The question tri bike vs aerodynamic road bike with clip on aero bars however it is a very interesting question.
Road bike with aero bars vs tt bike.
As above an aero road bike will be faster than a traditional road bike on the flat but not as fast as a dedicated tt bike all other things such as wheels being equal.
In collaboration with boardman bikes and anton sport sykkeldelisk i will test it out in the spring.
As with everything there will be a balance between quality and price.
To emulate the benefits those angles provide a pair of clip on aero bars is an inexpensive modification to achieve a lower more aerodynamic position.
First in my series of real world tests comparing my tt and road bikes.
If you put a triathlon bike side by side with a time trial bike it would be hard to tell the difference.
I ve got 4 bikes currently and my argon 18 nitrogen is noticeably fast than my other bikes but my mate is in another league when on his shiv.
Take the aero bars off a tri bike and you have a bike without the speed of a tri bike and without the handling of a road bike.
Both are slender road bikes with aero bars designed for performance.
Clip on aero bars the key difference between a tt bike and a road bike is in the angles of the frame and components.
For many people it would be a better choice to use road bike with tt bars because there will be less fatigue on the body and it will deliver your body to a better shape.
You wouldn t want to accidentally mix the bikes up however as each is specially engineered to fit the task at hand.
Stay tuned for our next post in this series where we ll explain why you need to change up your saddle position.
We will build up a boardman air road bike w clip on with identical measures as my current boardman tte tri bike.
Tri tt frames generally make poor handling road bikes since they are optimized for a low forward position in the aero bars.
Flexibility and strength will determine which bike you use as the relative fatigue of a tt bike is higher than a road bike.
Ok so i put aero bars on my bike.
In fact at first glance they look identical.