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The first thing she needs to know is that among road racing bikes there are two basic categories, pure road bikes and triathlon/time trial bikes. Road bikes have handlebars with S-shaped bends on the ends—the classic drop bar. Attached to the top of the bar on the outside edge where the S-curve begins are the brake/shifter levers. The rider can place her hands on the bars in many different configurations. She can also attach a set of clip-on Aerobars which allow her to lean over onto her elbows with her forearms parallel to each other. By leaning over and bringing her arms into the middle of the bike instead of having them out on the brake/shifter levers, she reduces her aerodynamic profile.

For our purposes, the terms “time trial” bike and “triathlon” bike are interchangeable (the bike leg in almost every triathlon in which amateurs can compete is a time trial). Instead of Drop Bars, a tri bike has what’s called a base or a bullhorn bar, so named because of its shape. The aerobars can be the clip-on type that are attached separately to the base bar, or the base bar and aerobars can be one contiguous unit. The brake and shifter levers are not co-located like they are on a road bike. The brake levers are found at the end of the “horns” of the base bar. The shifters are found at the ends of the aerobars, hence the name “bar-end shifters.”

Besides the layout of the handlebars and the location of the shift levers there are several other differences between the two types of bikes. For instance, tri bikes will often have “aerodynamically” shaped tubes instead of round ones and most of them will have a steeper seat tube angle than that found on a road bike. This means that the saddle is farther forward toward a vertical line from the cranks. However, these are not universal truths and will vary greatly between different bike manufacturers, and for our purposes, they aren’t as important in the decision-making process as the handlebar issue.

The first thing to consider when purchasing a bike is what you are going to use it for. A road bike with drop bars and integrated shifter/brake levers like Shimano’s STI system can be used for any road application—road racing, group riding, hill climbing, criterium racing, triathlon and all points in between. The road bike’s handlebar configuration allows the rider to have her hands out on the edges of the bars which makes her more stable and gives her more control, especially in the rapidly changing conditions found in a large pack of riders. Also, she never has to take her hands off the bars because she can operate the brakes and the shifters from the same hand position.

A tri bike, on the other hand, requires the rider to take her hands off the bars in order to move from the brake levers to the shift levers and vice versa. This, added to the fact that a cyclist has somewhat less control over the bike when she’s on the aerobars causes most mass-start draft-legal cycling races to ban their use. For that matter, don’t expect a warm reception when you show up with your tri bike to the Saturday morning ride with a group of hard-Core roadies. Tri bikes just aren’t made to be ridden in close proximity to other cyclists. In fact, the whole reason for being in the aero position is to make up for not being allowed to ride closely behind another rider in his draft.

Therefore, if you only have enough money to buy one bike and you’re not sure that you’re going to do triathlons forever or you think that you might want to do some mass-start cycling races someday, buy a road bike. Road bikes are much more flexible in their potential uses. If you don’t care to get involved in any straight-up roadie stuff and your main concern is to maximize your speed in time trials and triathlons, then by all means buy a tri bike. When you’re not allowed to draft another rider, minimizing your frontal area by leaning over onto your elbows and tucking your arms in is the fastest configuration.

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MultiSport Coordinator
written by Lisa, January 04, 2008

Great Straight talk. No mumbo jumbo!
Thanks for making it easy for the average person to think about.

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