TT with an aerobike?

zest28
zest28 Posts: 403
edited March 2019 in Amateur race
How much time do I loose if I enter a TT stage with an aero bike?

I won’t buy a top of the range TT bike as I won’t have enough time to get used to the position anyway (and also because of money reasons :mrgreen: )

I can’t also put clipon aerobars as the aero bike has a fully integrated handlebar where no clip-on aerobars can fit onto.

Comments

  • gethinceri
    gethinceri Posts: 1,665
    The answer to this question can only lie with you riding an aero bike then a tt bike on the same course in identical conditions, with effective recovery in between.
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    It's the position of you that makes the difference.

    If you rode a normal road bike with Tri bars you'll gain a lot more time than if you rode an aero bike without Tri bars.

    Look at a head on photo of you and the bike and you'll see how little importance the bike is compared to the rider.
  • MiddleRinger
    MiddleRinger Posts: 678
    You'll lose less time than you'll lose money in your bank balance buying the TT bike.

    This is an impossible question to answer. You could be incredibly aero on your current bike, or sat upright like a brick. We don't know. Also how long is the course? How hilly is it? How technical is it? How fast will you average? Etc. Etc. Etc.

    The answer is somewhere between a handful of seconds and a handful on minutes!

    (but I'd put money on it being seconds)
    ~ ~ How fast is fast enough? ~ ~ ~ ~ Tempo Cyclist - Tasmania ~ ~
  • Matthewfalle
    Matthewfalle Posts: 17,380
    slam it all as far as you can go, saddle all the way forward and dangle over the front.

    then spend what you saved on either some bars and stem you can get some aero bars on or blow 'n' ho.
    Postby team47b » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:53 am

    De Sisti wrote:
    This is one of the silliest threads I've come across. :lol:

    Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour :D
    smithy21 wrote:

    He's right you know.
  • singleton
    singleton Posts: 2,523
    You can get a TT base-bar and clip-ons from about £60 upwards, £130 will get a decent carbon setup.

    I did a few Tri's in the past and even adding a set of cheapish tri-bars to my bike made a big difference and they weren't that hard to adapt to.
  • Bumo_b
    Bumo_b Posts: 211
    When I first started TT's, I added clip on bars to a road bike. since then I have built a TT bike and have to say the gains were not as large as I had hoped and whilst there was a little improvement in time, these differences were no larger than abstaining from the odd cream cake on hilly courses (and who is to say the conditions were not more favorable on the days I used the tt bike). The biggest difference was getting the sweet spot right from being more aero and lower front end and not losing too much power from being too low on the front. Also comfort is a big factor and there is a careful balance to it all. Time spent getting those things right will pay far bigger dividends than complete aero kit and will save you a fortune. I got my aero bars from Decathlon and also got some cheap latex tubes which did seem to give a little noticeable improvement to improve my times from awful to mediocre.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,106
    Our hillyish sporting course club TT years ago I took roughly a minute off by adding tri bars, seat forwards and slamming the stem, I then took another 60-90 seconds off by buying a relatively cheap TT bike and some second hand Corimas. That was going from about 33 minutes to about 30:30. I did train over winter on the TT bike on the turbo to get used to producing power in that position. Gains might have been proportionally more on a flat track I suppose.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    When tribars first came out we put them on our road bikes. No power meters back then but we did have HRMs.

    We found you could easily get a 2 mph increase for the same effort on the tribars.
  • ryan_w-2
    ryan_w-2 Posts: 1,162
    I've only competed in 2 TT's (RPTT).

    Did them both on my road bike and loved it.

    You should just be competing against yourself if you're not at the sharp end and just starting out. Buying a TT rig shouldn't really come into this. As it's a one trick pony too, I'd definitely go for an aero bike.

    It's also quite rewarding when on a road bike and beating guys on £10k TT rigs ;)
    Specialized Allez Sprint Disc --- Specialized S-Works SL7

    IG: RhinosWorkshop
  • Alejandrosdog
    Alejandrosdog Posts: 1,975
    apparently if you buy an aero bike with deep section wheels and tubeless tyres, youll save so much time youll possibly finish before you started.

    the answer is all things being equal a few seconds maybe.

    a well fitting skin suit would probably save more and cost £100.

    Ditch your helmet, spend nothing and go faster

    leave your gloves off, spend nothing and go faster

    latex overshoes save a smidge

    spend a few hundred quid on a cheap holiday to the canaries, ride your bike and get stronger

    theres loads of ways to go faster but buying an aero road bike is not the magic bullet.

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