I'm a genius
Had a thought: what if tri bikes were manufactured with a one-chainring option? Like even on my roadbike, I rarely ever leave the big ring and I ride a lot of climbs.. like I guess I have pretty powerful legs but I’m just an age-grouper, the pros could almost definitely ride Kona without ever leaving the big ring. Just a few cogs up and it’s the same thing. In a tri how often do we even need to shift? I stay in the big ring almost exclusively, and stay on the bottom 3 cogs unless the wind is ridiculous or, like I said, there are some pretty hilly courses that I race here in Michigan so I’ve got some circumstances. If you’re racing on mostly flat roads, say as a triathlete based in Kansas or some such thing, it makes good sense to only have one chainring. And if you’re on a course that might require a lot of shifts for hills, like I unfortunately am a lot, might as well use a more climbing-suited road bike. Tri bikes were made for mostly-flat, mostly-straight hammering above 20 mph and the geometry just isn’t ideal for standing up and shifting to the 22. Aero (or God-forbid, DISC wheels) are heavy as hell anyways for a whole lot of climbing. The weight and aero savings of one less chainring over a bike leg would be worth a hell of a lot more than the frickin’ Magura TT brake and some of this other stuff coming out. Bottom line: I would imagine that anyone, pros especially, would go along with the idea of A) having 2 racing bikes, one outfitted for each style of course, or B) switching out the components necessary for the change in race style, to make this happen. What do you think?
