Maybe it really is all about the engine

[RoadWhale]

Interesting article in Cycling Weekly about the British 10 mile Time Trial Champion riding a $1520.00 second hand bike to victory. Pretty cool parts list.
http://tinyurl.com/pddouqe

[rustychisel]

Solid theory and practise right there. Second hand or not there's nothing wrong with the wheels (& tyres), frame and obviously the engine. Position the engine right, and... Everything else is window dressing for people with money to spend.

Then I saw the photo. He's got the hips and thighs to drive that thing hard. Prolly do okay on the track, too.

[bewheels]

Well... I expected to see something other than a TT bike with tri front wheel and rear disc. That and the rider was trained by a coaching company that specializes in getting TT rider's position right.

Basicly this is an exercise in buying used mid level parts rather than new high end parts.

Don't get me wrong, it still proves the point about the engine. Dura Ace is not faster then 105 just sitting on a frame.

Just like there are plenty of fantastic musical instruments owned by people that will never play them to their full capacity. The owner appreciate them none the less.

[Peter P.]

I learned this decades ago.

Back when Campy Nuovo Record was THE standard for racing (early-mid 80's), I was a newbie bike racer with a Nuovo Record equipped bike by a now-famous custom builder.

My friend also had a frame by the same builder built with Nuovo Record, and he was faster than I was. My training wasn't closing the gap.

One day I borrowed his bike for an errand, and while sitting on the curb next to the bike, noticed his bike was not equipped with the then classic, Campy Nuovo Record pedals which had the distinctive black, aluminum wrap around pedal cages, like the pedals which I had on MY bike.

He had a less expensive Japanese copy.

It was right then and there that I realized the equipment wasn't as important as I thought. MUCH less important.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by RoadWhale

Interesting article in Cycling Weekly about the British 10 mile Time Trial Champion riding a $1520.00 second hand bike to victory. Pretty cool parts list.
http://tinyurl.com/pddouqe

'Maybe'??

[soulspinner]

Like the kid who lapped everybody in a local race with his steel bike and old Ultegra. All the guys riding 15 pound bikes taking supplements beaten by the kid who wanted a burger and shake after the race. Hes a cat one on a Trek sponsored bike now. And hes a great kid to boot.

[bobswire]

Originally Posted by RoadWhale

Interesting article in Cycling Weekly about the British 10 mile Time Trial Champion riding a $1520.00 second hand bike to victory. Pretty cool parts list.
http://tinyurl.com/pddouqe

Just imagine how much faster he would have been on a $10,000 TT bike.

[nooneline]

Given the lede, I was surprised to see that this was the bike.

So it was previously used and acquired cheaply. So what? It's still an extremely aerodynamic TT-specific bike. It's not like he's riding round tubes and alu rims.

[berserk87]

He's got more that I have invested in my TT bike.

I am using a 12-year-old Fuji Aloha frame and fork, with a used Renn disc wheel (that I have $50 in) and a Mavic Cosmic front. I am using a mixture of Dura Ace and Ultegra 9sp. Bullhorn bars are generic aluminum. The TT bars are decent as I just got them - Profile T3 or T4 - not sure.

I have about $840 invested in this setup. Many of my parts were acquired secondhand via purchase or just someone giving me something that they could no longer use.

I'm competitive with this setup. Sometimes I win my division, and sometimes I am not in the top 3. I have good days and bad, but that's because of me. I am not a natural TT guy, and I have to work my bum off to get any kind of result.

I did a PR last Sunday on this rig, through a combination of training, smarter pacing and better gearing strategy.

The point of the article, to me, is that one does not need to feel compelled to invest many thousands of dollars in a TT bike to compete.

I have not been to a TT in which my bike is not the cheapest, by FAR, on the course, since my return to cycling 3 years ago. I usually look around at the start line and count how many single wheels cost more than my entire setup. I don't keep track of how many guys I beat with better equipment. They all have better equipment.

If I had more cash, I would probably spring for something snazzier, but still on some sort of tight budget.

[ergott]

It's all about the calf fairings.

[moose8]

I remember in junior high skipping a day of school to go skiing with my father who took the day off of work to take me. Conditions were perfect and I was obsessed with skiing so wanted to go as fast as I could and do tons of runs. My father invited a friend who had equipment that was at least 15 years old. I remember whining like teenagers do "dad, if this guy can't ski I'm not waiting for him. Conditions are perfect." And then man could the guy ski - turned out he was a ski bum for many years and worked as a dishwasher - he was showing me places at Sunday River where he used to do flips. The dude could rip. The only other person I skied with who was that good was a world class racer raises in the Italian Alps (one of her friends won a World Cup race the year before - so really amazing). Anyway, weird the things we remember and another example of the engine really being all that matters when it's all said and done. But nice equipment does make it a lot more fun for the rest of us.