I decide what bikes I ride and review.  Typically, I choose bikes I’m interested in owning or buying my 13 year old protégé (he'll be faster than me by the time he's 15).  One of our favorite brands is Guru and one of our favorite bikes is the TriLite. 

For 2005, Guru replaced the seat tube with one that is full aero, all the way to the top.  Additionally, the new seat tube includes the now very common rear wheel cutout for better aerodynamics.  While Guru also includes horizontal drop outs, they're not adjustable and you cannot tuck the rear wheel behind the seat tube quite as close as you can with adjustable drop outs.  While rear-entry (horizontal) drop outs are slightly more difficult to work with, Guru uses them in order to allow enough spacing to get the rear wheel in.  This is because the bottom of the seat tube actually extends a little to "encircle" the rear wheel (which results in even better aerodynamics).  If Guru used vertical drop outs, the wheel would actually hit the tube and you could not get it in.  

I was concerned that the new seat tube’s 200g additional weight would detract from the exceptional ride of the '04 version.  That is definitely not the case; if anything, the ’05 has an even better ride.  As an interesting experiment, I decided to get a 53cm instead of the 51cm size I used in the ’04.  The difference is a 1.5cm longer top tube that puts me slightly more forward on the saddle (I did not change the position of the saddle or the length of the stem).  While my bum gets sore riding on the nose of the saddle, I am very comfortable everywhere else and am slightly faster.  I may end up moving the saddle a tad forward to an effective 77 degrees to move my bum back on the more supportive and far more comfortable part.

The TriLite is an incredibly stable, comfortable and fast platform and the ride of the more aero ’05 is the best I’ve ever felt while riding in the aero position.  That doesn't necessarily mean its the best tri bike or even the best tri bike for me (I don't think there is such a thing as the "best bike").  Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoy riding the TriLite every single time I take it out.

The picture of this bike shows it with my training wheels (the yellow bike is the one I'm riding; the white bike was at Interbike).  It looks even better with race wheels.  I will post a picture of it with HED’s new H3 Carbon wheels with my review of the same.  For those of you not familiar with Guru or the TriLite, see my detailed review of the ’04 version here.  Please note that I am using the Alpha Q aero fork as opposed to the stock Dedacciai.  Guru uses both forks, but the Alpha Q must be special ordered.  I prefer the ride of the Alpha Q.

KDG