- Morning trainiacs,
with a lot of people doing
their first few triathlons early in the season.
You might be thinking,
can you do a triathlon on a mountain bike?
This is a typical bike
that most people will have lying around.
Well, spoiler alert, the answer is yes.
Whatever bike you have, that's the one that you should use.
But let's say this is the bike that you have
and that you're starting with.
I'm gonna give you five ideas
to get the most out of that bike,
so it's not just a total slog during the race.
(upbeat music)
Alright, so the first thing that you can do
to end up making your bike a little bit more optimal
to ride in a triathlon,
is to make yourself more aerodynamic.
About 80% to 85% of the force that we are pushing forward
and have to overcome is caused by our body.
It's the aerodynamics of our body,
so the narrower and smaller we can make our body,
the easier it's gonna be.
What you can do for that is use a pair of Aero bars.
A pair of clip-on Aero bars that you can buy on Amazon.
They cost anywhere from $15 to $50.
You set them up on your road bike, on your trail bike,
on your mountain bike, whatever it is,
and if you can get comfortable in this more narrow position
that's a little bit lower, you're gonna go a lot faster
at the very same effort.
In our book, triathlonbikefoundations.com,
we recommend that this is the very first purchase
that anyone makes.
Because it's so critical
and will make such a huge difference
in your performance on race day.
That's the first tip.
The next tip is what you might find
when you put on those Aero bars is that you feel scrunched,
your hip angle ends up closing up
and that ends up causing a very high likelihood
of you getting cramps on the run.
So what you can do is once you put on those Aero bars
on the front, to open up those hips
and make it a little bit more comfortable,
you can raise your saddle height a little bit.
And some stems or some bike seat posts,
they actually have a way that you can flip them forward
so that the saddle can move forward.
And what you want to do is ideally,
if you can move that saddle forward,
move it up a little bit,
while still making sure that
your pelvis isn't rocking side to side.
You don't want to feel like you're bouncing on the saddle.
And by doing that you're gonna stay nice and stable on here.
You're gonna be nice and stable on there.
Hopefully, you're gonna be comfortable
and not have that super closed up hip angle.
And then you're gonna be able to get onto the bike,
be fresh, and then you're gonna be able to get on the run,
be fresh without having smashed your legs up on the bike.
So this second tip, see if you can get that seat height
just a little bit up and a little bit forward
to compensate for some of the discomfort
that might happen as a result of the Aero bars.
Tip number three,
I highly recommend getting
a pair of clipless pedals and shoes.
Now, the reason for this is that it's a safety factor.
It's a comfort factor.
There isn't really a ton of evidence showing that
having your feet clipped in is that much faster
than just being on top of a flat set of pedals.
But what this is going to do is for people who are really,
really working very hard in an uncomfortable position
that isn't really like locked into a bike,
like you're on a mountain bike,
the chance of a foot slipping off the pedal is higher
if you're on the flat.
So this is going to maybe slightly if anything
make you a little bit faster on the bike.
It's gonna make you feel like you fit in a little bit more.
So that is going to increase your confidence,
probably increase your performance.
It's gonna be a lot safer.
And there is no downside to this
because if you end up getting a pair of pedals
that are clipless, shoes that clip into it,
you can always move that over to the next bike.
It's not like you're investing into a bike
that you're only gonna use temporarily.
So that is tip number three.
The next tip and this is just for aerodynamics,
is to clean up all of the cabling on the front of your bike.
Now on a mountain bike where it doesn't really matter
if you're super aerodynamic up here, you can leave this on,
but if you're in a triathlon, aerodynamics is really key.
So what you want to do is say,
zip tie all these things together.
If you have reflectors on your bike,
essentially you just want to tie up,
you want to take off all of the extra things
that are on there, that don't need to be on there
or don't need to be as big.
So this is reflectors, this is cables,
this is any stickers that might be flapping away.
Take off all the extraneous stuff
and that's going to actually make
a fairly significant difference to your bike performance.
And the last thing, this might not be possible,
this depends on your bike.
This depends on what you have access to.
And in this case,
I certainly don't recommend spending any money on this
because this isn't money that you're gonna get back.
But let's say you have access to a mountain bike
or a city bike or some sort of commuting tourist trail bike.
It has really big tires like this.
That makes a really big difference in your aerodynamic
when you're looking at this versus that.
So if you somehow have access to a set of wheels
that are more road bikes, specific wheels,
that you can swap onto your mountain bike,
that's gonna make a big difference.
Now here are the things to think about.
Is your tire circumference the same?
Is the dropout the same?
Can you easily do that?
Are you able to line up your brakes again?
In most cases, the answer to that is going to be no,
but if some magical way allows you to have tires
that are this wide, instead of this wide,
you're gonna go way faster.
So the answer is yes.
Absolutely, you can do a triathlon on a mountain bike.
Those are some tips that you might be able
to easily implement to end up making that mountain bike
or city bike or trail bike a lot faster in your triathlon.
Now, some of them you're gonna be able to do.
Some of them you're not going to be able to do,
but the thing that I would say is
don't spend more than one, maybe $200 on a mountain bike.
Because if you do continue on in triathlon,
you are very quickly going to want to upgrade
to a road bike or tri-bike.
In Triathlon Bike Foundations,
the book that we have written on Amazon
that has a lot of really good five-star reviews.
We recommend that you get a tri-bike,
only once you know that you're gonna be continuing on
with tri for a number of years.
Until that time, use whatever bike you've gotten.
Use these tips to make it a little bit faster.
The final thing to keep in mind is that
this applies really well for first-time triathletes
and I recommend first-time triathletes,
start with a sprint or an Olympic Distance race.
With Half Ironmans and Ironman.
That's a long time to be out there pushing through
on a heavy, not aerodynamic bikes,
so you end up in countering problems
with making time cutoffs.
But let's say you're a really strong cyclist
and you're doing a Half Ironman and Ironman
and you still know that you are going to be able
to make it within the time cut off.
You can still use a mountain biker or city bike.
It doesn't matter.
It's just gonna be a fair bit harder
to make those time cutoffs.
So that's it trainiacs, use whatever bike you have.
Thank you to Hazard's Cyclesport in Santa Barbara,
for allowing us to use some of your bikes here as props.
You've been supportive over the course of this week
while we've been in Santa Barbara.
So thank you very much,
and if any of you beginner triathletes out there
getting into your first race and want tips on triathlon,
to help you get through those races?
Hit the subscribe button below.
Perfect timing, semi-truck.
Perfect.
Just perfect.
Later trainiacs.