I'm going to be investing in a road bike in the next week or so, I'm not sure whether to go for a normal road bike or a time trial bike.
I'll be doing decent distances and will use the bike in triathlons, hopefully working up to an Iron Man, the emphasis will be on finishing rather than setting outstanding times.
Am I better just sticking with a normal roadie??
As a side note, Planet X look to be bringing back their deals on the carbon road frames...
Get a normal road bike, a TT bike is a very specific machine.
Normal road bike with aerobars added.
A normal road bike will be MUCH more comfortable.
or get a cervelo soloist, has a convertible seat mast so you can change the seat angle for TT or road work.
Ditto a normal road bike for what you've said. Even most international triathletes use fairly standard road bikes.
Grand, it'll need to do me for everything for the next year or two so a road bike is probably the best bet!
Cheers
I got this for Mrs S when PX were having their Tax-sale last year. Far too cheap to miss out.
It is frighteningly quick looking, pity its too small for me to have a proper go on it - I just hit my knees on the bars 
For Triathlon Ive added some inexpensive aero bars to it. They're not too heavy and infact unless you get into silly money, carbon tri bar addons arent much lighter anyway. TT bikes are usually a lot less forgiving over longer miles.
I read a good thing once which listed the time/efficiency benefits of clothing, lower position (ie riding in the drops), tt bars and so-on. Gist of it is that using a low position makes a big difference and then tt bars add a relatively small benefit on top of that. So I'd say get a regular road bike and try and ride with a flatter back as much as poss - having your arms closer together in front of you makes not as much difference (and there's virtually no point in using tri bars with a higher position).
Actually, like Mrs Stoner's Planet X above! The tt bars won't give you much at all unless you radically lower the position. From what I understand the Planet X would be quicker with your hands in the drops than on the tt bars.
It can apparently give you the equivalent of about 60-70W being on a TT bike instead of a roadie. That is a hell of a lot of extra speed.
However, training on one would suck. Race day only, really.
TT/Tri bikes lot faster on flat roads/rolling hills but handling not as good due to steep angles so if doing very technical road rides not the best.
Having done a couple of IM tri's would say it depends. If you are mainly going to do shorter events and one IM get a road bike. If you want to do loads of mid/long distance tri's a time trial setup is more comfortable and quicker over long distances when hammering solo as most races are non draft.
Or as mentioned above get a cervelo with the rotatin seatpost - can then change the seat angle.
Fast descents on a steep angle tri bike are interesting....
If you're getting one bike for training and racing get a road bike. Possibly size it up a touch smaller than normal and stick some clip on tri bars on it, short ones like Profile Jammers.
Stoner - not wanting to be rude but IMHO those tri bars really don't go on that bike. The tri bars are long and very high above the handlebars and I can't imagine that the position on them is very good at all.
It can apparently give you the equivalent of about 60-70W being on a TT bike instead of a roadieAnd most of that benefit is from being flat and low, rather than the type of bars.
the tri bars havent been fitted for mrs S yet, in that pic I had just bolted them on.
As for efficiency, again, that is not the purpose of those tri bars, they are there for alternative riding positions and comfort. Mrs S isnt going to be going fast enough to care about 1% drag but over the course of a trathlon 50k ride in the middle leg, having those riding options will benefit her endurance abilities.
used to use some basic profile bars cliped onto standard roadie bars, unfortunately this was on an old skool roadie with a 8" hear tube.
First mod, flip the bars and hack off the drops, to make bull horns, less useless stiky out bits and looked a lot neater.
Second mod, BIG drop stem,
clip on moutings and duct taped some padding onto the clamps for my elbows.
Flipped the seat camp round to steepen it, tilted saddle forewards
Downhill it just seemed to keep accelerating, slow speed corneres were nightmare though. The combination of comedy narrow bullhorn bars and a 30deg turning lock menat anything other than fast bends needed a lot of thought.
much easier to have an aero position with tri bars. But get a road bike to train on and tri bars fir it, a tt bike is too uncomfortable to train on.
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