BIKES FOR NORMAL PEOPLE DOING CITIZEN TRIATHLONS ================================================= By Dave Mann, 11/19/2011 I've received many requests in the past few years from friends who are interested in getting a new bike that will allow them to either train for fitness or, perhaps, to take part in a citizens level triathlon event. This essay is my best advice to them, and to you too, if this situation describes you. THE SHORT VERSION ----------------- Below is my list of recommended bikes. These are *NOT* pure racing bikes and that's why I'm recommending them. In my strongest and most direct opinion, pure race bikes should only be used by people who are racing competitively. They are not well suited for the kinds of riding you are interested in and they will actually make you ride slower, not faster. The bikes I'm recommending are sometimes called sport bikes, endurance bikes or event bikes. They utilize many of the same high performance technologies used in full race bikes, but their designs are optimized for more speed and more comfort on longer rides. Here are my top recommendations: + Raleigh Clubman (<- My top pick of the bunch) + Specialized Roubaix + Specialized TriCross Sport (Don't let the brakes fool you) + Specialized Sectaur + Cannondale Synapse You can absolutely stop reading this essay right here if you want. In what follows, I talk a bit more about why I'm recommending these bikes and not others like race bikes. I should warn you, the vast majority of the bikes you will see in bike shops will be race bikes. Race bikes are cool and they're fun for about an hour for most people. But, they're harsh and punishing and you'll actually go slower on longer distances. You'll have to look a bit harder to find the bikes I've suggested, but you should be able to find them. Definitely test ride at least one of these bikes before you spend money. In what follows, I'll also explain how to save some money and how to avoid wasting money on stuff that doesn't really matter. WHAT MATTERS - THINGS THAT MAKE YOU FAST AND BIKE DESIGN -------------------------------------------------------- People want to ride on fast bikes. Here's what makes them fast and why a full race bike will make you slower and hurt more. TIME TRAILS VS PACK RACING - The major feature of a bike race like the Tour de France is the pack of riders riding in tight formation. Just like in NASCAR, there is a huge amount of aerodynamics and drafting going on that allows them to go much faster than a rider can do riding alone. In contrast, if you ride in a distance event, you won't be riding in that tight of a pack. If you ride in a triathlon you won't be allowed to draft. And of course, when you go on training rides, you will mostly be riding by yourself. The type of racing most closely associated with riding long distances with no drafting is called time trailing. Today, people who are serious about time trailing get modern, specialized time trailing bikes, which are dangerous for riding on the open road. Instead, you can buy a bike whose design is derived from classic time trailing bikes. These bikes are designed to be stable, even when your arms and shoulders are tired, which allows you to put more energy in making the bike go forward and less on keeping it on the road. The bikes I've recommended take several of their design cues from these classic time trailing bikes. You want speed, not acceleration. BODY POSITION AND HANDLEBAR HEIGHT- The lower your handlebars are, the more aerodynamic you are. But, go too low and you inhibit your body's ability to breath well. Most full on race bikes are designed to put the handlebars 2" or more below saddle height. If you aren't a highly conditioned bike racer, your arms, neck and back will give out as they are bearing too much weight. I've been riding regularly for over 30 years and I certainly don't have back muscles strong enough for such bikes. The best discussion of different forms of bike fit is in the essay "The Traditions of Road Riding and Our Three Styles of Fit" at the Competitive Cyclist website. [http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=FIT_CALCULATOR_INTRO] They call their second fit style the Merckx fit after the famous Belgian racer. This puts the bars 1" to 2" below the saddle. According to one article, Lance Armstrong arrived at this more moderate body position after extensive wind tunnel and power testing. The conclusion was that any aerodynamic benefits of the low bar style were undercut by decreases in the ability to breath, and with that, a decrease in power output. At all costs, avoid buying a bike that puts your bars 2" or more below your saddle height. If a sales person tells you will get used to it, leave. The bikes I've suggested will allow you to have your bars in a more moderate bar position, which you'll be able to sustain for a longer period of time. Your body will perform better and you'll be faster. TIRES, SPEED AND ACCELERATION - Acceleration and speed are different things. Races like the Tour de France are won based on acceleration, not speed. The winning moves in those races involve quick accelerations to break the aerodynamic chain of the pack, fast mountain climbs or sprints to the end. Lighter wheels and tires accelerate and climb better. The standard width of a tire on race bike is 23mm. These tires are very light and their primary benefit is good climbing and acceleration. However, all things being equal, wider tires have less rolling resistance. At normal riding speeds, this means that wider tires are faster than skinny ones. The sweet spot for fast open road riding by riders of average weight is in the 28mm to 32mm range. Unfortunately, pure race bikes are designed to accept tires no bigger than 23mm, or at best, 25mm. At all costs, avoid bikes that will not accept a 30mm tire. Ask the dealer if the bike has long reach brakes or short reach brakes. You want long reach brakes. If they are unsure, demand that they mount a 28mm, or better yet, a 32mm tire on the bike before you buy it. The bikes I've recommended *should* accept 28mm tires and may accept 30mm tire. But, most come standard with 25mm tires. My recommendation is to have your dealer exchange them for a set of Panaracer Paselas in the 700x28 size before you leave the store. They are great training tires that are reasonably fast and easily available in 700x32 and 700x28 sizes. Or, if you want the best tire in the range, have them install a pair of the Challenge Parigi-Roubaix "Open Tubular" tires, which are 700x30 in size. These tires will cost you about $60 per tire, but they are the fastest and most comfortable tire I've ever used. Again, if a bike won't accept a 700x28 Pasela or the 700x30 Challenge tire, you shouldn't buy it. WHAT DOESN'T MATTER - THING THAT CAN SAVE YOU MONEY --------------------------------------------------- WEIGHT - The first thing your friends are going to do when they see your new bike is they're going to lift it to see how light it is. Weight is one of those horrible things that are easy to measure and utterly meaningless in terms of performance. It is true that a horribly heavy bike is no fun to ride and it is also true that for pack racing, a pound difference in weight can mean a difference in acceleration or mountain climbing that can win or lose a race. But, for open road riding, weight doesn't make much meaningful difference. There are several bike performance calculators available on the internet. Search for "analytical cycling" and you should find some. It turns out, weight doesn't make a massive difference. My recommendation is to buy a frame material based on beauty and to buy a bike based on value. Don't get hung up on weight. COMPONENT QUALITY - In the 1980s, there were a lot of junk components on the market. By the end middle of the 1990s, pretty much all components were pretty good. Since that time, the component manufacturers have figured out that people are willing to pay for spit and polish, or more accurately for polish and grams. This is bike bling. Using Shimano as an example, they have 5 levels of components (from lowest to highest): Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra and Dura Ace. As you move up each level, the finish of the part will be more sparkly and the weight will drop by a few grams. Grams. The dirty little secret of the bike business is that they all give really good performance, even the lowly Sora line. They all shift just fine, the bearings are just as good and they all stop well. Most bike manufacturers will offer the same basic frame with different levels of components hung on them. My advice is to buy the best frame you can afford and don't worry about the quality of the components. On the other hand, if you don't like negative peer pressure, consider spending money on bling. You're going to encounter some well meaning friend and they'll ask you what kind of components you got on your bike. If you say, "Tiagra", they might say, "Oh, you didn't get Ultegra?". The pity and judgment will be impossible to hide. There is no snobbery like bike snobbery. FRAME MATERIAL - Your choices are steel, aluminum, and carbon. Most people will be happiest on carbon because that's the hot material right now. Some pros still race aluminum and in my opinion, if you are worried about weight (and you shouldn't be), aluminum is a great deal. I prefer steel. I have more to say on the subject here: http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/dirtbag-bikes/bike-fashion.html But, I'll tell you directly that I don't like carbon fiber bikes. This past year, I asked an acquaintance how he liked his carbon bike. "I love it. I'm on my fourth one now and really like it." "Fourth one?" "Yeah, the first 3 all broke right behind the bottom bracket but the manufacturer has been really great to deal with and they've replaced each one, no questions asked." I'm not making this up. This guy said this and meant it. He loved his carbon fiber bikes. This guy was a dedicated bike racer who would settle for nothing less than the best. He had a full shop in his garage and several bikes all of which got pampered more than his dog. But, even with all of the love and attention he lavished on his bike, he had no expectation of the bike lasting more than a season or two before it breaks again. The kicker of this story is that he told me this while I was riding a 30 year old steel bike that gets ridden regularly and shows no sign of dying or breaking anytime soon. Carbon fiber breaks and breaks unexpectedly even when owned by trained mechanics like my acquaintance. I won't recommend a bike made with carbon fiber to a friend. Steel frame and forks weigh just a few ounces (we're talking ounces here) more, ride wonderfully and last forever. A SHORT HISTORY OF BIKE RACING AND TIME TRIALING BIKES ------------------------------------------------------ Many of the things I've suggested are going to be disputed by friends and bike shop sales guys who've spent their whole riding lives on traditional race bikes. In truth, most of them have never spent much time on bikes like I've suggested and their perspectives are shaped by a form of racing that you are NOT doing. A quick bit of history might help. Bike racing as we know it started to take hold in the 1920 and 30s. Two major forms road racing emerged. In Italy and France, so-called mass start races such as the Tour de France were popular. The key point is that groups of riders raced together at the same time on the road in a giant pack. In England, this form of racing was illegal as the rich elite didn't want their horses and cars disrupted by the rowdy packs of riders. So, the time trial was the most popular form of British racing. As theses forms of racing matured and evolved, the bikes that were favored for each type also evolved. By the 50s or 60s there were 2 very different types of bikes that could be seen. The British time trialing or club racer bike was long and lanky. The long wheelbase and relaxed geometry made a bike that rode easily in a more or less straight line. When pushing yourself to go as fast as you can for a long distance, not fighting to keep your bike going straight is an advantage. The other form of racing bike is sometimes called the Italian road racer or the continental road racer. It had a much shorter wheelbase and a steeper geometry, which made the bike better at the knife fight of pack racing. We should be careful not to overstate this though. One of the winningest bike models in the history of the Tour de France was the Gitane Tour de France model and it's frame design was essentially the same as a British style club racer. Never-the-less, eventually mass start bike races became legal in Britain and by the mid 70s, the Italian road racer was considered to be *the* racing bike. Today's racing bikes are direct descendants of that design. They're a great choice for doing what they're designed to do, which is to win in a pack race. Of course, if you're interested in time trialing in a triathlon, then you'll do better on a bike designed to go straight and fast. The British style club racer design took some interesting twists and turns between 1970 and the present day, which is why it takes some work to find bikes built in this mold. In the 1970s, this template was the preferred template for bikes imported into the US from Britain, France and Japan during the "bike boom" years. As they were marketed in the US, they were often called "sport touring" bikes and the quality levels ranged from lousy to amazing. You may have heard of two of the US based bike companies that got their start by making sport touring bikes in the late 70s and early 80s. The first bikes made by Trek and Cannondale were of this kind and they were sold to people interested in "bike hiking" long distances on the open road. Things changed in the US in the 1980s when cycling interests turned more toward racing. Road racing gained in popularity and with it, the Italian style road racer started to dominate sales. The other form of racing that took hold in the 80s was the triathlon and for a short period of time, there were early triathlon bikes that retained some of the handling characteristics of the classic British style time trailing design. The issue then, as it is now, that triathletes just coming out of the swim leg would have tired shoulders and would need a bike that would go straight with little rider input. But, the appearance of aero bars in the late 80s was the beginning of the end for this design. Bolt on aero bars soon gave way to dedicated aero bars and the modern TT bike emerged through the 90s. The long, lanky design of the British time trialing bike didn't entirely disappear. First, this basic design was used in France to make randonneuring bikes which are made for fast solo rides. "Rando" bikes have traditionally been produced by custom builders both in France, Britain and the US and if you find a modern day custom bike builder who build rando bikes, it's a safe bet that the basic geometry template will be very close to the classic British club racer. Second, some (not all) loaded touring bikes used this basic template. And third, it was reborn as a performance oriented bike for century rides and even for pro racers on rough roads. In particular, the Specialized Roubaix made a more relaxed geometry legitimate again. The bikes I've suggested above are some of the currently made production bikes that still use come close to this template. copyright Dave Mann, 2010, 2011