Essential Equipment for a Triathlete's Bike

Once the triathlon bug has sufficiently bitten you, understand that there is no looking back. Few people who finish several races can ever walk away and feel satisfied. With this in mind, if you become one of these lucky folks, you'll need to begin refining your equipment and curtailing your approach. You'll need to upgrade and streamline to not simply finish races, but instead to improve.

While three clearly defined and distinct stages exist, having quality bike gear is critical to making up lost time and shaving important seconds off the clock. As the common triathlete advice goes, that you can never lose a race in the water but you can on the bike, you must come to see that making yourself more aerodynamic, staying hydrated, and remaining undeterred are absolutes to entering transition two with a sense of confidence and enough energy to hit the pavement for the final run.

So, make sure you include the following pieces of gear on your bike.

1. An aero drinking system: Reaching for bottles, whether stored on the frame or behind your saddle, can pull you out of good aero position and, quite possibly more dangerously, lose balance. Installing a hydration system between your aero bars will make replenishing yourself easier and more productive.

2. Repair Kit: Flats happen, and if you have no emergency gear to combat the problem, you're going to sit by the roadside for a long, long time. Some races have crews that check for stranded riders, but you may need a haircut by the time they get there. Learn to fix the flat yourself and carry a quality repair pack that has a tube, a CO2 cartridge, a tire wrench and a patch kit.

3. Sport-specific tri shoes: Having cycling shoes will work fine for most weekend warrior triathletes, but if you want to push yourself to the next level, getting triathlon shoes is an important next step. Already clipped onto your pedals, these soft, formed shoes let you get on the bike faster, and they offer a breathable, functional quality that most regular cycling shoes fail to allow.

4. High quality saddle: Using a standard road bike saddle over long distance when your body is set in the aero position can simply hurt, and you do not need the pain from an overly firm saddle distracting you. Instead, invest in a good triathlon saddle designed for this type of body positioning and with long distances in mind.