New TT bike or upgrade my Trek 1.9? Want faster Tri times

marshy01uk

Hi I am very new to this, last year I bought a 2009 Trek 1.9 Compact and have used it in 2 Triathlons, a novice and most recently a sprint.
I am looking to either buy a TT bike (only have around £1200 to spend) or should I upgrade my current bike (ie new wheelset etc?)
My aim is to get faster times, I did a 27 min 10 mile in the Tri but would like to shave off a couple of minutes from this at least (i am sure harder training will help also)
Would love to get some advice and if the majority of opinions are a TT bike then any recommendations for my budget? or if upgrading then what would you go for?
Oh and I only have the Trek, use it for training and racing
Thanks
Ian

Anonymous

Hi mate, welcome to the forum!

If your sole purpose in riding is triathlon then yes, I'd probably get a tri specific bike, good budget buys are Planet X, Ribble or if on sale (like mine was) a Quintana Roo. As long as you are keeping the trek...

However if you will be doing other riding then a set of aero wheels and some tri bars would be best.

To note though, there is an increasing number of tris where you can draft, these require road bikes with them little stumpy aero bars, which adds weight to the getting of decent wheels and some aero bars...

HTH.

marshy01uk

Hi thanks for the quick response.
Definately will be keeping my Trek. I do use it for long weekend rides though wont be entering road races, hard enough managing time to train for Triathlons lol I do though plan to go upto Olympic distance (40k bike) however most of the races will be Sprint distance.
Are there specific models you would recommend, I do admit to being very naive in the bike world....

Anonymous

marshy01uk wrote:

Hi thanks for the quick response.
definitely will be keeping my Trek. I do use it for long weekend rides though wont be entering road races, hard enough managing time to train for Triathlons lol I do though plan to go upto Olympic distance (40k bike) however most of the races will be Sprint distance.
Are there specific models you would recommend, I do admit to being very naive in the bike world....

Do you have a good, trusted, local bike shop? If so, that would be my first port of call...

Stand by, I'll do some browsing and report back.

What size are you?

marshy01uk

I'm 5ft 11, 33" inside leg

Local bike shops.....Evans, Alpine....there is an independant dealer though haven't ever used him

Thanks for the help

Anonymous

To start! Should be your size (you tend to ride a size smaller on a TT bike)

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tre ... gn=froogle

Anonymous

http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/detail.asp/sk ... _Bike_2010

Anonymous

This Giant looks your size and looks a good buy! (Giant use funny sizing btw)

http://www.southdownsbikes.com/products ... 6354&rs=gb

jordan_217

The Felt S22 gets some good reviews (they look good in the flesh too). Evans have some 54's in stock, currently reduced to £1199.99:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fel ... e-ec021705