Today, I trotted out my older Trek road bike, which I used regularly up until last spring when I bought a new Trek all-aluminum mountain bike. My old bike is very tall, and was rather expensive when I bought it (in 1987). Cripes, it's 20 years old. That's older than some of the competition. Anyway, I was comparing the geometry, crank length, cassette teeth, and general feel. I found that the road bike definitely has a more efficient feel to it. The crank housing is dropped down, whereas the mountain bike's is pretty much level with the rear axle. This allows me to lower the seat on the road bike while achieving the same leg angle, meaning I have a lower CG on the road bike, which is good. The handlebars are also lower, putting me into more of a natural aero position. This could be painful over the long haul, but I guess no triathlon I do is going to take that long. I rode 186 miles in 3 days last Spring, on dirt, so anything else should be a piece of cake. That hurt, but that's another story.
Now, to get either bike ready for a race, I am going to need new tires, which if they are any good, cost at least 25 bucks each. I guess I would need these eventually anyway, so I'll have to live with it. The guy at the bike store was not convinced that I needed to get the clipless pedals and shoes. Of course, if you want to be the most efficient and use your other muscle groups, those are great, but then you have to change shoes in the transition. He suggested getting toe clips and just using my running shoes. Then the bike to run transition is almost instant. I am thinking at the moment that because I am not "serious" about winning, and that I am a grad student making poverty wages (literally) that I am just gonna stick with the BMX pedals I have and rely on my quads (or as one article from Matt's recent web site says, my "best workers.")
I don't know how to do a very scientific study of which bike works better. They both have some advantages. I'm also thinking that one of the biggest weight issues on the mountain bike is the tires, so if I put little road tires on there, it might weigh close to the same as the road bike. The suspension fork is way too beefy, but I can't swap that. Parts are so dang expensive. I looked at seats at the bike store today and they were between 30 and 100 bucks.
I guess I'll just ride them both back and forth to school and see what feels better, and throw in an occasional sprint workout to make sure they each work under load. The good news is I don't think anyone would steal the old one.
3 comments:
I did the same thought process last year. I had the option to use the new functioning TREK mountain bike or fix the (oh! my god 20 year old) Schwinn Worldsport Road Bike. Road bike was not in awful shape. A little oil, some new tires, gear and brake adjustments and it worked. I went with the toe clips and my running shoes. My transition was almost instantaneous. I was a top 20 contender on my bike to run transition. Problem was my swim to bike I was ordinary, slowest thing I did all day in comparison.
I think it is a good idea to use what you got with out killing the bank.
Now I have gone out and got Nashbar’s triathlon shoes and clip less peddles, just this week. Package deal, cheaper than buying individually. I hope this increases my bike time. The transfer of power is supposed to better with the stiff shoes.
New transition theory comes into play. Running shoes on bike, you take time in first transition to get socks and shoes on, since they stay on the rest of the time.
With biking shoes, I believe I am going to bike without socks and ultimately, someday run without socks. This year I believe I will only not wear socks during bike, and use transition #2 to put on socks and running shoes. Of course, my running shoes now have lockable laces; they work like slip on loafers, perfect fit every time.
Tires - check out Performance or Nashbar. I got 27" X 1 1/8 (old, odd size tire) for $10 a tire on clearance last year. I know the new ones are sized like 27 X 23 C or 700 X 23 C. Therefore, I guess I was lucky the bike was so old.
Also or once again, not to offend you, you are not a little person. I was told not to go less than 1" wide tire for my weight; I assume you may take the same advice. You know some bikes have 700 X 18 millimeters (less than ¾”) as there designation. WOW!
In addition, does your Mountain bike have knobby or slicks. My option for not putting the road bike back together was to get less wide tires (not wheels) and go with the best hybrid slick tire available for a mountain bike. I looked on Nashbar and they have Panaracer CTX Road Tire for $9.95, 700 X 37c (about 1 ½“ wide), 550 g. You are right, the road tires weight about 300g compared to that 550g on the bigger tire above.
Just some things to think about. It is fun.
I have toyed with getting a frame from Nashbar and building my own bike over next winter, use what I can off the Schwinn, but definitely new wheels and aeorbars. Shhh! Don’t tell Tamara.
OLD! I bought my Trek hybrid in 1990 with my tax return. I'm still riding it. A buddy at work gave me a really old Raleigh road bike, don't know the year. I need to get new tires, tubes, cables and lube before I ride that one.
Also, spend the $30 on a new seat. I got one from Trek that has the groove to provide comfort to the "area" and it's great!
Craig, I have huge knobbies on my mountain bike now, so anything would be an improvement. My rims are not that wide, so I could probably go with a 32 mm wide tire on the back and possibly a 28 mm on the front, which would be significantly smaller and lighter than the massive black rubber knobbies I have on there now. The stores also have "foldable" tires, which have no metal in the bead, but have kevlar threads instead, reducing the weight even further. Those are like 5 bucks extra or so, nothing major, until you add up the two tires, the helmet, the new pedals and shoes, new brake lever I should get, aero bars, seat, and tri shorts...
I think the road bike is looking like my weapon of choice today. If I can move the seat post and either get a new seat or transfer my MB seat to the road bike, I'll be good. I tried to loosen the seatpost bolt today and I bent my allen wrench. That baby hasn't been moved in 10 years, I bet.
Technically, I could race this thing as is, so I'll just get what I can over time and hopefully be in good shape when the time comes.
Post a Comment