Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Road vs. Tri

My road bike is getting some love and care this week, so I've been commuting on my tri bike. All I can say is that it is not nearly as fun to bike commute on a tri bike. Here are a few of my observations.


  • Aero bars do not mix with bike commuting. I tried using them the other day just for fun and got whacked in the head by my messenger bag.
  • My coffee spills all over my tri bike. I'm going to show up to race this weekend with coffee all over the Kestrel (this would however be cleaner than the image above) SWEET!
  • Shifting is a pain (bar-end shifters) when climbing the hill by the pool. So this week I just did not shift. This is probably good for me.
  • Attaching the front light to the aero bar proves awkward. The rear light doesn't have a chance because of the bottle holders that carry fluid for a small army on the back.
  • I have gotten quite a bit of practice mounting the tri bike with my shoes attached to it this week. Nothing like running and jumping onto your bike barefoot, pedaling down the street a ways, then trying to weasel feet into shoes while the messenger bag threatens to unbalance the entire ecosystem that is my carefully balanced commuting vehicle.
  • And despite all of this, I am grateful I have two bikes so I can still ride to work this week!