Recommended Buys

This is not your normal Gatorade or even G2 - this is the good stuff! With nearly DOUBLE the sodium and TRIPLE the potassium of regular Gatorade, this is the electrolyte beverage I choose for all my endurance activities for both training and racing.

As an added bonus, Gatorade has won contracts with Ironman in the US, meaning that if you like this stuff during training, you don't have to carry it with you on course as it's what they stock all the aid stations with.

**I've yet to have found this in stores, so this is likely an online-only buy.

This is the only salt product I use anymore. I used to use salt pills or tablets but after trying BASE Salt, I can safely say I'll never go back. At the onset of cramping, I've found that just two to three licks of this has had me recovered in less than 60 seconds. Figuring out the right interval timing to take before cramping has had me able to avoid painful muscle cramps altogether.

I love these things! Great flavor, easy to chew and digest, these are a race day and long training day treat. They've got carbs, electrolytes, vitamins B and C, and they have that caffeine kick that keeps me going when the hours are dragging on.

Often nicknamed "Crack Waffles," these things are almost too delicious to be any good for you, but with the right mix of fat, carbs, and sodium, these have been known to put a smile on my face when I'm exhausted and need the motivation to keep pushing on.

The first 20-30 minutes after a hard workout are the most critical for feeding your body the nutrients it's craving to rebuild and recover from training.

You can spend a lot of money on protein supplements but that just seems silly to me. This stuff works great and I blend up a scoop with milk and a banana after every training session and it's provided a noticeable benefit to my recovery.

It comes in lots of tasty flavors, but in my opinion nothing beats Chocolate and Peanut Butter. YUM!

This is the watch I use and don't plan on switching any time soon. Yes, the 935 is out, and yes, it's better. BUT, with the release of the new 935, the price on this has dropped down to super-affordable levels. If you're looking for a GPS watch that does it all for triathlon and won't entirely break the bank, this is your watch. Available in Red and White or in Black and Blue.

This is the watch I use and don't plan on switching any time soon. Yes, the 935 is out, and yes, it's better. BUT, with the release of the new 935, the price on this has dropped down to super-affordable levels. If you're looking for a GPS watch that does it all for triathlon and won't entirely break the bank, this is your watch. Available in Red and White or in Black and Blue.

Best value around to keep your chain nice and clean. You can see me using this in my chain cleaning and maintenance video. There are other chain cleaners out there that are a bit more durable, but this one wins on price point.

I use this in my chain cleaner and for spot-treating any stubborn greasy spots on my bike. This stuff is magic and surprisingly low cost. A bottle lasts me nearly more than a year, and I regularly clean my and my wife's bike with it. Another great bang for your buck purchase that'll keep your bike running smoothly and looking clean as a whistle.

Unless I'm riding in wet weather, this is the only lube I use. The bottle lasts a long time and makes the chain run smooth through the cogs and helps make silky smooth gear changes. Best lube out there, in my opinion.

Training in Seattle meant finding a lube that would work well on those long, wet, rainy rides. This lube fits the bill perfectly and I wouldn't recommend using anything else if you're riding in weather. I still keep a bottle of this around for those rainy days I have a ride scheduled.

This chain cleaner is the best one on the market for durability, in my opinion. I tend to make due with the White Lightening cleaner, but that's just because of my frugality. If you can swing the price of this one, it's well worth the investment to keep your chain super clean and running smoothly.

Routine maintenance to your cleat and pedal system is vital to making them last AND to ensure that when you need to unclip, there's no hesitation. If you don't get this kind of lubricant, get something to keep yourself safe and keep those pedals working smooth.

Simple, small, and works like a charm. You can see mine in all my race day photos and I highly recommend getting this over the bulky fancy inflators you see at higher prices. This thing just works. Anything more than this just seems like a waste of money to me.

I can do almost any roadside repair or adjustment with this gem. Small, lightweight, and has nearly every major bike tool you'd need shy of a serious bike malfunction. I never leave home nor transition area without mine.

When it comes to tightening screws into a carbon frame, over-tightening can spell disaster. A good torque wrench set can be super pricey though, so I'm glad I found one of these guys. No more threat of over-tightening on my bike! Simple, affordable, and comes with every bit size you'll need for most bikes. It's small size is even more convenient when it comes to traveling with my bike and having to break it down and build it up to take it on a plane. This one's a no-brainer if you love your bike and want to make sure you don't risk fracturing your frame.

They finally came out with an all-in-one tool for quick link removal and installation! If you use quick links, get this tool. It's not expensive and makes taking your chain apart for cleaning and putting it back together a breeze.

Over time your chain is going to start to stretch. Once it gets out of alignment, it will start to do more serious damage to your expensive chain rings and cassette. This little tool cost next to nothing and can save you big bucks if you just check your chain every few months for stretching and replace it when the indicator shows it's grown too long.

Not necessarily a tool for everyone, but if you're getting to the point that you are wanting to swap out your cassette for a bigger or smaller size for that hilly or flat race coming up, this tool in conjunction with the Lockring Removal Tool is all you need to swap out the cassette yourself and save the time and money it takes to have your local bike shop do it for you. Great price, and anything that's made by Park Tool has my stamp of approval.

This is the tool you'll need to remove your rear cassette. Not a difficult or scary task to do with this affordable adapter, but nearly impossible without it. If you're not into bike maintenance or needing to change your gearing for hills, etc., you probably will never need one of these. But if you want to try your hand and making some simple changes and learning more about your bike, this is a good place to start.

Taking your pedals off, either to change them out, perform maintenance or cleaning, or to put your bike in a travel case, can be done quickly and easily with this pedal wrench. Just remember to turn the wrench rearward to remove the pedals and forward to tighten them (righty tighty, lefty loosey doesn't apply to pedals!).

After dropping my bike too many times while trying to clean it or do any kind of maintenance to it while it's leaning up against a wall, I finally bit the bullet and bought one of these. Seriously, this might be the best investment I've ever made. It makes everything so much simpler! There are bike stands that go from cheap and flimsy all the way up to hundreds of dollars, but I've found this guy to be the most bang for your buck available. This product is made to last and comes with a very reasonable price tag.

Best bang for your buck in CO2 cartridges. This 6 pack should last you a long time between having to buy again and the 16oz size is perfect for making sure you can get all filled up, even if you have a mishap and waste a bit trying to put the nozzle on.

This thing is BRIGHT! My biggest fear on the road is a car not seeing me and swerving into my bike lane. I put this on high flashing mode and can be seen from more than a half mile away. It's USB rechargeable, too, and the battery holds up to those long multi-hour rides. Additionally, the elastic strap works for all seat posts, too, which is nice if you've got a long, narrow, aero seat post like many triathlon bikes have.

This is the same cage I use on my P3. Keeping a water bottle behind the saddle has show to reduce drag while being a convenient place to store fluids. I like this setup because it comes with a great cage that holds tight to my bottle, helping prevent ejections that I've had with other models when the road gets bumpy. It also attaches to the seat, which means it'll work on almost anyone's bike setup.

Lightweight and durable carbon fiber bottle cages are perfect for this sport. This affordable package even comes as a 2 pack! Some carbon cages can cost upwards of $100 each, so this is, in my opinion, the best value around.

Small style, lightweight aluminum, and a firm grip all come together to make this a great bottle cage for the downtube, aero bars, or seat tube. Not a bad price, either.

If you're looking for the most cost effective bottle cage, this is it. There is nothing fancy or worth writing home about, but I use this cage personally on my aero bar setup and it's worked just fine. Can't beat that price!

Riding your trainer at home can be really taxing on your nice tires that are designed to ride on the road. Get yourself one of these trainer tires and you don't have to worry about wearing down your nice road tires when you're logging hours in the saddle at home during your Netflix binge sessions.

Safety first! This is the headlight I use for all my city rides to keep me visible to cars. It has a pulse/steady mode, too, which makes me visible while still being able to see the road ahead of me in low-light conditions.

The best part? The mount is able to swivel 90° so I can mount this on the underside of my aero bars on my tri bike (normally there's no place to mount a headlight on a tri bike cockpit).

Like my taillight, it's USB rechargeable and lasts for hours so I never have to worry about replacing batteries or the thing going dead when I need it.

If you've got a pickup truck, this little guy is the perfect way to transport your bike safely in the bed.

I have two of these in my Tacoma truck and have hauled mine and my wife's bikes all over the place. Not that I ever leave my bike unattended for an extended period of time, but the locking mechanism is great for when we want to stop for coffee after a long ride and not have to worry about a quick snatch and grab theft.

Absolute best bang for the buck (usually under $20) if you have a pickup truck and need to travel with your bike.

Between training and racing, I've gone through more helmets than anyone should have to before landing on this perfect piece of equipment.

This helmet is much more aero than a teardrop helmet if you look around at all during a race. It also doesn't look nearly as goofy during training rides, so you don't have to buy two different kinds of helmets for racing and training.

I love the aero shield, too, which means I don't have to mess with sunglasses on my ride and the aerodynamics of this thing at speed are surprisingly noticeable.

Giro's even done a great job adding tons of color varieties so you're all but guaranteed to find one that matches your kit/bike perfectly.

I use YouTube for most of my learning how-to bike stuff, but this manual is handy to have around when you just want to look something up real quick or want to read about various bike maintenance tasks. A great read and handy resource for anyone looking to take care of their bike with their own hands.

I love this stuff! I used to use Body Glide until I found out how much better this stuff is. I spray it wherever I would use Chamois butter (yup, all over there), on my neck and back where my wetsuit rubs, on my ankles to make wetsuit removal a snap, and all over my feet in T2 to avoid blisters when my feet get wet as I douse myself in water.

No other lubricant compares to this stuff as far as I'm concerned. If you've got friction, chafing, and/or hot spots, give this stuff a try and see if it doesn't work miracles for you like it has for me.

Another no-brainer purchase for all triathletes. If you're still messing around with safety pins, STOP IT! Put your bib on this belt and leave your belt on your shoes in transition. You can now put your bib on while you're running out of T2 (or, before grabbing your bike in T1 as is required in some races).

The perfect companion for Zwift fans, this is the USB Ant+ stick that plugs into your computer or laptop port and allows you to connect your watch, power meter, cadence sensor, heart rate data, and more.

Some of the older Garmin sports watches use this to connect wirelessly, too, so you can sync without having to take your watch off and put it on the cradle.

I haven't tied my shoes in almost 6 years. If you haven't tried elastic laces, what are you waiting for? Not only do these save you time in T2, but they give you a consistent, solid feel every time and never come untied.

There are lots of elastic laces to chose from, but the Lock Laces get my vote for best bang for the buck.

These are some of the best, lightweight, comfortable, triathlon ready shoes available for women that come at a very reasonable price. Great to wear immediately after the swim with wet feet and no socks so they make T1 a breeze. Best bang for the buck in my opinion.

If you use Speedplay pedals, these are an absolute must buy. Not only do these protect your cleats, making them last longer, but they allow you to safely walk in your cycling shoes when you have to unclip and walk inside your favorite coffee shop. There are other cleat protectors out there, but the beauty of these is that you don't have to take them off when it's time to ride again.

If you haven't bought pedals yet or you're looking for a new set, Speedplay is king in my book and this updated version comes with the outer tread already on it (like the aftermarket Keep on Kovers) so you can walk when you unclip from the pedals without damaging the cleats or risking a slip and fall.

These are the only tubes I ride now, and at these prices, it's a wonder why anyone would pay more for higher-end tubes. These are lightweight enough for racing yet durable enough that they don't pop on the sudden road hazard. These will fit any road bike wheel that's a 700 size (Note: they won't work if you have a smaller size bike that uses 650 wheels!).

There are a LOT of power meters on the market today but in my opinion, the Power Tap C1 Chainrings are the absolute most bang for your buck. I've said it before, but buying a power meter, any power meter, is by FAR the best investment you can make in your training and racing performance. If used correctly, you will see the fastest possible gains in the least amount of time and will maximize BOTH your bike AND run splits on race day.

The Power Tap C1 gives me accurate, consistent power readings and has been the key to my continued PRs on race day. The sub $700 price tag makes this one of the more affordable options that still comes with the high-end brand name that Power Tap has been recognized for.

There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad equipment!

If you're riding in cold and/or wet conditions, these tights will keep you warm and dry. Having trained in Seattle winters for years, these were the difference between enjoying my winter rides and hating them. These are well worth the investment and will last you for years if you take care of them.

There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad equipment!

If you're riding in cold and/or wet conditions, these tights will keep you warm and dry. Having trained in Seattle winters for years, these were the difference between enjoying my winter rides and hating them. These are well worth the investment and will last you for years if you take care of them.

Super comfortable and value-priced, I love my Pearl iZUMi Quest Cycling shorts and wear them for 100% of my training rides where weather permits shorts.

I have a pair for the trainer that have finally worn through after 3 seasons of training and another pair for all my outdoor rides that are still like new after thousands of miles in the saddle.

Best bang for your buck as far as I'm concerned, and being neutral black, these look great with any top.

For training and racing, this is my preferred goggle. There are a lot more expensive options available, but why mess with a good thing with a value price?

I have completed 8 full Ironman races and countless shorter distance triathlons with these as well as thousands of training yards and never had them break, leak, or otherwise fail on me.

I have one pair for racing and another pair for training and just love these things.

These are my favorite triathlon cycling shoes and it's what I wear for all my rides, training and racing. I started with the plastic ones (model SH-TR31, which are totally fine and for sure more bang for your buck) but I got a smoking deal on the carbon composite ones here and I just love these perfect triathlon cycling shoes.

These are legit triathlon cycling shoes and are designed to be worn barefoot with wet feet and have the single, large Velcro strap and heel hook that makes these super easy to put on while going down the road (you can see this super efficient method in action in my transition clinic video).

Incredible shoe at a very reasonable price. Well worth the investment if you're looking for a triathlon cycling shoe that will perform exceptionally well and last for thousands of miles (I'm currently in my 4th season with the same pair and have done 7 full Ironman 140.6 races with these and all the included training miles and B races that come with that and I still haven't come close to wearing them out yet).

These are the plastic version of the TR60 model that I currently use. This was my first triathlon cycling shoe after I learned how silly it is to use cycling shoes in this sport instead of triathlon cycling shoes.

These have all the features and benefits as the more expensive TR60s (sockless design, heel hook, made for comfort with wet feet after the swim, single Velcro strap) at a fraction of the price.

These are the most bang for your buck shoes I recommend to anyone looking to get a great pair of shoes for training and racing triathlons. The only downfall to these over the carbon ones is a slightly less ridged feel and the added weight of plastic polymer over carbon fiber. Unless you're FTP is over 300 though, I doubt you'd notice the difference.