Product Review by Run and Ride Performance Team Member, Adam Coates.
As a fairly tall 6’2” triathlete with long limbs, I have in the past struggled to find a good position on a time trial bike. Previous bikes have provided a relatively relaxed and upright upper body position due to a moderately relaxed frame geometry, which is further emphasised due to me requiring a very raised saddle to allow an ideal pedalling action.
All this however changed when I first got my hands on the Interval. Due to a mixture of the frames geometry and the range of adjustability in the saddles Switch Pitch System (SPS) the bike has allowed me to find great comfort and yet an aggressive setup, in which I have already seen... 2mins of time saving over a short 25km course.
The majority of my winter and early morning training rides are performed on a stationary trainer with a road geometry bike. Though when race season approaches I generally try to opt for more Time Trial specific riding and usually head out on those glorious Sunday mornings donning a sleek TT steed, ready to (in the past) attempt to enjoy that ridiculous hunched and neck aching riding style.
Luckily times have changed and so has my equipment choice, my last Sunday 3hr training ride was done on my new 2012 Moda Interval equipped with American Classic 50mm clinchers and SRAM Force groupset. This is the first big ride I have done on the Interval and so was a little apprehensive as to what I would feel like after 100km solo in the saddle. I managed those km’s in 3hrs, probably one of the finest most economical rides I have ever done with an avg. HR and speed of 138bpm @ 31.6 kph.
The mix of the sturdy carbon frame, perfect positioning, super fast carbon clincher wheels that bleed confidence and a great never missing a beat groupset lets me ride like this and in pure comfort never giving up on that speedy TT position… And after finishing off this training ride, I also ran a PB on my favourite 2mile loop. This bike is a triathlete’s dream…
If your curious, I have uploaded my training ride on the Moda Interval: Training Information.
You can keep up to date with my progress and training by following me on Twitter.