road bike v. TT bike

[CAB]

Numpty/lazy question.....

What distinguishes these two types of bikes over and above the bull horn handlebars......

Thanks in advance CAB

[snotrag]

Road bikes can be enjoyable to ride - modern bikes have compact geometry, and nods to comfort, and a wide range of gears. They are light and stiff but with a degree of compliance.

TT bikes are pure torture. Everything is aerodynamically designed, they are stiff as feck, and every pedal stroke drives your forward like you have a rocket up your ass.

[gorisan26]

The tt bikes tend to have set up and geo to suite the "tucked on the aero bars" position so anything but that feels awkward, also the shifters tend to be on the end of the tri bars and compared to most modern road bikes they have seriously high gears!

So unless you are ripping down your local tt course distracted by your average speed and leg burn a normal road bike feels a whole bunch more enjoyable!

Giant do a nice range of each, they do sport style road bikes, race style road bikes and tt bikes, they get more extreme as they go.

But.....get a tt bike on a smooth flat road on a still evening and it feels like nothing would catch you!

[pawsmcgraw]

foremost above all else is the geometry to allow the rider to adopt an areo position without significant change of cranking angle.(hence seat angle)On top of that the frame shape is optimised for lack of drag, which is a trade off between frontal area and clean air against turbulance.
Having been in a wind tunnel watching its amazing how much drag a bike has, about 17% of the whole package of rider and bike.
An areo helmet is worth more than a tt bike over a modern road bike in drag.
Due to areodynamic requirements, the tt frames are flimsy as the tubes are so narrow,but this is more than matched in watts by efficiency through the air.
yes i'm a sad tt'er searching for the ultimate ride

Edited by pawsmcgraw on Tuesday 17th June 23:59

[Nick_F]

It's all a question of degree...but you might find this informative - it takes a bit of wading through but is well-written.

You need to be riding pretty hard to reap the benefits of a Tri/TT bike.

[jacobyte]

As TTs and Tris are relatively short cycle distances, the speeds are higher than normal road races, so the aero benefit is significant. Slower riders gain more overall benefit when adopting an aero position, as it gives a percentage improvement in your overall time.

I have a Cervelo Soloist Team, which has an aero frame but also has a special party trick: In "normal" mode it has excellent geometry for a road bike, and then with a clever switch of its seatpost, hey presto it has TT/Tri bike geometry. An excellent piece of kit of you only want to have 1 bike.

[mat205125]

snotrag said:

Road bikes can be enjoyable to ride - modern bikes have compact geometry, and nods to comfort, and a wide range of gears. They are light and stiff but with a degree of compliance.

TT bikes are pure torture. Everything is aerodynamically designed, they are stiff as feck, and every pedal stroke drives your forward like you have a rocket up your ass.

The relative mileage that a TT bike is designed to be riden is low. They are effectively designed to go as fast as possible flat out, and rider comfort is 2nd to aero efficiency.

TT bikes do look really cool with all their curvy carbon though

[pawsmcgraw]

A TT bike is also what is used for Triathlon, and i'd say is more useful an edge in a 180km ironman than on a 10km tt as your on it for longer?
It takes 278watts to drive my tt bike 38km/ph and 327 watts to drive my road bike the same speed.Half of that difference is the wheels, the rest is the drag of the bike.
The only place i've found the tt bike slower is when the road goes uphill, simply because of the inability to adopt a climbing position on the bike out of the saddle.

As an interesting point, how many new road bikes are we going to see becoming hybrid tt/road bikes sanctioned by the uci to race in road events....such as this?This is the future i feel, areo is king!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/tech/2008/...

[Nick_F]

More and more, I'd say - it just becomes a question of what geometry the UCI will allow, bearing in mind the unsuitability of TT bars for road racing and the limited benefits of 'forward' frame shapes without TT bars.

[gorisan26]

There's nothing to stop them from making everything as aero a possible but retaining a normal race bikes geometry, That felt looks awesome!!!!

[mat205125]

gorisan26 said:

There's nothing to stop them from making everything as aero a possible but retaining a normal race bikes geometry, That felt looks awesome!!!!

.... my applogies .... Just had to pop to the loo .... has anything happened since I looked at the felt pictures?

[pawsmcgraw]

Heres a good example of a current tt bike, needs no introduction and your above average cocaine user can go real fast on it




I thought this view from behind looked cool....and thin, unlike me

[gorisan26]

tt bikes always look awkward and a bit messy till you see 'em from the front or back, it all looks a bit more obvious then!

[Nick_F]

Internal cable routing really tidies things up, doesn't it, especially along with Spesh's funky rear brake.

[CAB]

Thanks guys - based on comfort i will be looking at a road bike. Not enough smooth roads in london to justify the TT although the looks alone are enough to tempt

Now just have to choose what my bike2 work voucher will get me.... ;-)

Edited by CAB on Sunday 22 June 10:21

[gorisan26]

giant's are awesome value for money!

[Nick_F]

In the £500 - £800 range I'd agree; Giant SCR frame is very nice to ride and I used my OCR (previous iteration) as a long-distance commuter.

If you've got a grand then go to Planet-X...

[fergus]

Nick_F said:

If you've got a grand then go to Planet-X...

but specify no seat, as their's are not great...

[mrandy]

A TT bike should not be uncomfortable if it is made to measure or chosen properly ,the seat and head angles are usually steeper to put you further over the centreline of the bottom bracket and lower to reduce drag.They are predominantly made to go in a straight line and cut drag.For general use a road bike can accomplish both disciplines for mere mortals

[CAB]

A mate is suggesting we sign up for this http://www.rapha.cc/index.php?page=490 as a justification for a nice new bike. looks bloody scary - not sure how you would train for it in SE Eng', suspect ditchling beacon isnt quite tough enough!!!

BTW Bike2work scheme is run by Halfords but i understand you can order all the mainstream bikes (trek - madone looks quite tasty) so now need to start the search... and probably up the budget.