Triathlon - what bike to hire?

thecolourbox

So I'm doing the property industry triathlon and it looks like it's Friday 1st July. And I need to hire a bike quickish. The last time I did it, I hired a hybrid bike, I have a heavy mountain bike but i was recommended to get a hybrid as it would be lighter than the mountain bike, but easier to ride than a road bike.

I tried to ride a road bike home from work last year but I couldn't do it - I fell off twice and fell with the bike once (couldn't get my feet out of the pedals).

Should I just hire a hybrid again for the day on that basis? A basic road bike is only a bit more money to hire but then if on the day I can't handle it then I'd be quite stuck. It is a 21km cycle leg if that helps, flat around Eton Dorney Lake in Windsor

I'm not a cyclist particularly, in fact the last triathlon was the furthest I've ever cycled (and the furthest I'd ever ran as well for that matter ) but I would like to beat my time from the last one I did hence my consideration of a lighter easier bike as that is the leg where you can lose the most time.

Thanks

octatonic

Get a road bike with flat pedals if you can't deal with cleats.

The rolling resistance of a road bike with skinny tyres is much lower and you will be able to go quicker, or with less effort.

I did my first sportive (London to Brighton) on a 15kg mountain bike- it was murder.

My carbon racer weighs about half that- it makes a huge difference.

thecolourbox

octatonic;1118851" said:

Get a road bike with flat pedals if you can't deal with cleats.The rolling resistance of a road bike with skinny tyres is much lower and you will be able to go quicker, or with less effort.

I did my first sportive (London to Brighton) on a 15kg mountain bike- it was murder.My carbon racer weighs about half that- it makes a huge difference.

I'm not sure if the one from the hire company they use has flat pedals but I will shoot them an email to ask. I only learnt to ride a bike at 21 years old (29 now) so I'm not sure if the difficulty with the road bike was because I've only ever learnt to ride my mountain bike and my balance felt very different on the road bike to that, hence my repeated falling off!

It took me 2.5 hours to do a 7 mile journey because I had to walk most of it Haha

octatonic

thecolourbox said:

octatonic;1118851" said:

Get a road bike with flat pedals if you can't deal with cleats.The rolling resistance of a road bike with skinny tyres is much lower and you will be able to go quicker, or with less effort.

I did my first sportive (London to Brighton) on a 15kg mountain bike- it was murder.My carbon racer weighs about half that- it makes a huge difference.

I'm not sure if the one from the hire company they use has flat pedals but I will shoot them an email to ask. I only learnt to ride a bike at 21 years old (29 now) so I'm not sure if the difficulty with the road bike was because I've only ever learnt to ride my mountain bike and my balance felt very different on the road bike to that, hence my repeated falling off!

It took me 2.5 hours to do a 7 mile journey because I had to walk most of it Haha

Buy some flat pedals and a hex driver.

It is literally a 2 min job.

Otherwise a flat bar bike without suspension is the way to go, but it will be more tiring as they are heavier and have thicker tyres.

littlegreenman

As above, road bike with flats. Or have a day getting used to clipless, it really does make a difference.

Lean up against a wall and practice clipping in and out, it soon becomes second nature. Although we all still fall foul, and fall over, once in a while.

Nitefly

And don't forget that one of them is a left-hand thread  

thecolourbox

octatonic;1118862" said:

thecolourbox said:

octatonic;1118851" said:Get a road bike with flat pedals if you can't deal with cleats.The rolling resistance of a road bike with skinny tyres is much lower and you will be able to go quicker, or with less effort.



I did my first sportive (London to Brighton) on a 15kg mountain bike- it was murder.My carbon racer weighs about half that- it makes a huge difference.

I'm not sure if the one from the hire company they use has flat pedals but I will shoot them an email to ask. I only learnt to ride a bike at 21 years old (29 now) so I'm not sure if the difficulty with the road bike was because I've only ever learnt to ride my mountain bike and my balance felt very different on the road bike to that, hence my repeated falling off!



It took me 2.5 hours to do a 7 mile journey because I had to walk most of it Haha





Buy some flat pedals and a hex driver.It is literally a 2 min job.

Otherwise a flat bar bike without suspension is the way to go, but it will be more tiring as they are heavier and have thicker tyres.

I'm not buying a bike to put pedals on though I'm just hiring it for the day, I don't want a road bike for myself just for this one event. They deliver the hired bikes to the event so is the simplest solution (I can't fit a bike in my car)

I'll all them about the flat pedals, thanks - that might be a help

thecolourbox

These are the options but the info isn't particularly helpful (I'd get the hybrid at £40 or the road bike at £50)

http://www.britishbikehire.co.uk/book.php

thecolourbox

Nitefly;1118874" said:

And don't forget that one of them is a left-hand thread  

I'm sure that's a joke but I'm not sure I get it

jonnyburgo

thecolourbox said:

Nitefly;1118874" said:

And don't forget that one of them is a left-hand thread  

I'm sure that's a joke but I'm not sure I get it

As you sit on the bike, the left hand pedal tightens with a clockwise turn and the right pedal tightens with an anti clockwise turn. If you don#t know this you will be swearing and throwing pedals around after an hour of trying to tighten a pedal the wrong way.

lloyd

I'm no expert but I'd get a powerful Japanese motorbike, you'd be sure to do well in the bike bit, probably get a PB too.

Nitefly

jonnyburgo said:

thecolourbox said:

Nitefly;1118874" said:

And don't forget that one of them is a left-hand thread  

I'm sure that's a joke but I'm not sure I get it

As you sit on the bike, the left hand pedal tightens with a clockwise turn and the right pedal tightens with an anti clockwise turn. If you don#t know this you will be swearing and throwing pedals around after an hour of trying to tighten a pedal the wrong way.

Cheers, JB, couldn't have put it better myself. 

strtdv

You're doing yourself a disservice if you're not on a road bike. If you need to get conventional flat pedals and go for an endurance geometry road bike for a more comfortable ride but still pretty light and fast. You'll go a lot quicker one one than on a steel framed mountain bike, and be more comfortable and less tired.

strtdv

For comparison a lot of competitors will be using something like this:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2N1gxNjAw/z/YyoAAOSwWntXMjmO/$_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F

thecolourbox

Thanks everyone, I will contact the hire company to ask about what pedals it would come with.

I'm not really competing against anybody else but myself - I don't that I'll great my swim time from last time (about 13 minutes for 750m) due to me not having been swimming as much, but I really hope to beat my cycling and running times. The last time I basically dropped from the top ten to last place during the cycle leg because the property industry is mostly made up of middle class men who spend a lot on flash bikes and Lycra and go cycling a lot who just flew past me. I don't particularly mind people beating me but my time of an hour for 21km really set me back compared to what I wanted to do. My 5km run time of 27 minutes apparently isn't too bad, considering the two things before it, so anything that helps me shave off 15 mins of the bike leg will help

octatonic

So you are doing a sprint triathlon? 27 mins is about what I run 5km in when I'm not doing anything else, that is a great time in a tri. The cycling leg, yes a nice light road bike will shave quite a bit of time off your hour time.

thecolourbox

octatonic;1119068" said:

So you are doing a sprint triathlon?

27 mins is about what I run 5km in when I'm not doing anything else, that is a great time in a tri.

The cycling leg, yes a nice light road bike will shave quite a bit of time off your hour time.

Yes it's a sprint one, this one in fact:
http://www.propertytriathlon.com/uksouth-dorney/race-information/

I am lucky to have a fairly constant level of natural fitness and quite a good quick recovery time, even if I've not trained as much as I'd like. Though on the flip side, if I did the three events separately I wouldn't really be much quicker, if at all - I was always a distance swimmer with no sprinting ability whatsoever, often my 100m split times would be the same for each length. I think though I attribute a fair amount of it to stubbornness rather than physical ability