Why people use Triathlon bicycles for Triathlon?

to begin a tri is a time trial, not a road race. you arent allowed to draft, but you are allowed to use things like areo bars. for those same reasons, you can't use a tri bike in a road race. races dont allow areo bars, because they are dangerous in crashes. true tri bikes have a more areo position, that is okay for time trialing, but isnt as stable and controlable as sitting more upright for a road race. putting more of your weight over the front puts you in a better position to fight wind, but it also makes it harder to control the bike in say a pack. now, i dont have money for a specialized tri/tt bike. in many cases riders use clip on areo bars and maybe a special set of wheels to do the tri/tt events, and then take them off so thier bike is legal for road racing again. it isnt quite as good as a tru tt bike, but not all of us have money coming out our ears.

Good question. A triathlon bike is not allowed in a road race, because of stability issues in large groups. It is quite a bit more aerodynamic, and hence excellent for the time and energy savings within a triathlon though. Remember, drafting is not allowed in a triathlon, and this allows the bike portion of a tri to be as if one is involved in their very own time trial (without riders too close) so the lesser stability of the bike is not as much of a danger.

yup Ivan is right. Tri-bikes are more aerodynamic in shape and puts the rider in a aerodynamic position. Thus cheating the wind and lessening the time to complete the race which is a very important factor for triathletes. Tri-bikes tend to be heavier because of the shape (which is a disadvantage on climbs for road racing). They tend to be less maneuvarable because of the aerobars which is a disadvantage also on road racing.

Drafting is forbidden in amateur triathlons, so aerodynamics is of the utmost importance. You could just put aerobars on a road bike, but then the geometry would be wrong for generating horsepower, and your legs would be a mess when you have to get off the bike and run. A lot of people do use road bikes for triathlon, but you don't find their names on the first page of results.

The geometry of a tri-bike uses different muscles than running or swimming compare to road racing bikes. To achieve this effect they lose some stability. Also, some weight is retained in the frame as tri-bikes need to be as aero as possible due to rules against drafting in competition.

WHOA!! Ivan....what did you just copy and paste my answer from the double-post of this question? Most uncool dude. Anyway, I stand by that answer, same as I did when I typed it. lol. :o) sheesh.

RideUrban ... maybe Ivan is proving imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? I must say that's the first time I've seen an answer ripped off like that. Shame on you Ivan.

Why do we use a football for playing football? or a basketball for playing basketball? because its the rules