Do you need a time trial bike?

Time trial bikes are expensive toys. From entry level offerings to super bikes, they are a big investment whatever your budget. Those new to triathlon tend to ask whether they need one at all, while experienced triathletes want to know if higher priced - high end brand’s top model versions - are worth it. The answer is yes and no. Yes you need to have a time trial bike to achieve your potential in triathlon and to be able to compete with others of your standard you have one. The better the bike (lighter, more aerodynamic and with excellent wheels – perhaps even a disc wheel), the closer you get having the type of bike those at the front end of the race will be using. No, you don’t need one if you just want to take part in a triathlon. If you want to look like a triathlete on the bike, but don’t want to fork out for one, you can always buy clip on aero bars and attach them to the handlebars of your road bike (racing bike).

My experience illustrates why most triathletes will purchase a time trial bike. Starting triathlon training with a club, I could keep up with the faster triathletes even on my then very basic racing bike. I received a few surprised looks in the early weeks as I pedalled along with flat pedals wearing running gear, but few said anything because these things made little difference to the training group – I held my own, even during faster training spins. While I quickly invested in a cheap pair of cycling shoes and clip in pedals, I continued to use my basic racer and didn’t even consider buying a time trail bike. When I entered my first race, an early season duathlon of 5km run, 20km bike and another 5km run, I expected to be able to hold my own with the better bikers. Hadn’t I been doing it all winter? In my first race, I was in the top five or six runners entering transition. I changed shoes and jumped on my bike. Within a km, lads on time trial bikes started shooting past me at speeds I had not seen during training spins except on downhills. Working hard on the hillier sections of the course, I held on to get onto the second run in around 16^th place and finished 12^th. I lost at least ten places during the bike leg because I wasn’t riding a time trial bike. I wasn’t a weaker biker, my bike just wasn’t competitive.

This trend continued during my first season. The triathlons were the worst. I’d swim until I was in heart attack territory, sprint into transition, get out on the bike and then spend 20km, 40km or 90km watching time trial bikes go flying past. The run would go well and I’d claw my way back into the race. But had I completed the bike leg on a time trial bike, I could have fought to hold my place in the race before starting the run. I came home one day and said to my wife: “enough is enough”. I’d had enough of watching even entry level time trial bikes leave me for dust. I showed her the bike times over my races and photos taken of the top twenty racers in each race – all of whom were on time trial bikes and she quickly agreed I was wasting my time without even riding a basic model. I went online and purchased an entry level time trial bike with ok wheels for e1,500. It arrived and I started training on it immediately. My training speeds went up without any additional effort and I was convinced. It took a while to get my position right and it was uncomfortable, but it was fast.

Within two weeks of its arrival, I raced in an Olympic triathlon. During the entire bike leg only one person went past me and it was because he was a better biker, not because of the gear he was riding and, happily, I went past a number of riders. I finished the bike leg in 6^th place as a result and went into the run with a positive feeling. I finished 4^th. Not a podium finish, but a massive improvement; the speed difference between the road bike and the time trial bike? 32kph on the road bike and 37kph on the time trial bike. You can buy speed. Remember, mine was and still is an entry level bike with no disc wheel.

Some reading this article will think my buying one is justified because I am now competitive with it, while they will finish down the field and cannot justify it. I find this view frustrating because it s another way of saying: “I just want to take part”. Triathlons are races not events. You should race to your ability; not to some time you have decided will be a sufficient achievement. A time trial bike is a critical piece of equipment for helping you to achieve your best in triathlon. It is worth the investment. It makes races feel more like races. You don’t have to watch people of the same ability as you sailing past at higher speeds because they, and not you, have taken the plunge and invested in a time trial bike. If triathlon is your primary sport and you want to keep doing it for years and years, why would you not? You don’t have to buy a e5,000+ super bike, just get what you can afford.