- Versus Giant Bikes versus Cervelo versus ...
(background noise drowns out other sounds)
Oh yeah, no doubt.
Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact.
(upbeat music)
What's up, Trainiacs?
Continuing on yesterday's tone,
if you haven't seen that, by the way,
A, make sure you subscribe, so that
you don't miss these killer videos,
and B, go check it out right there.
I wanna talk about Felt bikes versus Giant Bikes
versus Cervelo versus Specialized versus Trek,
and why thus far, I have chosen to ride Cervelo.
Now, the way that I look at these five companies,
is there's basically three groups.
In the first group, I'm gonna lump Felt and Giant together.
I understand that those companies
are very aggressively trying to buy market share
by lowering the prices of their bikes.
That said, also what I hear, is that
when these companies are pressed
for more data on the testing and the engineering
that goes into their bikes, it's a little bit lacking.
Now, does that mean that it's a worse bike?
Don't know.
I have heard a few more stories, though,
of say Giant's being not nearly as stiff
and Felt occasionally having defects.
Now, also, that said, I have heard
that these companies very quickly
step up to the plate to fix these problems when they happen,
so you can get into these bikes for a lower price point,
knowing that there might be a little bit of hassle
in the quality of the bike, but they do stand behind it.
Now, the Felt IA10 in the 2017 model costs 6500 dollars,
Canadian dollars, IE, Monopoly money,
and with that, you get deep section training wheels,
however, they are still heavy,
they aren't gonna be your primary racing wheels,
but you get electronic shifting with Di2.
The Giant Trinity Advanced Pro Number 1 2017 model
is 5299, with that you get outright training wheels,
not even deep, and Ultegra Di2.
Not to say that we wanna kinda normalize things
across the board and assume that a proper set
of racing wheels is gonna cost you
anywhere between about a thousand and two thousand dollars,
and that we want to get everything
to the same spec mechanical group of Di2,
which ends up costing in between, again,
one and two thousand dollars.
That gets the Felt to about 7500 dollars
and the Giant to around 7299.
Now, the second group in this list
is where Cervelo slots in, and in my opinion,
those are the companies that spend a fair bit on research,
but their bikes aren't wildly over expensive,
and in this group I put Cervelo and Trek.
These are the companies that when reps
start getting questioned about the process
of designing a bike, the aerodynamics,
the research that's put into it,
the engineering, the layout, the process
of getting a bike into people's arms and under their crotch,
they put a lot of effort into it,
but they're not just gouging you
through the nose with the cost,
and the bikes that I looked at with them
is the Trek Speed Concept 7.5 2017 model, and for that,
all you get is training wheels and SRAM Force.
Level that out with a set of race wheels
and Di2 electronic shifting gets you to 8299,
about a thousand dollars more
than the Felt and the Giant.
The Cervelo P3 Altegra, granted this is 2016, costs 5999.
For that, you get training wheels,
but you get electronic shifting with Di2,
level that out and you come to 7999.
Now, the last group in this list
is where Specialized slots in, and this is the group
of companies that I think are probably overpriced,
but at least they put a ton of research into their bikes,
and the reason that I say this,
is anytime that I've tried to compare bike for bike
and match up the specs, like for instance,
when I was buying the Cervelo S3 Roadbike,
I was comparing it to a Specialized Venge,
and when I matched it up as closely as possible,
for some reason, the Specialized was about a thousand
to fifteen hundred dollars more.
Now, granted they do a ton of work in the wind tunnel,
they're fairly revolutionary on the road bike game,
but they are dialing back a lot on the tri-game.
I understand that when they go
to the road bike announcements
and get asked about tri-bikes, they're like,
"Oh, yeah, uh, we've still got the Shiv over there,
uh, yeah, it's gonna come out in the 2017 model."
But there's really not a lot happening.
I take this to mean that Specialized
is willing to be in the tri-game,
but as long as they're getting
paid some mad cheddar for it, yo.
A 2016 Specialized Shiv Ultegra with aero wheels
and Dura-Ace Di2, basically, if you aren't getting
the best of the best, don't even show up.
However, it costs ten thousand dollars in Canada.
So, look at those three bike companies
and where they slot into each other.
Felt and Giant are probably going to be the least expensive,
but do you know if their research
and their quality is there?
Trek and Cervelo are gonna be probably around
a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars more expensive,
but you know that they've put a ton of research
into that bike, and you rarely hear
of anyone having a problem with those two brands.
Specialized, however, sell your children,
and that's why I have tended to lean towards Cervelo
over the last few years, because I know
that they've put a lot of research into it,
it's a quality bike, but between Cervelo and Trek,
it's just slightly cheaper, and it's formerly
a Canadian company, and it was the first tri-bike
that I got, and you know what, they broke the mold,
I think literally as far as tri-bikes are concerned.
So, I'm a fan.
Speaking of breaking, this morning's swim nearly broke me.
It broke me mentally, I'll say that.
It was a floaty pants day, if
there's ever been a floaty pants day.
(upbeat music)
Did not feel good.
I knew this day would come, where I'm at in the training
is a bit of a dark place.
So, you know how body builders,
they do, like say ten to 12 bicep curls,
and what they're doing, is those first eight to ten,
is really just to fatigue the muscle
and it get it almost to failure,
and then those last two where they're just like (screams),
those are actually the reps that are causing
the damage that make them stronger,
and build that muscle back up.
You need to get yourself to the point
of like just past what your body's capable of
to get faster, stronger, and then it's like woah,
holy smokes, I need to step it up a notch
if he's gonna do this to me, or she.
Now, endurance training is kinda the same.
You need to push yourself within a workout,
but also, what you need to be doing,
is within your plan, basically pushing yourself
into a little bit of fatigue,
but just shy of beating yourself down.
So, let's say one is you're sitting on the couch.
Ten is you are just smashing yourself
beyond your physical limits every single day.
You wanna kinda edge up to maybe that nine and ten
for a little bit a few days,
feel really deep down, and then back off.
Well, I'm right there.
You know things are off when your biceps
are starting to cramp just from swimming,
just from existing in the water,
and I knew that at some point,
it was gonna take a turn from Oh, smash that work out,
feeling good, feeling strong, making gains, getting faster,
changing to, "I hate you, Coach Pat."
I mean, I don't, but I say that,
and it just feels good to say that some days.
Right on the edge of getting in that deep dark hole.
(background noise drowns out other sounds)
You hear that?
Coach Pat said I might get tomorrow off.
Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact.
You know what, it's these times
that actually make you stronger, unfortunately.
Getting yourself right to that breaking point,
like edging up on what your body is capable of,
then you add in a taper, some rest,
then you come back feeling like a superhero,
ideally, that's the plan at least.
We will try, Trainiacs, we will try.