RELATED: The Evolution of the Swimming Wetsuit DesignĪbout the same time that Quintana Roo, which was named for one of Empfield’s favorite travel destinations in Mexico, launched, another inventor named Boone Lennon also produced a breakthrough piece of equipment designed specifically for triathletes. “It just happened through circumstance and freak luck,” because to make the wetsuits he’d designed specifically for triathletes, he needed to build a factory. But Empfield came to Slowtwitch after a pioneering career at the helm of Quintana Roo, a triathlon-specific wetsuit company he founded in 1987, sort of by accident, he says. These days, Empfield is known to many as Slowman on Slowtwitch, the expansive triathlon-focused website he founded in 1999. (Photo: Gary Newkirk/Allsport/Getty Images) Designing a Bike Specifically for Triathlon Scott Tinley of the United States riding in the 1991 Gatorade Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. That seat angle is “a lot farther forward” than in a traditional road bike, an advance that was pioneered by Dan Empfield. Hughes is an in-demand bike fitter who specializes in triathlon bikes. “The whole reason someone buys a tri bike is the angle of the seat,” says Brian Hughes, owner/manager of FastSplits, a multisport specialty store in West Newton. Where a road bike has the traditional ram’s horn curved handles with integrated brakes that are familiar to anyone who rode a 10-speed as a kid, the tri bike forgoes that design for a long set of aerobars.īut look beyond the bars, and you’ll start to notice a lot of other differences, too. The most obvious difference between a road bike and a triathlon bike is the handlebars. But tri bikes have developed into a distinct breed of vehicle, designed for the unique demands of multisport athletes looking to maximize efficiency. In triathlon, the best bikes usually are triathlon-specific bicycles, more commonly known as “tri bikes.” Many triathletes start their cycling journey with road bikes, and tri bikes could be considered an evolutionary offshoot of this type of cycle. There’s something for every need, every age, and increasingly, every two-wheeled sport. From a kid’s tricycle and BMX bikes to beach cruisers and road race bikes, it’s clear that not all rides are equal.

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