Decoding the Needs of the Tri-Bike: Kicking Off Ironman Week

The bike check in for Ironman is on Saturday, so this means that we have a solid five days to address any issues that these athletes may have. The vibe in the store is mixed at this point; most people are not in panic attack mode yet. Although, at this stage we do help a lot of people who are more particular and planned when it comes to their bike setup, and these people are normally more detail focused, so the team and I do have to be on our game to make sure everything is perfect.  

The customers we are helping this early in the week are typically the people who come a whole week in advance to make sure that they are well-rested and adjusted for the time of the race. These people are for the most part good stewards of their bikes, and aren't leaving major problems off to the last minute. For this reason, most of the services that we did today included  pre-race checks, tire changes, chain waxes, etc.

These types of services are a good start to the week; it allowed myself and the guys to start getting more acquainted with working on these more complicated and expensive tri-bikes without having to deal with major emergencies yet.

The modern triathlon bike is quite a complicated machine consisting of carbon, hydraulic fluid, circuit boards, tire sealant, and batteries; there are a lot of things to go wrong, and usually, it's not a straightforward fix. Lots of the high-end bikes that we see are closer to a competition race car, rather than a daily driver car that is designed for reliability. These race bikes are simply optimized for speed, and few compromises are made to make the bike more reliable or simple to work on.

Unfortunately, a majority of these bikes don’t regularly receive the level of service that they deserve, and for some people, that means they have some problems that could have been avoided with better maintenance beforehand. Depending on where the customers are traveling from, finding a shop that is equipped to work on $15,000+ triathlon bikes is not always possible.

The approach that works best to service a majority of bikes is one that includes some creative problem-solving and trial and error. However, modern tri-bikes do not reward this type of mindset; these bikes require much more precision to get working right. This includes reading manuals, using torque wrenches, and some analysis before starting to adjust anything.

As the week progresses, the consequences of any hurdle that we might face increase. Today, we were able to order replacement parts for customers, and those parts will get here in time for us to install them safely before the race on Sunday. However, in a few more days, we won't have this luxury, and what would normally be a relatively simple fix with the right part can become the thing that prevents the customer from being able to race in the race that they have trained for all year and traveled from the other side of the country for.

This extra high stakes can make my job as the mechanic become more stressful than normal, and can feel overwhelming at times. Over the years, I have become more comfortable with this pressure and feel better equipped to face these challenges. In tomorrow's post, I will be discussing the feelings that I have felt over the years while trying to make athletes' bikes usable for the race.