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  • TT bike buying advice
  • fervouredimage
    Free Member

    My cousin has recently got the cycling bug. He’s been a very keen long distance runner for years but fancied a go at racing a Time Trial so I let him borrow my 7 year old Focus road bike which is very tired and basic. He’s now done 7 TT club races on it and is well and truly bitten by the bug.

    So now he wants to get himself a proper TT bike but doesn’t want to spend silly money as it’s just something else for him to do alongside his running. So my initial response to him was that he should consider the planet x Stealth carbon TT bike. For £999 with 105 bolted on it seems a pretty good deal. But in hindsight i’m in no real position to offer advice on TT bikes as i know very little about them, so before he goes and spends a thousand quid could anyone offer any thoughts on whether it’s a worthy consideration? Is it a good enough bike for club TT’s?

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Buy used.

    TT bikes hardly get ridden. I bought a 22 year old hand built (Barry Chick, no less) Shorter made from beautiful aero columbus steel with Dura Ace/Ultegra, original Zipp 440 wheels and Vittoria Corsa tubs. All for £450. Raced it in my first Club TT yesterday and just missed a 24 on a hilly course. It wasn’t the bike holding me back!

    I figured that if I didn’t take to TTs, I could race the wheels or just sell it on at minimal loss.

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    Definately used. TT orientated road clubs and tri clubs are a good place to start.

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    I ended up getting a cheap PX stealth frame in the sales, but then I had most of a 105 group set in the spares bin and a suitable set of wheels. Really just needed some bars, shifters and an aerojacket cover for a rear powertap wheel. It’s been fine for dipping a toe in club and open TTs. The bike is never really going to “hold you back” but you can always buy free speed (though there are better places to spend your cash than the bike.) Think any major upgrades would definitely come from TT and tri forum classifieds.

    DT78
    Free Member

    I’ve started looking too. Planet X and dolan have good deals. Also some nice frames on eBay should you not mind buying direct from china.

    Second hand seems to be the way to go, though ebay doesn’t appear to be that cheap….

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    That Dolan does look suspiciously like a lot of the Chinese carbon jobbies.

    Don’t get too hung up on fancy aero carbon frames either if looking at the classifieds. Weight isn’t that important for flat TTs and the frame is about the last place to start looking for big aero gains. If the stealth frame hadn’t been about 200 quid in the sales I think I’d have done what TiRed did.

    TiRed, sounds nice, you got a photo of that?

    m1kea
    Free Member

    Does he already have a road bike? If so, I’d suggest starting with some clip on aero bars and a pointy hat first.

    This’ll be the cheapest way into TTing and allows for one bike to handle a couple of disciplines. If he’s still keen after a few months then you can start throwing the cash at the bling.

    Oh and http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php? is the main TT forum in the UK.

    LS
    Free Member

    I ended up getting a cheap PX stealth frame in the sales, but then I had most of a 105 group set in the spares bin and a suitable set of wheels. Really just needed some bars, shifters and an aerojacket cover for a rear powertap wheel.

    Exchange PX for Dolan and that’s the same as what I did when I went back to TTs. You don’t need much more in reality, so long as the position is good the majority of bling TT kit is just fluff – I set some pretty decent times and got top 3 in opens on what was basically a parts-bin special.

    iamconfusedagain
    Free Member

    Buying second hand is great. But TT bike setup is something that is worth getting help with. Most peoples position is woeful and is losing them a lot of time. A bike fit on a jig first gives a much better chance at getting a bike you can get a good position on.

    Raltech make the best wheel covers for a budget disc wheel.

    A friend of mine did a short 19 on a planet x stealth, it is perfectly capable bike.

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