The London Duathlon

I'm thinking of entering this: http://www.thelondonduathlon.co.uk/

Can anyone give me some tips on what I need to do for transition? I assume you don't just wear normal trainers and sit down to casually slip off the Sidis and lace them on?

Also, can I just pop tri bars on my road bike? The ones I've seen don't have brakes - seems very iffy to me.

If you live in/near London, I would recommend doing one of the RG Active brick training sessions (just google RG Active and you'll find it). These basically teach you how to do transitions. I have competed in the London Duathlon twice, and each time, the weekend before, I completed their brick training session in Richmond Park, which I found really helped get me ready.

You can put tri bars on your road bike if you want them - in the first couple of years I competed, I never bothered and just rode with normal drop bars - not a big deal. There'll be plenty of people competing on mountain bikes or hybrids!

London Duathlon is a really fun event. A bit expensive, but well run and a super atmosphere. I highly recommend it.