Originally Posted by
TheKillerPenguin
It really does seem worth the effort. Looking at my local Tuesday night TT course, a riding buddy that is my size goes 12 seconds faster than me over 10 miles while pushing 65 fewer watts. And he hasn't put nearly as much thought into his position as burnthesheep.
Also, some of the locals don't really ride their TT bike's a whole lot.
There's two ideas on this:
1. Make your road bike ftp so freaking high, any losses scrunched over into TT making less power isn't too relevant. As 10 or even 15% loss of a massive ftp is still bigger than a 2% loss of a small ftp. Then don't worry about too much TT riding. I'm betting lots of non-TT specialist pros are this way.
2. You can't make a huge ftp. So, you ride your TT bike a freaking lot so that your loss is between zero and maybe 2%. As you can't raise your road bike ftp by 10 or 15% but can prevent the 'loss'.
I fall into camp #2. As for aero, both groups can chase efficiency. But issue is, it takes time in the saddle to hold steady in a tight position.
I've not posted, but have replied in that Facebook group before on TT fits. Some of that stuff is troll level laughable. Every single person tries to emulate Ashton Lambie or Ganna positions when they're riding a fraction the speed. And can't even sit still long enough at threshold in that position for it to work. But the responses are always "looks awesome", "go lower", "go narrower", "buy a Tempor". While in the video they look like Bambi on ice.
I ride my TT bike at least an hour a week. Usually 2 or 3. I just like it. So I can sit still and make the power. It hurts, but you can't move. Can't constantly bob the head and be looking down and up. If you can't freaking see down road or hold your line, adjust your fit so you can! Each little movement/look costs. All those people on there saying "I can see down road like this" is a damned liar. No they can't, without looking up. And it's not the black line on a track either, with a spotter/coach watching.
Also, that group is laughable in that there are some folks that seem to have spent some time doing this but won't go test. You can do Golden Cheetah virtual aero with just a speed sensor and power meter! But.........the eyes of Facebook are apparently better. Great for a first look for errors or problems. But over time, you have to go try things.
Even some Team Great Britain pursuit riders eventually troll posted to see what kind of BS answers people gave. I saw the fits and kit and knew immediately who they were. But, still some weird BS answers came in.