Spec me bike for half Iron Man

[tef]

A Colnago A1r CX in XXL size just came on ebay for 665 starting bid. There is also a XL at 995 buy it now. It would fit the bill nicely with 46-11 combo or even faster just swap outer chainring to 50 (13quid per chainring i think) Only couple of down side is no hydraulic brakes and being a CX bike cables are all externally routed, second down side is it's not a 1x drive train. Our size 46 and 49 came out of the box at around 9.5kg.

 

[Roady]

Thanks @Roady I don't cycle much at the moment with Friends. The wood trails I was on about would just be with my son on a cycle (he's 7 so should be fine) and they are mainly gravel/hardish.
I'm essentially after a roadish bike that can go fast and be usable on canal towpaths etc.

Good point about the gearing I checked out the range available for the other boardman 8.9 bikes and the CXR is 1.04 - 4, the SLR roadbike is 1.21 -4.18 so not much in it in terms of top speed/ratio but I take the point that I might be limited to 3 gears for a lot of it. Is this inherently bad - I get for a pro they probably maintain a very consistent RPM so more gears helps. I think the average for half ironman is 3hrs so 18ish mph so might be equivalent to a 4 speed.

Still I'll have a look at gravel bikes. Think I just need to get something and get training.

I'll look into spending less on the turbo and more on the bike as well but really the majority of the time I will be using the bike indoors and the turbo can replace my stationary basic exercise bike so don't mind spending a bit more here

lol at the wine commitment, I meant time but I do think past beer commitments is why I need to get training soon.

Not a problem, just chipping more opinions and my experience in here too.

It's obviously cheaper to buy a new crankset/chainrings than a complete other bike, possibly aero wheels too, so those might be the better options anyway. The other consideration could be your future use after IM - commuting & turbo. I soon got tired of swapping my wheels around and tweaking gears when I only had 1 bike and switched between trainer and road (admittedly back then I was using a wheel-on trainer and having to dismantle the whole turbo setup every time). What I mean is - a cheaper/second hand road bike now, to use on the trainer and to probably be used for your IM. Then in future that remains fixed to the trainer, with you buying the CX/Gravel bike for commuting duties. In future you would probably have more experience to help you decide specifically what you need out of the second bike to better inform your decision - gearing, wheels, sizing, brakes etc. Going cheaper/SH with the first you've not invested too much if you do decide to sell on (lack of use, lack of comfort, wrong sizing once you gain fitness). Obviously if you're looking at beginning commuting over winter that suggestion doesn't work too well, but lets be honest - not many people start commuting in the wet and cold winters, but plenty stop (so you can get bargains now, especially due to people replacing bikes due to autumn upgrades).

I went the gravel bike route, mainly because I'd ridden a fairly relaxed geometry but stiff/harsh aluminium framed road bike before. I wanted to go for disc brakes and large tyre clearance for fitting guards and large volume tyres without compromising speed too much and the discs to give me more power in the wet. I also wanted carbon for weight and comfort. I pretty much covered everything with my Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon 2016 - it came with road gears for the speed, full guards easily fitted with 28mm (and now 32mm) tyres, ok-ish weight (11kg with guards) and really comfortable. I also lucked out as they did a 30% off sale to clear my years range to make way for the new ones. Getting a £2500 bike for £1750! Admittedly I could have easily covered 60-70% of my requirements with a <£1000 bike with cable discs (and then bought a 'summer' lightweight bike). But I'm very much a '1 bike do it all' kinda guy... Which goes on to my next bit of advice...

Wheels. Don't be afraid to consider swapping/replacing/upgrading them! I've had a few wheel issues with 'off the shelf' type bikes (Specialized & Giant). I replaced my Diverge wheels last year with some even wider flashy Zipp wheels (which is why I'm able to fit 32mm tyres under guards), while also gaining speed from stiffer and lighter wheels. So even with a £2500 bike, a £600 additional/aftermarket wheelset was a huge upgrade over the stock wheels. I'd recommend upgrading wheels on ANY off the shelf bike (my previous experience was replacing Giant wheels on my £900 Defy with £100 'budget' wheels and was surprised I seemed to get a much better wheelset).

As for wine, my weak spot is just food in general, now I ride lots I'm always hungry but also can justify much of what I eat. I don't calorie count, but don't tend to eat junk anyway, but will happily drink a couple of bottles of cider and a pizza tonight with no guilt!

EDIT: Comparing gear ratios I've always struggled to understand relationship to speed/efficiency, most of the time I goto sheldon's calc and convert to mph

 

[oneilldo]

Thanks all. I think realistically the only non inside use the bike would get over the next 3 months would be Sunday morning rides worth the family down the canal and commuting weather dependant so road bike is sort of out the question. I don’t want multiple bikes so think I will go down the cyclecross and a separate road wheelset for it. I’ll probably regret it and no doubt it will make the Ironman harder or I will be on here mid April asking for recommendations for a road bike. Still if I do another Ironman or equivalent rides I might just do better by getting a new bike and by then might know a bit more about what suits me.