Originally Posted by not2fast
Matt,
that looks like a huge seat!
The seat IS huge... a side effect of being Clydesdale. I need a little more comfort and surface area to rest on when coasting down all the hills these tri bike courses seem to have.
Some of the best speed I get is coasting down those suckers. Even make up ground on the folks with 'regular' road bikes.
Originally Posted by not2fast
Also, the seat post appears to be bent back slightly? Just an illusion, or is it in fact bent?
That is NOT an illusion - there is a slight bend still.
OK I'll explain....
For my 1st triathlon the quick release for the seatpost was just a little bit loose -- so by the end of the race, I was sitting 4 inches lower than I started the race. Didn't realize it until I looked at my pictures. My wife laughed at how funny I looked. Now I know why the bike took so much work by the end.
To fix that I started by tightening the quick release and adjusting the seat height closer to the max -- got aerobars as a present and needed to adjust seat height again after figuring out what felt OK when using the bars and when just biking..
For my 2nd race I had the seat at almost max height. When nearing the max seat height -- there is a cutout in the tube that my seatpost was barely below -- and I mean barely. During this race I must have exerted more effort than I realized - (or it's another side effect of being a clydesdale) - I stressed the top of the tube and creased the metal both sides of where the cutout was. The seat was angled *WAY* back by the end of the race.
After the race I was unloading my bike and noticed it right away.
I had another race the next weekend. So looked to NASCAR for inspiration...bent the tubing back, hammered the seat post down a little further so more of the post was actually in the tube, retightened the clamp and called it 'good enough'. Not straight, but OK. Raced again the next weekend up in Nevis MN averaged 16.4 mph -- good pace for me. No change in tube angle yet.
Originally Posted by not2fast
Always nice to see tri-bars on a fat tire! I did a fat tire triathlon once, but the bike I borrowed didnt have tri bars.
Aerobars on a fat tire MTB -- Yeah - my cheapo bike is starting to cause some head scratching lately. My tri buddies tell me that Tri bars really shouldn't be on a mountain bike - I keep hearing how 'its just wrong' and shouldn't be done. Violates the purpose of the MTB or something.
I got these the areobars as a father's day present. Some tri bars come with a set of adapters - my bars had adapters to fit 2 sizes of handlebars (road size 1 and road size 2) -- small MTB handlebars need not apply. Well, I coudn't let the little one down - not when her present was to help me with my "swim bike run" race. So with the supplied adapters, some (4) rubber spacers, and little time spent tinkering I got them to fit. Shhhhhh don't tell... that part is still a secret.
Thanks
Mat