- Now the biggest key difference, obviously,
between a road bike and a tri bike is the front end.
(whoosh)
On a tri bike, it's about 90 degrees.
(whoosh)
(energetic music)
(whoosh)
Good afternoon, traniacs.
We are currently off to Alter Ego Sports,
your favorite bike shop, my favorite bike shop,
everyone in Winnipeg's favorite bike shop.
Our buddy James there at Alter Ego has some
hot new bikes that he's built up.
He's got some tri bikes, he's got a road bike.
What we're gonna do is, I think I'm gonna
line them up together, side-by-side,
front and back, forwards and backwards, upside down side,
right side up, top face, and we'll show you
all the differences between a road bike and a tri bike.
(energetic music)
Over here we have the current year's
Cervelo S5 with disc breaks.
Then back here, yeah I wanna say it's
the current year's Cervelo P3, the newer model of my bike.
Now spec wise, frame wise, as far as price point wise,
these two bikes are pretty close to the exact same model,
except for triathlon, road.
When a lot of people get into triathlon they're coming from
mountain bike background, or road bike background.
Not a lot of people have a tri bike.
So the thought is how do they get that bike
that they've already got into a triathlon?
Can you do it?
Absolutely.
Slap on a pair of aero bars, you get yourself into
a nice tucked in position, and you can go through
your first several years in triathlon,
with just a road bike, whatever bike you've got.
However, once you get into triathlon, you're committed to it
and you're ready to put down a solid investment,
it's a good idea to get a triathlon-specific bike
because it's so much better set up
for you to be able to run better after the bike.
Let's get into that.
Now the biggest key difference, obviously, between a
road bike and a tri bike is the front end.
On a road bike you're gonna have the breaks,
the shifters, all on the hoods here,
where you can operate them without moving your hands at all.
You might wanna move down to the drops
but even from the drops you can still break and shift.
It's much, much safer for riding in a pack
where you've got people just inches in front of you
and to the side.
You've gotta be able to move,
and handle the bike (snaps)
on a dime.
On a tri bike you only have the shifting controls
when you're down in the aero position.
You've actually gotta move your hands
over to the break to go back and forth.
The reason that's okay on a tri bike is because
the people in front of you are entire bus lengths away.
That also means a tri bike
is not very safe for group riding.
So if you're going out with, say, a bunch of road riders
there's a really good likelihood that they won't even
let you into that pack with a tri bike,
because it's not going to be as nimble
and as agile as that road bike.
What those aero bars are going to allow you to do,
it's going to allow you to tuck
the front of your body in nice and tight.
The front end of a triathlon bike is typically much more
adjustable than the front end of a road bike.
You can go out and in.
You can go up and down.
You can adjust the angle of the handlebars.
On a road bike, when you strap on a set of aero bars
you're not gonna have all of that adjustability
that allows you to dial in the exact position
where you can stay for hours on end.
This is really important because about 80%
of the drag that's caused by your mass moving forward
through the wind, is caused by your body.
So, the more you can stay in the aero position,
the faster you're gonna be.
Tri bikes will often have a split-nose saddle
because you're leaning forward and your
hip angle is a lot different.
Road bike saddles are almost always just dead flat.
You don't really wanna put
a split-nose saddle on a road bike.
The components, the cranks, the chain ring,
the chain itself, the breaks, they're basically the same
from a tri bike to a road bike.
No difference there.
As are the wheels, and the frame material itself.
Where things start to be quite different between a tri bike
and a road bike is in the geometry.
A tri bike is set up for you to be a lot more
further forward and have your legs
a little bit further back, so it opens up your hip angle.
Whereas, a road bike you're set up to be a lot more upright.
So you can see that the seat post and the seat
from the tri bike is a lot more further forward,
over top of the bottom bracket.
Whereas, the road bike it's further back
because you're a lot more upright.
You can also see that the tri bike comes,
basically level with the ground.
Whereas the road bike comes up a little bit,
bringing you further up.
My good buddy James here at Alter Ego uses this
to show the hip angle differences between the bikes.
On a tri bike it's about 90 degrees.
On the road bike it's closer to 80 degrees.
Why on a tri bike you want those hips to be
a fair bit more open, is because that's gonna put
less pressure on your glutes, and your hamstrings,
so you can still be a lot fresher off the bike.
When you start getting really aggressive on an aero bike,
and you start going way low, because you think
you're gonna try to get aero in the tri position.
It's gonna actually burn out your glutes and your hamstrings
a lot more unless you are a pro triathlete,
in which case you're a freak of nature,
you're more flexible, you're stronger,
you can get away with it.
For us mere mortals, we want a nice, wide hip.
Some things that'll also be different
are things like the seat stays.
You can see that on the road bike,
basically a circle about the size of a pinky finger.
You're going for hours and hours on end,
and you want a little bit more forgiveness in the back end
so that you don't get tired sitting on the seat.
In the case of a tri bike, it's more like a knife.
It's wide, it's narrow.
All you're doing is going straight distances,
for a long time, in a straight line,
and you don't need nearly as much forgiveness.
Because you're typically on a little bit more
of a controlled scenario.
Set posts on a tri bike are often
long and thin to keep them aerodynamic,
whereas seat posts on a road bike, wow,
in this case they're long and thin,
but they're often more round-shaped.
Other things that are often on a tri bike more these days,
that don't happen to be on this particular model,
are integrated nutrition areas, down in the space here.
Or they'll have a nutrition box
coming in behind the headset, tucked up out of the wind.
So those are some of the differences
between a road bike and a tri bike.
Can you use a tri bike for road?
Yeah.
Not if you're racing.
Not if you're riding in a group that is riding
really aggressively and you need to be very nimble.
Can you do triathlons on a road bike
by slapping on a set of aero bars?
Yeah.
But also, not if you're going really long.
Not if you're prepared to invest in it.
Not if you wanna be the absolute
fastest that you can possibly be.
That's the reason that they each exist,
because they are very specialized for the type of riding,
road or triathlon, that they're made for.
What I would recommend is if you've got a road bike,
start by slapping on a set of aero bars,
and use that until you are completely sure
that you're prepared to invest a few thousand dollars
into triathlon, and then step up to a road bike.
You can always need more bikes.
Bikes are the best thing.
Now I'm gonna go donate my paycheck to Alter Ego.
(energetic music)
That was fun, I got of kinda cheap.
Just two tubes.
It's nice to be walkin' around, talkin' about bikes,
ridin' bikes, being on bikes, bein' around bikes,
buying bike products, and not having
the world spit in your face.
Since yesterday, leaving the office,
it's been like cycling next to Noah's ark.
This is gonna be a fun ride home.
Check this out.
That's gonna be nice.
You going?
I'm going.
First week biking. - Mom come pick me up.
First week biking, nice.
Yeah, total slop in my face.
This morning's ride with the group,
I was eating Headingley's Road, picking little bits
of dirt out of my teeth after I got home.
To neighbor.
(laughing)
For all you OGs that have been around for ages.
Do you remember A Race Nutrition?
That was how triathlon Taren started.
If you're buying every last bike triathlon part online,
I would highly recommend supporting your local LBS,
at least a little bit.
I don't buy everything from Alter Ego, but I buy a lot
of bike parts, any servicing gets done there.
A few weeks ago, I bought Mel from the office
a commuter bike because I like health,
I like bikes, I like Alter Ego.
I wanted to support all of that, and bikes are awesome.
Bikes are kinda like a car, that when you start
getting into the higher-end bikes, there's a lot of work
that goes into maintaining and adjusting the bikes,
that you can't do yourself because
you don't have the specialized tools to do it.
If you've completely dogged your local bike shop
for years on end, and you haven't given them any business,
I guarantee you there's gonna come a time
that you need help with your bike,
and you're not gonna be able to call in some favors.
Find a local bike shop that you get along well with,
and support them in whatever you can.
Buy parts from them.
Buy nutrition stuff from them.
Get your servicing done from them.
Start a vlog with followers all around the world
and promote said local bike shop in the vlog.
Easy stuff.
I'm gonna open up some old,
expired mail, for A Race Nutrition.
(laughing)
Later, traniacs.