Is there an advantage to having a tri-bike?

[martinkap]

I run/walk on some of my tri's. My legs get too fast spent on the bike portion of the race ... so yes, the tri bike (I am looking into some second-hand cheaper options) would help me to run a bit more. Does it really matter? No, because at the best it will mean that instead of 70% of women finishing ahead of me, maybe 30% of women will finish ahead of me (in my age category). I know I will never win (unless I stay with the sport till I am about 65yo and then I might have a chance being alone in my age group).

So, in the view of my results and my natural athletic ability, spending $1800 on a second-hand (yet almost new) tri bike is not worth it.

But I look at it differently. I am (so far) enjoying racing the tris even though 70%of my age category is faster. I want to keep enjoying it (so maybe finishing in the faster 50% would be helpful . I don't smoke, now when I train, I don't even drink, I don't eat in fancy restaurants (because I have training schedule to adhere) and I don't go to clubs or spent money otherwise. The bike will not make me super fast but it will make me enjoy the sport even more. I will soo look forward those weekend training rides, when I alone (in a very sexy aerodynamic position - and lets face it, everyone in that position IS sexy) cruise on a rural street at 7am. It will make training alone more fun (you CANNOT ride a tri-bike on group rides).

So, yes, tri-bike might be essentially useless to my mediocre performance, but it will so highly improve my 'quality of life' and happiness! So, why not to buy it? When I was young, I spent much more money on much more stupider/useless/bad-for-my-health things.

Go and get your tri-bike!