Bikes

I agree with what Dan had to say.  Every upgrade has increased my speed.

Some of it is better conditioning and it is ultimately the engine pulling the train, but if you don't have to fight you equipment every little bit helps.

Moving from standard pedals to clipless upped my speed
Adding the aero bars increased my speed
Switching to the new bike has upped my speed.

I recall struggling to keep 15 mph going for any distance.
Now 15 mph and it feels like I'm slacking.
20-24 mph in a paceline is comfortable

This last weekend I hooked by coincidence hooked up with a tri club out for a ride.
I kept trading places with another guy who was on a tri bike (p2c)  and we were doing 24 and not particualry working hard.  I was on my new road bike.
Yeah it was drafting for him and I, but I couldn't have done that on my old aluminum bike for any distance.

Even when I'm not going faster, the amount of work I'm putting out to maintain the speed i'm going feels significantly diminished, I can maintain it for a longer period of time.

Scott

I've owned a lot of bikes over the years. This is my take on it:

Better shifters/derailers/brakes are always worth it.

Better other stuff is often, but not always worth it.

I bought an entry level road bike and in 6 months I wanted a better one. I bought a cheap bike computer and in 3 months I found out about cadence (which it didn't have) and I wanted a better one. I bought a cheap HRM and in 1 month I wanted a better one because it was so hard to use and unreliable. And the list goes on...

I wasted so much money trying to save 25, 30, 100 here and there.

There are definitely ways to save money on triathlon. But you need to be careful. Trying to save $100 on a bike is often completely not worth it IME. (Unless the cheaper bike is actually a better bike, just on sale for some reason.)

Saving $1000 by not getting a tricked out TT bike, sure. In fact, you don't *have* to have a tri bike and, if you like hilly courses, a road bike might actually be a better choice.

You don't have to have the $500 wetsuit. If it fits right, the $250 wetsuit is fine. So are the $6 bottle cages instead of the $25 ones.

Other ways to save money:

- buy last year's model
- buy used on Craigslist or eBay.
- Shop the sales.
- Join a tri or running club and use the club discounts.

Those are all good ways to save money that you won't regret.

Oh and the quick release kit for the Garmin is totally worth it too. Just remember to put your computer back on your wrist before you leave T2. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...