Any question answered...

Hello,

I am new to road cycling as I am starting Sprint triathlons this year. I have recently purchased a GT Series 3 bike. I go on a regular ride now of 11 miles and it takes 40 minutes and has a few moderate hills. Therefore 16.5 mph. My question is is this reasonable? And what benefit would I get from proper pedals and shoes. At this rate I will do the 24km of a sprint tri in about 50/55 minutes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

At the moment it's hard to say. You might be able to shave 5 minutes off.
Things to take into consideration:
1) How long it's going to take you to get the shoes off and changed to running shoes. With a set of locklaces you should be able to do this in under 3 minutes making it worth it.
2) Consider the difference between SPDs and Look type pedals/cycling shoes. Looks have a higher power transfer and therefore would make you ride faster. SPDs are far easier to run/walk short distances in and in triathlons you will have to do this due to no riding in transition. A prime example of this would be the Upton on Severn tri that my gf just did. The transition was over 50m long but you could mount within 10m of exiting it. However, on the return you had to dismount over 200m before entering the transition area. People doing this on Look type pedals were going slower and looking very unhappy indeed.

Two things that I would advise before you get cycling shoes. 1) Make your regular ride at least 30 miles, preferably longer. 2) Start doing time trials, at least 10 miles, it'll give you a feel for riding under race conditions.