Talk to me about wheels, please
Discussion
see if you can pick up a secondhand set of campag bullets or fulcrum equivalents (effectively the same thing)... not the cheapest options when new but they have an alloy braking surface and the bearings are well ahead of the others so they rolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll like nothing else (which is kinda important really)
Just draft someone, you can do that in Tri can't you? Give you far more gains than any kit.
Lol @ wind tunnel being £200. Its £1000 for 2 hours and a waiting list as long as your arm
Skinsuit will save more watts than most wheels I reckon, skinsuit, decent helmet and fit, decent position on aerobars (get these for sure) will be less than £500 and give much bigger gains than wheels.
So many wheels are tested at stupid yaw angles which you never get in real life. I am seriously skeptical of the gains that aero wheels make having read a bit further into it. Of course I still have numerous sets, but if someone said for a TT you can either wear a vented road helmet, in ill fitting kit and ride Enve wheels, or you can ride with a good aero helmet that fits your shape and a skinsuit but you had to use Fulcrum 5's, I'd pick the latter.
Lol @ wind tunnel being £200. Its £1000 for 2 hours and a waiting list as long as your arm
Skinsuit will save more watts than most wheels I reckon, skinsuit, decent helmet and fit, decent position on aerobars (get these for sure) will be less than £500 and give much bigger gains than wheels.
So many wheels are tested at stupid yaw angles which you never get in real life. I am seriously skeptical of the gains that aero wheels make having read a bit further into it. Of course I still have numerous sets, but if someone said for a TT you can either wear a vented road helmet, in ill fitting kit and ride Enve wheels, or you can ride with a good aero helmet that fits your shape and a skinsuit but you had to use Fulcrum 5's, I'd pick the latter.
okgo said:
Just draft someone, you can do that in Tri can't you? Give you far more gains than any kit.
Not entirely sure if serious, or taking the mickey? No, you can't (not legally) except in a very few short course ITU events (i.e. the professional olympic distance stuff on telly) Everything else is strictly non drafting.
upsidedownmark said:
Not entirely sure if serious, or taking the mickey?
No, you can't (not legally) except in a very few short course ITU events (i.e. the professional olympic distance stuff on telly) Everything else is strictly non drafting.
Dunno, I see them on the TV riding around in huge bunches, so figured you may be able to.No, you can't (not legally) except in a very few short course ITU events (i.e. the professional olympic distance stuff on telly) Everything else is strictly non drafting.
williaa68 said:
first Ironman 70.3 in a couple of weeks
pistonheads said:
aero wheels
skinsuits
powermeters
wind tunnel testing
Why not see if you can find an Italian doctor of dubious provenance to help your wife 'prepare' too? No point doing things by halves. Seriously, all of the above will help in varying degrees, and I do like a bit of new kit now and again , but I'd suggest that unless your wife's got cash to burn she should do the event first, see if she likes it, and only then make a start on acquiring thousands of quids' worth of gear. If she does get the bug then it's likely that before too long she'll be wanting a whole new bike anyway!skinsuits
powermeters
wind tunnel testing
If you're looking around the £500 mark, I'd be going for:
Aero disc covers like these: http://www.wheelbuilder.com/aero-disc-covers.html
Clip on tri-bars
TT helmet
skin suit
and still probably have £100 or so to put away and put toward a new bike/wheels if she decides to stick with triathlons.
Aero disc covers like these: http://www.wheelbuilder.com/aero-disc-covers.html
Clip on tri-bars
TT helmet
skin suit
and still probably have £100 or so to put away and put toward a new bike/wheels if she decides to stick with triathlons.
Roger Irrelevant said:
Why not see if you can find an Italian doctor of dubious provenance to help your wife 'prepare' too? No point doing things by halves. Seriously, all of the above will help in varying degrees, and I do like a bit of new kit now and again , but I'd suggest that unless your wife's got cash to burn she should do the event first, see if she likes it, and only then make a start on acquiring thousands of quids' worth of gear. If she does get the bug then it's likely that before too long she'll be wanting a whole new bike anyway!
But you might as well see if you like it in a cheap skinsuit and helmet with some clip ons, not exactly huge expensive and then if you do, you'll still be able to use the suit and helmet and flog the bars.okgo said:
upsidedownmark said:
Not entirely sure if serious, or taking the mickey?
No, you can't (not legally) except in a very few short course ITU events (i.e. the professional olympic distance stuff on telly) Everything else is strictly non drafting.
Dunno, I see them on the TV riding around in huge bunches, so figured you may be able to.No, you can't (not legally) except in a very few short course ITU events (i.e. the professional olympic distance stuff on telly) Everything else is strictly non drafting.
Sometimes wonder if half the competitors have read that 
Skin suit for tri not a good idea. You want to swim and run in the same gear, so a tri'suit' or separate tri shorts & top (usually a sleeveless affair). All fairly tight fitting with a smaller pad that you can run in. Any gains you make with anything else will be more than offset by the changing process.
Skin suit for tri not a good idea. You want to swim and run in the same gear, so a tri'suit' or separate tri shorts & top (usually a sleeveless affair). All fairly tight fitting with a smaller pad that you can run in. Any gains you make with anything else will be more than offset by the changing process.
You do, but only in a velodrome.
You're right wrt drag - for pure aero a disc front and shallow rear would make more sense than vice versa, however the sheer windage of a disk is less of an issue on the back - in extremis it shoves you around a bit, but you can lean into it etc. You also have plenty of weight on the rear and it can't turn. Stick it on the front and not only does it push you around, but it turns the steering for you. That's a very bad thing
Perhaps counter-intuitively it can be faster to run a shallower wheel up front (say a 404 over an 808), simply because that allows you to stay aero and relaxed. If you have to fight it, or worse come up off the extensions and grab the bullhorns to keep it under control you've lost what the wheel gained you and a bunch more besides.
You're right wrt drag - for pure aero a disc front and shallow rear would make more sense than vice versa, however the sheer windage of a disk is less of an issue on the back - in extremis it shoves you around a bit, but you can lean into it etc. You also have plenty of weight on the rear and it can't turn. Stick it on the front and not only does it push you around, but it turns the steering for you. That's a very bad thing
Perhaps counter-intuitively it can be faster to run a shallower wheel up front (say a 404 over an 808), simply because that allows you to stay aero and relaxed. If you have to fight it, or worse come up off the extensions and grab the bullhorns to keep it under control you've lost what the wheel gained you and a bunch more besides.
Thanks for the advice. So she bought the wheels (vision 42's) and did the 70.3 today. She seems pretty happy with her bike time - about 3.15, particularly given the heat - someone told me at the end their bike computer registered 38 degrees on the second leg of the bike course. Very impressed with the organisation and some of the kit there was amazing - i was talking to a South African bloke this morning who said he bought a bike instead of a Porsche as his mid-life crisis. I had to confess to buying a Porsche but I think it was cheaper! Also interesting that the gender mix between tris and marathons / ultras is so different - 16% of competitors this morning were women, most marathons these days it is closer to 40. Roll on Wales!
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