How To Slow Down Your Tri Bike In Training For Safety
Slowing down your TT bike set up has a lot of perks.
The number one reason is safety. You have more time to react to the unexpected that appears in front of you.
There are also training benefits. You will end up spending less time at zero watts outdoors in training. You can pedal more of descents, don’t have to free wheel a long way off any potential hazard due to the amount of time you’ll need to slow down and you can ride with athletes who aren’t as fit as you and not be wasting your time riding too easy.
It’s fun to come out on race day and shock the pants off all your training buddies who train on all their bling.
Some simple ideas to make 40/hr 100 watts harder:
| Change from optimised race setup | Estimated penalty at 40 km/h |
|---|---|
| Ventilated training helmet | +8–15 W |
| Undone, flapping outer vest | +25–45 W |
| Thorn-proof tubes | +10–18 W |
| GP 4 Season tyres instead of GP5000s | +18–25 W |
| Round bottles instead of aero bottles | +4–10 W |
| 20 mm non-aero wheels instead of 80 mm aero wheels | +14–22 W |
| Total estimated penalty | +79–135 W |
