Plus it looks gorgeous, currently sitting in front of it mounted on the wall of me spare room, it is art IMO!!! :P
They do an option for about £1000, go on, you know it makes sense, you can never have too many bikes!!!
You can lead an elephant to water but a pencil must be lead0 -
powenb wrote:Matchstick Man wrote:spend the money on a coach first, then a spring training camp, then wheels and tribars, skinsuit, aero helmet, frame, groupset in that order.
If you want to go faster then change your training first. Too many people (myself included) think that if they had bike x or wheels y or frame z or carbon tri bars then they'd go n% quicker with no extra effort.
Utter crud, train harder, train smarter, eat a better diet, drink more water, get more sleep, do more stretching, be more focused. I realised this FAR too late in life :oops:
I always have this in the back of my head trying to get to the front, but it just can;t get past the carbon stuff in there!!
I'll be the dissagreer then
You might change your training, you might buy a coach and go on a training camp and while they MIGHT make you quicker, there is absolutely no guarantee. Now you go out and replace your 32 hole training wheels with a disc, or a set of tri bars I can guarantee you will go significantly quicker. The bit I've bolded, if you buy the right stuff you will go quicker for less effort. You can up to a point buy speed, lets not kid anyone that you can't please.
and to answer the question, the scot cr1 imo makes a poor tt bike (I know I've tried it for a season.) The head tube is way too long and the main tubes are far too wide to be aero. At thre end of the day, it's a great hill bike (up and down) and for me a great all day comfort bike, to do anything else with it, is just diluting it's qualities.
As someone said the planetx for £1000 is a bargain (I know I've got one of them to :oops: ) and belive me one is much better than the other for tt'ing on.0 -
I don't think you can simply isolate the supply (rider power) or demand (aerodynamics, rolling resistance) elements when one looks at how to best lower TT times. They need to be done in concert.
If focussed on the demand side, then as Ruth said, optimising rider positioning has the biggest impact. Then an aero helmet and skinsuit, then a fast front wheel, then a fast back wheel, then an aero frame, faster tyres, then tidy up all the other bits (e.g. shoe covers, shaved legs, tidy cables, aero TT bars and so on) to lower your CdA (Coefficient of Drag x Effective Frontal Area) as far as you can.
On the supply side - well that's training, diet, rest and recovery. and training in a TT position to ensure power can be generated effectively.
For most riders, working on the supply side (in an effective manner) will always beat the demand side of the equation hands down.
I would always rationalise for myself that in order to justify a better bit of kit, I had to make a performance improvement through training first before I deserved it. I have some nice kit. 0 -
Cheers
I've been looking at building up my Trek 1400 frame, but complete bikes are great value, and I can chuck all the stuff from my Carrera onto the Trek and have a decent winter bike! 0 -
Extremely biased, but I can't believe you'd be comparing those two bikes. There's a clear winner there I'd imagine.
That said, the trouble with the planet-x is, it's a bit common (if that bothers you.)0 -
chrisw12 wrote:Extremely biased, but I can't believe you'd be comparing those two bikes. There's a clear winner there I'd imagine.
That said, the trouble with the planet-x is, it's a bit common (if that bothers you.)
By that I assume you are saying the Planet X is miles better?!?!0 -
If you can afford it which you obviously can have a bike for tt only and get it set up so you have a good aero position as you are much bigger than your bike and or wheel the planet x bike looks good vaule but if you are able to build your own keep looking on ebay over the winter.
I built my tt bike last winter with carbon areo bars spinergy carbon rear wheell areo front wheel with dura ace group for less than £6000 -
powenb wrote:chrisw12 wrote:Extremely biased, but I can't believe you'd be comparing those two bikes. There's a clear winner there I'd imagine.
That said, the trouble with the planet-x is, it's a bit common (if that bothers you.)
By that I assume you are saying the Planet X is miles better?!?!
Miles better being a good quote when talking about time trialling, especially when my first race on my planetx was a 12hr. Approx 25 miles better over my scott in fact
Put it like this, if my scott was to die I'd get another stealth at that price and build it as a road bike, I think it's that good.0 -
I'd say go for the Planet X, that's what I've gust ordered, but I paid a little more and went for the decent aero bars.
Keep the cost down with the 105 group-set, I'm sure the group-set will make no time difference whatsoever anyway.
Save up for some better wheels when you can though.0
