Trying to find out if anyone can give any real time savings between a road bike and a tt bike for time trialling. I know its difficult with different variables, but over a 10 mile tt at 25 mins on a tt bike with 50mm wheels, fairly flat course, how much slower would it be on a road bike with clip ons and either an inline seat post or one of those forward facing ones. Thining about rationalising the bike collection as my most expensive bike gets ridden by far the least. I'm also wondering if doing all the road work and training on one bike and then racing on that bike will be of more benefit than tting on teh tt bike but riding the road bike the rest of the time. the 50mm wheels would go on the road bike for tt's
never going to be setting the world alight with blistering times but would like to get down into the 23's
ta for your thoughts
go and re-ride the course, then you'll pretty much know
In recent wheel threads there have been studies/tests posted up...the total effect was significant between full aero bike and std road bike, with certain surprises (eg aero helmet made a big difference IIRC)
If no one posts the links up they'll be in one of those threads.
Pretty sure that it'll come down a lot to how good a position you can get on your road bike compared to a proper TT bike - If you can get the same (ideal) position on your road bike then the difference will be relatively less. TT bikes tend to have lower front ends to allow this.
Obviously aero wheel and helmets make a difference too as does a more aero TT frame itself but much less than the drag generated by your body.
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/how-aero-is-aero-19273/
FWIW By putting aero bars on my road bike I knocked a minute and a half off my 10TT time for our club course
helmet and position make the biggest differences IIRC, my PB is 23.26, and thats on a road bike with clip ons and an aero helmet.
If it's your most expensive bike, just sell it and buy a cheep one?
from 25 to 23 should be doable on a road bike with clip-ons but you would need to dedicate an awful lot of time to TT-specific training.
[url] http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2010/04/biggest-bang-for-your-buck-in-time-trial-equipment/ [/url]