triathlete follies

[Damiano Machiavelli]

A triathlete explains the move to longer head tubes. Evidently it is for better aerodynamics instead of for posers whose bellies and weak cores prevent them from finding a comfortable position on a race bike. I would love to hear the explanation for compact bars.

taking a cursory look at the new S5, the one thing that sticks out to me is the one thing that sticks up on it: the head tube. thanks. for some reason, a whole generation of bike builders had decided the front end of road bikes needed to be lower than they are.

trek, happily, bucked this trend with hits madone 5-series and below. but these are sort of comfort/performance bikes, rather than high-end performance bikes. it's analogous to cervelo's S3 having a head tube, in my size, of 180mm - too low - but 200mm in some of the R-series bikes. i had made my mind up to get an R3, because i need the head tube. now i have to rethink that.

cervelo seems to have realized - i didn't talk to them about it, i'm just taking a guess here - that if you want a bike to be aerodynamic, you need those frame aerodynamics to extend up as high as possible - displacing the bad aerodynamics of round steerers, spacers, and tall top caps, and almost equally bad stems that angle upwards. that means taller head tubes.

it seems to me specialized, likewise, with its tarmac, acknowledges the need for taller head tubes - which its venge does not have.

i don't think it's a case of sportier riders needing shorter head tubes and old broken down never-wases like me needing taller head tubes. in solvang, in the afternoon, after this year's AToC TT, i strolled by the team rigs watching the wrenches setting up the next day's bikes for the queen stage. many or most of those bikes needed an extra 15mm or 20mm of head tube. these bikes were just designed too low in front - even for their pros.

the europeans, if anything, seem to be ahead of the americans. maybe it's my imagination, but i think a lot of italian bikes are made with head tubes 10mm or 20mm taller than is often the case in american bikes.

i hope this trend continues, and we see more performance bikes built with taller head tubes.

 

[TourLeTour]

I admit to doing the odd tri now and then. But it is because of the guys cited here that I see it as something that has to be admitted to...

 

[Hawkwood]

A triathlete explains the move to longer head tubes. Evidently it is for better aerodynamics instead of for posers whose bellies and weak cores prevent them from finding a comfortable position on a race bike. I would love to hear the explanation for compact bars.

Actually this is a pet concern of mine. I'm 1.86m with a 93cm inseam. I ride a Specialized Secteur, size 61 cm with a 24.5 cm headtube. The latter is considered to be very high in today's terms, however leaving all of the spacers in place my saddle to bar drop is 7 cm, and if I removed the spacers it would be 10 cm. Going for a more aggressive stem angle would increase the drop to 12cm. I've tried other frames with more typical head-tube lengths and can't get the set up right. When I've checked my current bike against a Bianchi and a Merckx that I raced on in the 1990s and their head-tube plus headset heights are in the region of 23-24 cms. A recent magazine article suggests that 10 cm of drop should be the maximum for most riders, but this would be impossible for me to achieve on most modern frames.

 

[cattlethief]

Ive started doing triathlons this year after many years roadracing,and being pretty poor out of the water,i usually end up behind a lot of slow cyclists,but even i woudnt be daft enough to to not look were im going.

 

[md2020]

One of my team mates back in the '80s actually rode right through the barricade at the turn-around of an out-and-back TT. This guy was no slouch either. He placed top 10 on road and TT in the Men's division numerous times.

 

[AngusW]

Thanks to the OP for posting this. It explains why my TTing sucks - I've ruined my aerodynamics by having my head raised looking at the road ahead.

It is stories like this that makes me embarrassed to admit that I've done triathlons. My bike handling skills are not great but at least I can work out that if I don't look where I'm going no amount of road signs are going to stop me crashing.

 

[Sidbike]

Reminds me of the guy who tried to sell me a tri bike by explaining the funny handlebars are so you could rest your arms after the swim.

Man did he have it wrong. Everyone knows those bars are so you can support yourself when you bend down to drink from that funny bottle with the huge straw!

 

[Damiano Machiavelli]

Triathletes and group rides do not mix. From Slowtwitch:

There was a crash yesterday in our group ride century at about 65 miles. Strong gusty head wind, 5'-0" wide paved shoulder, and lots of traffic on Labor Day. It was a nasty ten mile stretch that we just wanted to finish so it was a single file and draft off the guy in front. The wind was too loud so no verbal warnings just the front guy hand signals passed down the line. We were maintaining 18-19 mph into the head wind. It was just a big grapefruit sized chunk of asphalt. Maybe the signals didn't get passed down. Maybe it came just too fast and there was no time to react. Two riders signal and pass it fine. Third rider is in his aero bars, so, no signal. Fourth rider in aero bars hits the rock and loses it. 5th guy clips 4th riders wheel and 4th rider hits the pavement(sore and scapped up). 5th rider avoids the deck. 6th rider can't react soon enough and goes over the top of 4th rider, breaks a humorous bone, shreds their upper lip and knocks out two teeth. 7th rider avoids contact, may have been in aero bars. Three of the seven riders had aero bars (either clip-ons or full TT set up).

All riders have +/- 3,000 miles this summer, so I feel there is plenty of experience for all riders. Factors causing the accident. Wind, Traffic, Stress of traffic, poor hand signaling, fatique, and being in the aero bars

 

[jeanne65]

When you are out there with them, all the usual assumptions about riding behaviour, things you wouldn't think twice about in a typical group training ride or race, go out the window.







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[liftman]

You can't just bad mouth triathletes, I trail run quite a bit and I used to run a trail system that had regular mountain bike races. After every race I would see tons of litter on the trail. Gel packs, spent tubes, energy bar wrappers, you name it. It's a race, throw your trash at an aid station and it will be taken care of. Throw it 2 miles later and you're a pig.