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...::: MAX RELAX:::...
PREVALENT FEATURE: Somewhere between Lanterne Rouge and M.O.P ALSO: Positioned shallow and intends to stay that way; doesn't want to spend more than $2000 (less is even better); comfort is the goal!
There are two ways you can approach your bike purchase, if Max Relax is you. You can be shallow and have a tri bike set up, or be shallow and have a road bike set up.
Me, I like the idea of a road bike set up if I'm riding shallow, because I think tri bikes, full-length aerobars, bar-end shifting, pursuit bars, and plug-in brake levers, are best used on with steep-seat-angled geometry. But my way is not the highway, and if you want to ride a full tri configuration with a shallow seat angle, we'll address that below.
Otherwise, here is how I break it out. Aerodynamically speaking, if you want the full Monty, the whole enchilada -- everything conspiring to optimize riding laid out on the aero bars -- you're probably going to ride steep. But that's not you, and there are any number of reasons you might want a bike that offers an aero position but is in every other way optimized for road riding positions. If this is the case, you want road bars, STI or Ergopower, and you want your bars and hoods to inhabit that same spatial relationship that they do on your road bike.
What you'd want in this case is a road bike. You don't want a tri bike. It's perfectly okay to ride a road bike in a triathlon. Max Relax is not going to ride in the aero position 99% of the time. Perhaps more like 50% of the time. A road bike is your best bet, set up as it comes from the factory, with you positioned aboard it as you would be if you were going to road race.
What about your aero position? The thing about road bikes is, they tend to be longer than tri bikes. If you slap a full-length aerobar on your road bike -- if it's set up as a road bike -- laying yourself out on those aerobars is going to result in an overlong position. You'll be too stretched out. You'll have low back problems, high back problems, deltoid soreness. If you shorten the stem, that helps, but then your hoods and the rest of your contact points are going to be too compact -- not far enough in front of the bottom bracket.
Ergonomically, what you're best off using is what we call a "shorty" bar. This is a half-length aero bar. The benefits are that they fit lengthwise -- cockpitwise -- on a road bike optimized for road riding. The downfall is that they aren't as comfortable on your forearms as full length aerobars. We've written elsewhere recently giving a more complete description of the current state of shorty bars as made, used and sold.
I'm not going to list all the bikes that you might want to consider if this describes you, because there are probably more than a hundred of them. Any road race bike under $2000 fits the bill, and now it's down to which among them offers the best value in the precise price range that suits your wallet.
Let's say that this doesn't describe you. Let's say you want to ride shallow, but you still want to ride full tri. And you want to do it for $2000 or less. Yes, there are options.
Maybe the best value out there right now in a sub-$2000 complete tri bike that's got a Max Relax geometry is Kuota's K-factor. Just try to find a complete carbon frame built into a complete bike for this price!
Now, if you take me up on my offer and you do try to find a complete carbon $1500 bike built for triathlon, you will find one. It's Kestrel's Talon. These bikes complete sell for $1999, and this is with an "aero build," which means aero bars, bar-end shifting, the works. And, the kit is pretty nice.
As opposed to the K-factor, which is perhaps two-thirds road geometry and one-third tri geometry, the Talon is three-thirds road geometry. It's a road bike with a tri kit. Maybe just what the doctor ordered for Max Relax.
Just keep in mind what I wrote above: road geometry bikes, with shallow seat angles, set up as road bikes, tend to be long in the cockpit if you use full length aerobars. So get positioned on your Talon before you take possession of your Talon, and make sure the aero position works for you. If you don't like the aero position on this bike, you're going to spend almost the entire time riding it out of the aero position, in which case just get your Talon with a road build (not an aero build) and put shorty bars on it (as we describe above).
There are several good tri bike companies that give you the shallow geometry you're looking for. But while these companies -- Orbea, Look, Time, Pinarello, Cannondale's Slice Six 13 si 1 & 2 -- offer feature rich models, they're going to be at least $1000 above your target of $2000. Or they're going to sell you all-aluminum bikes, and these, while good, don't offer the value of the two mentioned above.
So, if it's a full-tri build kit you want, in a relaxed geometry, for sub-$2000, your premier options are the K-factor and the Talon. If you go the shorty bar route, your best option is the sub-$2000 road bike of your choice -- set up as a road bike -- with the shorty bar of your choice.
WHICH DEALERS CARRY THESE BIKES: This topic is covered in our Dealer Survey.
