We'll certainly have more to write about 2007 tri bikes than what we'll write below, but we know enough to make the following predictions.
One can safely say without the accusation of excessive hyperbole that 2006 was a watershed year in tri bike market. It wasn't that the bikes were all instantly different, or better. In fact, they progressed in an incremental measure about equal to that of other years. The difference was in what the buying public valued. No more did you hear, "What's that brand's cheapest Ultegra bike?" Nobody asked what brake calipers came on a P2 Carbon or a Seduza, or an Ordu. 2006 was the year of the frame, and a company's frameset determined its position on the market: If you had a hot frame, your bike sold, if you didn't, you were behind the eight ball.
Things are changing yet again. What's valued by -- and offered to -- the buying public will alter a bit in 2007. It's just no longer enough to have a carbon bike with a telescoping aero tube and post, and a rear wheel cut-out. The public wants more. It wants that bike to fit, and even to properly handle.
And this is what you'll find new for 2007: This is the year of geometry that fits. You'll find fewer new models made at 75 or 76 degrees of seat angle. Expect new molds to be made at 78 degrees or thereabouts, with longer front/centers, appropriately-sized head tubes, and aero bars and head tubes with relative heights that match each other. In other words, bike manufacturers are maturing, and their designers and product managers can't afford to make geometry and spec mistakes.
What has caused this heightened attention to bikes that fit correctly? First, it was the unhappy (for some bike makers) reality that a new feature unearthed: The aero tube and post that fit together was a sexy idea, but it laid bare certain bikes' problematic geometries. Retailers who routinely changed out round posts for those of different angles and aspects could "fix" a bike with a bad geometry. Nowadays fewer tri bikes have posts that are changeable, hence a bike with a poor geometry was "unfixable." Bike designers were forced to confront their outdated designs.
Secondly, retailers have become better acquainted with proper tri bike fit. They see the disconnect between the positions of Kona winner Faris Al Sultan and Kona bike record setter Torbjorn Sindballe on the one hand, and the outdated geometric ideas held by their tri bike suppliers on the other hand. They've complained, and their vendors have listened.
As a result, 2007 will be the year that sharpens the lines separating those bike companies holding onto the older ideas of shallower 75, 75 and 76-degree seat angles, versus those who're building their newer bikes at 77, 78 and 79-degrees, with head tube, trail, top tube and front/center dimensions to match.
In addition to the links below, we provide a separate section devoted to tri bikes for women in particular, and those 5'6" and shorter in general. It is here.
