I also dramatically changed my position on the bike and have been tweaking that for a couple months now. It’s kind of a painful and drawn-out process, but I’ve definitively seen the aero gains. I did a full gas ~22mile TT that had ~1000ft elevation gain (all rolling hills) on 285w at 25.6mph, which I’m really happy with. I was in normal kit and helmet for that, so I expect I could get another ~25-30s or more out of that effort with skinsuit and aero helmet. The first half was somewhat exposed with a headwind, and the second half where I’d have a tailwind was largely sheltered by trees, so I think the CdA is getting pretty good. You can see that here if you have any interest: https://www.strava.com/activities/3610470087
If I go fast enough (whenever/wherever racing on it actually happens), I’ll get the paint re-done by a professional. It was a fun experiment and it matches my helmet now, but it could be better. Logos were too hard to paint, so I just painted over them.
My first attempt on a TT bike, borrowed from a mate, few positional adjustments to suit me and keep it in the UCI limits. Roughly 1kph faster than my road bike with clipons at the local crit circuit - Quick video (feel free to tell me how to have a better position! I tried a little lower at the front this morning, but power suffered, and struggled to hold position for long)
Did a local monthly “friendly” TT on Sunday. Managed to do 285w for 49 mins, 32km @ 38.9kph. Pretty much bang on my FTP so happy with that power, just need to get a bit more aero and crack the 40 mark
Should add it was 0 degrees C, so air density wasnt the best for TTing
What’s almost as good as a new bike day? Right, new wheels day! Failed to procure the correct valve extenders to go tubeless and had to sand down the brakepads to make the wide rims fit
This is my El Arma with FFWD 60s I was testing position ahead of the State TT next weekend! The base bar needs to be flat. left bar needs to be pushed out another 10mm. and Seat goes up by 5mm. race day Ill have a front 808 and a Zipp 900 disc in with new Vittora rubber
Position first is definitely spot on. You ideally want to work with a fitter to get an idea of what a good TT position looks like for you now and an idea of what direction you’re likely to take that position as you adapt to the TT position and work on any strength/flexibility limiters. Then buy a frame/bar combo that has enough adjustability to comfortably accommodate both your current and likely future position.
Testing shows that most of the aero benefits in wheels come simply from depth. And weight isn’t so much of a factor in TTing as you’re not climbing a lot. So don’t need to spend a lot of money on fancy wheels, anything that is deep and true is going to be fast.
I actually think Di2 is pretty nice on a TT bike for 2 reasons. One is that it makes it much easier to set up a very clean front end with little or no cables in the wind which is good for aero. And second is that it makes it much easier to make changes to your position without having to mess around with cabling. Second is probably more important if you’re new to TTing as you’re likely to move your bars around quite a lot trying to find a position that is powerful, comfortable and aero. Way more than you ever do on a road bike. E.g. I built up a new TT bike last year, thought I already had my position reasonably well dialled in, but ended up needing to remove and cut my new aero extensions twice. With Di2 that’s easy - just unplug the shifters, pull the extensions out, cut them, reinstall and plug back in. With mechanical it would have meant having to disconnect the cables from the derailleurs, pull them the whole way out of the bike, and then go through all the faff of routing them internally through the bike again. And maybe having to replace them if the ends had frayed at all. Or else trying to cut the extension around it’s circumference without sawing into the cable. Which I guess is possible.
I don’t think disc brakes are particularly necessary on a TT bike. You do need the ability to stop obviously as the bike gets used for training as well as racing, but TT courses aren’t typically ones where better braking is going to offer a performance improvement, and personally I don’t train on the TT bike on wet days or on the kind of roads where I’d prefer disc brakes. All that said, seems that all bikes are going toward disc brakes so for future resale it might make sense to have them if you were buying new. And/or if you have a disc brake road bike and want the ability to swap race wheels between them.
There are some great secondhand deals on TT bikes and frames. Probably more so than road bikes as they’ve typically done lower mileage and less likely to have been crashed. If it’s your first TT bike and you’re not sure how much you’re likely to use it then definitely an option worth looking at. Pretty much any TT frame is going to be fast enough to be competitive if it’s a good fit, has deep wheels and a reasonably clean front end.
So I got a Cervelo P2 obviously with rim and mechanical shifting. I’ve got a R5 that is also rim and mechanical that I love. I’d tried Di2 on a few bikes before my R5 and really wasn’t sold that it was worth the extra money to me. I assumed translating these decisions to a TT bike would carry, but I entirely regret not waiting for a disc model (knew something would be coming when I got my P2) and not getting electronic. So first TT mechanical shifters just suck compared to road shifters, plus having shifters on both the extensions on the pursuit bar with electronic would be so much better. Second, the leverage from TT brake levers just isn’t nearly as good as my road bike (DA levers and ultegra brakes on both bikes) and this is especially true with wet or sweatly gloveless hands during a triathlon. Disc brakes are just so much easier to get leverage on. I live somewhere with lots of rolling hills as well as somewhat twisty roads so I shift and brake a decent amount, if you lived and raced somewhere only flat and straight you might feel different. Lastly if you buy a rim brake bike you’re locking yourself into the wheels produced today vs., Zipp make clear when they introduced their new 303 line they are entirely focused on disc wheels for new tech.
Electronic shifting is justified on the TT bike, at least more so than on the roadbike. Having shifters on extensions and in pursuit does make a real difference - being able to shift when climbing or braking.
Disc brakes? I come from an MTB background and have a very strong bias towards discs, especially on TT bikes. The integrated efforts, aero brakes and carbon wheel coupled with higher average speed make it a no brainer.
2nd hand? If you have a very clear idea of your desired position then why not. TT bikes are probably among the most underutilized tools out there, many tri bikes are almost race-only or have been part of a once in a lifetime Ironman program. There are some very good deals out there, if you know what to look for to avoid buying a crash test dummy or an abused dog.
These are exactly the points I want to make sure off! Brilliant, I think its always easy to read some reviews and think a certain way but then later down the line wish you had either spent a little more or done more research.
Di2 seems worth the investment, I’m someone who changes my position and likes to work on flexibility/strength to do so. Did not realise changing this on a TT bike would be a lot harder with mechanical.
Disc brakes seem worth it for the aforementioned points, but my trainer is also set up for a disc bike and it would be nice to be able to swap wheels.
Only problem with disc is that options are still relatively limited and a lot of them are at the top end of the market price wise. Cervelo P-Series, Argon and Quintana Roo are a good place to start for more sensibly priced options. Some big brands like Canyon and Trek haven’t even launched a disc version of a TT bike yet.
