New Tri Bike or Road Bike
My tri bike is a few years old now (Kuota K-Factor). It has served me well and frankly this past year (starting with Nov OS) was my first real year riding the bike. I know it is not a fast frame by today's standards and it has me looking towards something new (though, I acknolwedge it is the engine more than the bike).
Now I do not have a road bike and think that would be a welcome addition. Wife is struggling to understand the 2 bike thing and is more in favor of a new tri-bike since I race triathlons and not bike races.
I am leaning far more towards a road bike - thoughts?
I would welcome any suggestions on either brand of bike (road or tri). Budget is in the 2-4K range. I already have a quarq - fwiw (Rich would kick me in the nutz if I bought another bike before a PM). 
I am outside Chicago and welcome comments on local shops. Anyone order a bike from CompetitiveCyclist?
Comments
After test riding Parlee, Scott, Cervelo, Trek, Felt, Ridley and Cannondale road bikes over the summer I ended up going with a Cannondale SuperSix Rival. The Parlee felt the best but started at $4500 retail. What I like about the Cannondale was that it felt the next best to me in terms of comfort/fit and in my opinion was a steal at $2500 retail. I liked the Cervelo R3 and it was also a great bang for the buck at $2800 retail... however I just couldn't buy a bike with BBright as I'm still pissed at them for that one.
I worked with the guys at Get A Grip and then let me test ride everything and helped me out a ton.
My suggestion is don't listen to me or anyone else and just get out and ride some bikes. Narrow it down to the ones you like best and are in your price range and then try to ride them back to back if possible.
Since you already have a quarq (gxp I assume due to the Kuota), you can easily swap it to pretty much any bike out there except BBright. I personally use the wheels manufacturing BB30 GXP adapters on my Cannondale BB30 bike and the quarq works perfect and is still easy to swap.
Yes - it is a GXP BB. That was one reason I wasn't thinking Cannondale (the BB30). Good to hear the adapter is working fine...
BBright is a fancy new bottom bracket that the Cervelo guys have in some of the bikes. There are only a few cranksets that fit the thing. generally a pain in the but. They claim it is better. Yawn. Even BB30 is a pain as you need an adapter which defeats the purpose of BB30 if you want to use certain cranks. BBright does not let you use an adapter. This is why the nicer R3's all have a rotor crank on them.
There really should be an industry standard BB just to make life easy.
As for a road bike v another tri bike I would for sure get a road bike. Once you have one you will understand the draw. Also, there is no reason why you can't race it or start riding with other people. Once I race the tri bike tomorrow it will not be touched for several months. I love my tri bike, it fits great etc but it has a specific purpose. The road bike is far more fun to ride around on.
And I used to love my K-factor, it went plenty fast...
@ChrisG - thanks for the comments. I think the direction is very clear towards a road bike...
@Penny - Howdy - an ex HRTC guy here. We never got to meet while I was in Humble. Only a member for a year before I was relocated up North... Thanks for the suggestion!
To add to what Chris said, BBright is a wider version of pressfit BB30 with about 11mm added one side of the BB. The main issue is that most standard BB30 cranks will not fit becuase of the extra 11mm of wide. The SRAM S9750 BB30 will fit as SRAM just happend to design that with a 10mm space in it that can be removed. Rotor and FSA now make a special BBright crank that has an 11mm wider spindle to fit. Many existing 24mm external bearings ****could**** be retrofited as they have a wider spindle to start with due to the external bearings. I know there is a Shimano adapter avaialble that will current Shimano cranks to work in BBright, however I don't think SRAM gxp or FSA have adapates for their cranks.
BB30 (or PressfitBB30) on the other hand is pretty universal and you can put just about any crank into that with a simple and proven adapter.
I actually really liked the way the new R3 rode, but I did not want to deal with prioritary crap on my road bike... there is enough of that on TT bikes. Therefore I went with the Cannondale that has a standard seatpost, BB30, fork, stem, FD band, external cables, etc... making it compatable with just about everything.
You said it Matt!! I'm not planning to ride the TT bike until it's time to race next season. Even then I'd like to use the road bike as my primary until I start building up for a 1/2 or full distance race. It's just so much fun!
My sister ordered her new hottie BMC from Competitive Cyclist. Very good experience. I love them. I order so much from them, I'm starting to think of them as my LBS.
It is a totally different ride and you will love it!
@stephen - what road bike did you get (if you don't mind sharing)?
My experience on road bikes is limited to this one...but, it HAS been great.
I would say that we should all have both frames/bikes, for all different scenarios, training and races - but that's just me.
This year, I ordered a Speed Concept and I should have it in time for a couple of rides outside and then put on trainer. I wanted made in US and I've had really good luck with my Madone 5.2 OCLV frame. I've had the Madone for 2 years now. In a year or so, I'll get into a cyclocross bike to kick up the fitness even more. So many friends have sugested that cyclocross has helped speed up their transitions.
I want speed and more speed!
I have had nothing but a tri bike, ever. So a road bike was an absolutely new concept for me. I had a budget of $3,000 myself.
This year I spent several months researching road bikes. I test rode Cervello, Specialized, Canondale, Trek and a couple of others. You can't go wrong with any of these brands.
Couple of comments:
I really liked Cervello, but one model was for climbing, another was for more rollers. They were the S2 and R3. Don't remember which one was which. The difference was in the stiffness in the rear end. But I didn't like the handling of either. The overall "touring" bike was the RS and it was stiff, stiff, stiff.
I also liked the Specialized, but the geometry was too agressive for me. Specifically the Tarmac. But a very sweet ride overall.
Canondale was nice but the ones I test rode were fine. Just fine.
My final choice was a 2011 Trek Madone 5.2. I love it and now that I am solely on my tri bike until IMAZ is done, I really miss it. When I get out of the saddle and push the pedals the bike is very, very responsive. Totally noticeable from the others. It corners better than the bikes I rode above and it is a very smooth ride. Even over rough roads. It really is a nice ride and I am very happy with it.
@Matt, do you have a feeling for which are the good 'cross bikes these days? I'm tending towards the Specialized for 'cross at the moment as my favorite LBS is mostly Specialized. The other thing that I have to watch for is that the bike comes in a size that will fit me as I'm into the larger frames(61 or 62). I think the Ridley is out because I think its largest is a 58.
@John, nice ride!!! I love my Madone. I will probably end up upgrading the components at some time though, as I currently have a mix of Ultegra and 105, with the Bontrager Speed Limit brakes. I also have a triple chain ring and at this point I wish I would have opted for the double. At this point, I've got to test ride SRAM components so I can decide between that and Ultegra/Dura-Ace. I don't think I'll go as far as putting Di2 on my current bike as I don't think the Di2 has any "real" advantages on a road bike like it does on a tri-bike.
I ordered my tri bike from Competitive Cyclist. I ordered a 2010 Cervelo P4 that they were trying to clear as they were no longer going to carry the brand. I had a very good experience with them. I loved the fact that I could customize the bike the way I wanted, thus saving lots of $$$. I went with a Quarq so if I were to get a fully built bike I would have had an extra crankset just laying around. I also didn't want wheels since I already had a set of trainers and racers. I even went as far as to take a day off from work and fly there to have them fit me. They have a small fitting studio there. I felt good on the semi-agressive fit they they put me into. I ordered the bike with a 53/39 crankset and after 2 weeks told them I wanted a compact and no problem, they sent it out to me and I sent them the old one back. If I were to buy a bike that was a brand they carry I would probably use them again. Not to mention they gave me a 10% military discount and I saved a bunch by not having to pay any tax.