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Beginner Triathlon

Jameel G.
Jameel G. Sendmail

Looking for Bike advice, first time Tri.

posted 5 months ago | Report

I am going to tri my first Tri. Its a small Local race 400m swim in pool. 11mi bike and a 5k. I have been looking at bike this will be the only one I do each year. Its this a good bike to start?
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/dawes/lt1500.htm

Looking for bike advice.

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6 posts

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  • Ryan
    Ryan Sendmail

    That will be more than enough.

    What are your eventual goals? You mention this particular tri will be the only one you do each year. Keep in mind you may get bitten by the tri bug and end up wanting to do a few every year.

    Regardless - for a sprint tri like that, especially for your first foray into triathlons, just about anything on two wheels will work. And I include mountain bikes, old beater bikes with a basket and a bell, and Huffy's in that list. So that bike will be fine.

    I honestly don't know much about bikes - but from what I did gather when I bought my bike last year, a major difference between cheaper bikes and more expensive is the quality of the components. The Dawes may have components made by the same manufacturers as Trek or Specialized, but they may not be as high quality. What this may end up meaning is having to manually fiddle with adjustments more often, higher weight, shorter lifespan, etc, etc.

    So in my extremely limited in experience opinion is that the bike is plenty for doing a single sprint tri per year. However, If you end up deciding you want to do more tri's and get into the training volume required for olympic distance and higher, before too long you may be pining for a better piece of equipment.

    On the other hand, it looks like reviews are mixed on the Dawes - so for $550 or whatever, it's a fairly cheap way to get into the sport, on a bike that looks and seems to review better than the $300 bikes often found at department stores.

    posted 5 months ago | edited 5 months ago

  • Bryce H.
    Bryce H. Sendmail

    If you are going to only do one sprint a year I would say no to this bike. It is not a very good all around bike and a tri bike had a completely different fit than a regular road bike. I would avoid the triple crank and go with a double.

    I would say go to your lbs or several of them and try different brands get a regular road bike, aluminum frame compact crank and some clipless pedals.

    My regular road bike is a Specialized Tarmac and my Tri bike is a Cannondale Slice 5 both of these are full carbon probably more bike than you need. Now my son rides a Specialized Allez which is a nice bike aluminum frame and he uses it in our Tri Sprints. Might also look at the Specialized Secteur. I am just trying to give you some ideas because there are a lot of good bikes out there like Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Felt and so on got ride some of these bikes and find one in your budget and most importantly one that fits you.

    Good Luck on shopping around.

    posted 5 months ago

  • Ryan
    Ryan Sendmail
    in reply to what Bryce H. said:If you are going to only do one sprint a year I would say no to this bike. It is not a very good all around bike and a tri bike had a completely different fit than a regular road bike. I would avoid the triple crank and go with a double. I would ... read more

    I guess we interpreted the OP differently :)
    I was figuring with only one sprint tri per year, chances are he is not necessarily trying to be competitive, and therefore the quality of the equipment would not matter as much (or at all, really)

    However, for someone looking for a bike that they can train with and put serious miles on, I fully agree with everything you've said.

    You also bring up an excellent point about fit - buying over the internet is risky like that. Without a proper fitting, it doesn't take many miles for an ill-fitting bike to cause things like knee issues and what-not.

    posted 5 months ago

  • Todd A.
    Todd A. Sendmail

    For what it's worth the advice I received was that there wasn't much difference between a $500 bike and $1000 bike and that you generally had to get up to around $1500 range to see a difference. I don't know how true this is but it's what I've heard. What I DO believe is that you should spend enough to have a bike that will be fun and comfortable to ride. I've had friends who went for lower end bikes then ended up hating the ride....so it became a self fulfilling prophecy. They bought a cheap bike because they weren't sure if they would like to ride...and ended up hating to ride due to the cheap bike.

    posted 5 months ago

  • Bryce H.
    Bryce H. Sendmail

    Funny how we can interpret the post so differently I guess that is why we have forums we learn new things and others opinion.

    Who's to say Jameel wont catch the bug that is how I got started

    One the quotes a gentleman gave me when I was buying a horse is that "a bad horse eats just as much as good horse".
    I believe that saying goes with anything really. Cause if you don't like it after you bought it then you spend more money on something you wanted in the first place.

    I guess I wasn't trying to tell Jameel to spend an arm and leg on a bike because you can get some good rides reasonable priced. I was just giving him some ideas on proven manufacturers instead of going with an off brand that you may not be able to get the support and find parts for.

    I tried to give him a few ideas to look at so help keep his options open to look around take test rides and so on.

    Have a great 2012

    posted 5 months ago

  • Todd A.
    Todd A. Sendmail

    Agree completely that I would go with a proven brand. I would also be REALLY hesitant to buy a bike via mail. If you're sitting on that thing for several hours you want to be sure it's comfortable. :-)

    posted 5 months ago

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