Considering having a go. Obviously do a lot of surfing and swimming, run a fair bit and got a decent 10k result last year, and cycle pretty much daily. Would be fun to combine the lot. Questions are: What bike is best? Have four MTBs and could easily "hybridize" on of them. Would rather avoid buying another bike! How long to train up for one? Currently pretty fit. I'm sure this will upset the bodybuilding ogre boys, daring to actually use fitness and strength ( ) for something but hey, you never know.
Ideally you'd need a road bike, but if you've got a hard tail and have a lock out on the forks, you could get away with putting a different set of tyres on.
i regularly do triathlons. eating 20 minutes drinking 10 minutes sleeping 5-6 hours i do that routine at least once a day. living on the edge huh?
Luke - got this which I reckon would work okay - fully rigid and weighs about 23lbs: Needs slicks though.
That should work with a set of slicks, the only problem you'll find possibly is gearing wise, road bikes will be a lot faster. I reckon it's worth a go with it for your first one, if you like it, then maybe look at getting a road bike.
Like with MTBs, your best bet would be second hand. My old man picked up a two year old carbon fibre Bianchi last year for 450, it's easily a 2k bike, the upgrades alone probably come to 450.
Could be a plan although I can get the Cycle2Work scheme (we run our own PR company) on bikes so got our 1200 2007 Stumpy at a much reduced price as well as the 2008 Rockhopper Disc that we picked up last week. Better have a go at one first though!
I've had a couple of goes on my dads bike and it is so wierd compared to a MTB, really twitchy, was convinced I was going to fall. Probably would get used to them after a few decent rides. How does that Cycle2Work scheme work?
Ideally? I think if you've any chance of competing, the word is mandatory. This might be a ideal start point for a beginner, despite being a bit of a hybrid event: http://www.mensfitnessmagazine.co.uk/front_website/rough_track_triathlon/index.php?id=5
Luke - you basically get bikes a lot cheaper by getting tax and NI reductions from your salary. However, as we are directors of a company, we are both the employer and employees (?!). Whatever happens, we ended up getting two bikes for a fair bit less money. Seraph - this is only a "taster" idea - can comfortably swim half a mile (or a mile pretty slowly), run 10k in a decent time but not much idea how fast I am on a bike - but with a daily 15km cycle on very hilly terrain with almost no rise in breathing rate on the three steep hills we ride on (someone called me on my mobile the other day while riding the biggest 1 in 4 hill - they had no idea!), I think we are pretty quickish. A road bike would be a LOT quicker though. But I'd fall off it.
How often do you have to cycle to work? Everyday? Can they keep a check on whether or not you are actually riding in?
Luke - we work from home but do a daily ten miler into and beyond Truro to keep fit. There are no checks whatsoever. You can also claim 20p a mile for any work related cycle trips (we don't but many do!).
Who do you work for? If they are a Ltd company or public sector group, it's easyish to get onto the scheme, so long as the company see the benefits. Sometimes needs some persuasion!
You should be able to get on it then. Just need to make sure you have a relevant manager behind you on it.
Ive done road bike races on a MTB with slicks on (still had suspension forks on too lol) and didnt have any issues with keeping up tbh. Obviously your not doing yourself any favours and will feel a bit of a tit but the speed advantage isnt as great as youd imagine. I did once borrow a 30 year old Bob Jackson road bike with lovely old campag gears and it was sooo smooth, frame geometry was old school with skinny reynolds tubes and a really high top tube but the way you could instantly accelerate was really cool. Might be worth getting hold of an old but good road frame on the cheap. Once you get used to the initial twitchyness its amazing how far over you can push them in corners (as long as its dry and dont even think about braking mid corner!), and you need to get used to the longer gearing as you have to carry speed up hills to keep the gear turning over, rather than just drop to a little gear and spin it. What about a mtb duathlon? have done a couple of local ones (mountain biking and cross country running) and theyre great fun, really good atmosphere and usually a bit more friendly for beginners. The one ive done a couple of times is down at Minnis Bay near margate and dependant on the tide they start it on the beach
Matt - if I could find one of those vaguely locally, I'd enter it straight away! Quite keen on the swimming bit though but would rather MTB/trail run if I could.