Decisions, decisions

[Crankin]

I have a Kuota road bike; not a tri bike. I love it! Compared to my Trek 5200, it rides like a dream. I always get asked if I do tris because of this bike, because not many shops in the US sell their regular road bikes. You should check them out.

[Wahine]

Thanks Ladies,

Keep 'em coming. I'm checking it out as I can.

anakiwa - I had a fitting done on the Jolly Green Giant by Eric Moen a PT that specializes in this sort of thing. He got me set up really nicely on Jolly so I'll likely try to duplicate the geometry. I may go for a "cheaper" full on tri bike for racing, nurse Jolly along and buy a really nice road bike a little later. Jolly won't convert to a "hill" bike very well, I don't think. She's a little heavy.

As for material, I haven't decided. That's part of the reason for the post. It's been a long time since I've been in market and things have changed a lot. I haven't kept up with all the changes. Jolly is an aluminum alloy (Specialized M4 material) with a carbon fork.

[kerrybelle]

I have a Kuota road bike; not a tri bike. I love it! Compared to my Trek 5200, it rides like a dream. I always get asked if I do tris because of this bike, because not many shops in the US sell their regular road bikes. You should check them out.

I have a Kuota Kharma and love it! Like, Robyn, mine is not tri specific. They have some great tri bikes.

Kerry

[knapplaura]

Wahine,

I bought a Guru Carbonia Tri last year and love it. They will do custom geometry if you want for same price as a factory frame. Mine was about $4K with all Ultegra components. It fits great and is so much lighter than my aluminum frame road bike.

I am really happy with Guru and suggest you check them too. Good tri geometry; i got 650 wheels and those have been a good fit.

best luck searching,
Laura

[Pika]

How is the quest going for a new bike?
When I had my bike fit the fellow gave me this article- thought you may find it interesting- it is long but a good read- unfortunately for me- it was a little late as I had already bought my bike and so we spent time "retro fitting" rather than finding a bike that fit my geometry - we tried to fit the me to the bike by making a few changes.
ah well next time- I will do it the other way around

oops could seem to get the attachment thingy to work- I emailed it to you instead

[Wahine]

Got the e-mail thanks. I haven't had a chance to read it.

I took a bike fit course from this guy:

http://www.bikept.com/

I may e-mail him for advice as well. His course is totally worth it BTW, if you're interested.

[anakiwa]

I may go for a "cheaper" full on tri bike for racing, nurse Jolly along and buy a really nice road bike a little later.

That makes sense. I currently have a road bike and a tri bike. If I had it to do over again I might have started with the dream road bike- put clip on aerobars on it- and saved the money from the second bike for something else. (While I've found I really like the aero position for racing- I much prefer training on a road bike- so while I love the tri-bike, I'm not sure that it gets enough mileage to justify its existence.) But then again- I only do a few races each summer.

As far as materials go- that's where it makes sense to do some test-riding- and I think you have to do a long ride. Personally, I'm not as big a fan of carbon- it feels great at first, but after a while I find it too dampened. (I've never ridden aluminum on the road- most of my riding has been on either steel or carbon.)