Not much can beat that new bike feeling… but having only had my road bike for two years, my wallet simply can’t take the hit of buying another. Luckily there are plenty of things that you can do to your bike to keep it feeling fast and fresh without splashing out on a whole new bike, so here are eight upgrades I’ve made to my road bike to make it better* than a new one could ever be.
Before we get into our upgrades, it’s worth adding that first and foremost, this article is aimed at those who want a better performing road bike. Some of the tips might be useful to all road cyclists, but if speed doesn’t concern you and/or you’re on an even tighter budget, check out our buyer’s guide to the best upgrades under £50. If it’s more comfort you want, then we’ve got a whole article on how to make your bike more comfortable too!
* In my opinion. And until the N+1 temptation gets too much…
Bye bye butyl tubes
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it many times again – I have a bit of a grudge against butyl inner tubes – you know the heavy, cheap ones that come with just about every bike on the market. While I don’t want to start an argument about whether you should or shouldn’t go tubeless, the evidence is quite clear that on a performance-focused bike, pretty much all the alternatives are better than butyl.
> Should you get tubeless tyres?
On my Allez with its wide (30mm) tyres, I have indeed gone for a tubeless setup – but I’m also a fan of latex tubes, particularly for summer riding when the risk of puncturing is less, as they’re lighter and comfier than butyl inner tubes.
> Butyl v latex v TPU inner tubes: which should you choose?
There’s also the choice of TPU tubes which again are lighter, roll faster and feel better than butyl. I always carry one of these in my back pocket as a space-saving spare.
Any one of those three options is a great value-for-money upgrade that’s just begging to be made, and will give tangible benefits over butyl.
Cost of upgrading: £20 – £40
Lights (and good mounts for them)
It’s a bit of a rogue upgrade I know, but one that I think has made a bigger difference to my riding than potentially any other. Fitting lights on your bike is one of the best ways to improve your safety out on the road, but despite knowing this I invariably headed out on daytime rides without them.
However, since investing in some better mounts I’ve found that the reduced faff has meant that I’m far more likely to head out the door with a front and rear flasher fitted.
That means that if I spend too long chatting at the cafe and then have to ride home at dusk, then I’m not going to get caught out by receding light. I’ve got that peace of mind that I’m going to be more visible than without them.
My current setup has a quarter-turn mount fitted underneath my out-front computer mount, and a magnetic mount at the rear that I can leave attached to the seatpost so I don’t lose those pesky elastic bands.
Cost of upgrading: £60+ (My setup cost around £120)
Tailor your gearing
> 1x vs 2x: Are single chainring set-ups the future of road cycling?
Yes, I run 1x. Get over it! There is no such thing as the perfect gearing, as everyone likes to ride at a different cadence and on different terrain. Even the pros can’t agree on what’s best for any single stage.
Therefore, it’s fairly unlikely that the gearing your bike comes with is the perfect equipment for you. For relatively little money you can tune it to better suit your needs.
> Suffering on the hills? Find out how to get lower gears to make climbing easier
If you find yourself running out of gears then it’s quite likely that you’ll be able to fit a bigger cassette to your bike, or, on the other hand, if you never touch the last few gears then you could go for a closer range cassette to narrow down the jumps. This means you’ll have a better chance of finding a more comfortable cadence.
The benefit of having the right gearing on your bike can’t be overstated. It can improve your efficiency, comfort, power, and in some cases even reduce the chance of picking up injuries.
Cost of upgrading: £50+ (Obviously it depends on the level of cassette/chainrings you buy)
The right tyres for the job
The only thing that connects your bike to the tarmac is the tyres, so getting the right ones for your riding is crucial. With new tyres, you can improve grip in crappy weather, go a bit faster, add some much-needed comfort or simply reduce your risk of puncturing.
What you buy depends on the riding that you’re going to be doing, as no tyres have yet mastered the art of balancing speed, puncture protection and durability (and probably never will).
A softer compound, as found on performance-focused tyres, is better suited to summer riding. They’re faster, but with the trade-off of less puncture protection. Harder compounds trade off some grip in return for being longer lasting.
> Why wider tyres on road bikes are here to stay
Most road bikes will now take at least 28mm tyres, but for a winter of B-road riding, I’ve opted for these 30mm tyres for added comfort. I’m currently running a set of Vittoria Corsa Controls, which are what the pros have used for Classics, races over cobblestones and mucky lanes.
I find that they give a great balance of speed, durability and puncture protection but your ideal combination might compromise elsewhere.
Cost of upgrading: £60 – £140
Not so marginal gains!
One of the nicest feelings of a new bike is a silent and crisp drivetrain, but there’s no reason why you can’t get your current bike running a little bit sweeter.
During the summer months, I choose to wax my chain as it creates a friction-reducing coating that repels dirt and grime. I’ve also found it to be much cleaner than most drip lubes. A clean and well-lubricated chain will be quieter, smoother, and help to extend component life. Apparently, it will also save you a few watts. Happy days!
> What is chain waxing and should you do it?
I realise that waxing can be a bit of an ordeal, especially if you’ve not done it before, but just staying on top of replacing your chain as it wears and keeping it clean and lubricated will prevent annoying squeaks, and help your bike feel a whole lot fresher.
Cost of upgrading: £5 – £30 (Will get you multiple applications)
The classic wheel upgrade
If you’ve got a bit more money to play with, then the classic way to improve a stock road or gravel bike is to upgrade the wheels. Quite often this is an area that the manufacturer has looked to save some money, either to make a price point, increase their margin… or both.
Before buying a set of wheels, consider what you want them to do. For example, most of my rides are flat, so I went for something quite deep and aero. However, if you regularly ride the hills or mountains then something shallower and lighter might be the way to go. It’s also worth considering the internal width and what will play nicely with your tyres of choice.
I went for the 60mm Hunt Limitless wheels, because they’re rather good value compared to a lot of other premium wheelsets. I’ve also been impressed with their stability in crosswinds thanks to the super wide front rim profile.
If you want a wheelset to ride year-round, consider looking at higher spoke count wheels, or ones with brass nipples as these won’t corrode in salty conditions.
> Are expensive carbon wheels worth it? Testing deep carbon rims vs classic aluminium
Don’t discount wheels with aluminium rims either. They can often be competitively light and still a decent upgrade over many stock wheelsets. In fact, I would very happily take some of the top aluminium wheelsets over all manner of carbon alternatives.
These days you’ll generally be looking at spending between the £400 and £800 mark for a meaningful upgrade, and you can find some of our top picks in the buyers guide linked in the description.
Cost of upgrading: £400-£800 approx (but you can easily spend more or less)
A power meter (coming soon)
Ok, so I said I’d made eight upgrades… well, I haven’t actually pulled the trigger on this one yet.
If you’re a performance-minded rider then the ultimate bike upgrade you can make might well be a power meter. Even the fanciest of bikes will only make you a tiny bit quicker, whereas focused training will make a whole heap of difference. These days they come in all shapes and sizes, but the one common feature is that they’ve come down in price a lot!
> 12 reasons why you should buy, and use, a power meter
A power meter is the most accurate way to gauge your effort, and is a more reliable metric than heart rate data because it is less affected by external factors such as fatigue.
Obviously, power meters are just a tool and they’re not instantly going to make you faster – but they can help with pacing on longer efforts and give you lots of data to analyse when you get back, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Rather than try to judge myself against mates who are horrendously erratic with their training or on timed sections, which can be made or broken by a headwind, I now always like to train with a power meter so that I can see how my efforts stack up to previous efforts, regardless of conditions.
Sadly, the Quarq I was using won’t fit my current chainring, so I’m in the market for a new one. Which to buy? Time to familarise myself with our guide to the best power meters again.
Cost of upgrading: £300-£600 approx
The ultimate peace of mind: an Airtag
> Apple AirTags: can you use them to track your bike?
Bikes can very often cost as much as a car, but unlike those sizeable blocks of metal, they don’t have locks and are much much harder to track if they get into the wrong hands.
Adding a covert AirTag to your bike can increase the likelihood of recovering your bike or add peace of mind if you regularly travel with it. An Airtag is particularly useful if you often ride in towns or cities or like to leave your bike unattended during stops on long rides (please don’t do this, it makes me wince!)
> Staff bikes: Jamie’s 2022 Specialized Allez Sprint dream build
There are now all manner of accessories to help you store them, from ones which mount under your bottle cage, one under your saddle and even these which hide the tag inside a tubeless tyre for anyone with high-volume tyres.
I’m not going to tell you where I’ve hidden mine, but yes I have been busy playing with a 3D printer again. Place your guesses in the comments below!
Cost of upgrading: £50 – £80 (For Airtag and mount)
Let us know if you’ll be making any of these upgrades, as well as any of your favourites that we’ve missed down in the comments section…
13 thoughts on “8 upgrades I’ve made to my road bike to make it better than a new one”
I still think the best
I still think the best protection this bike has from being stolen is the appearance. It looks like a hamfisted cut and shut made from 2 broken bikes with those appalling joints on the downtube/ top tube. No-one would ever think it was worth nicking!
SimoninSpalding wrote:
3, there’s bits of Giant, Specialized and Parlee in there
I think this sums up one of
I think this sums up one of the major issues with bike manufacturers, they should offer all bikes as framesets. I bought a new bike at new year, but only wanted a frameset, but they didnt offer that as an option other than for the highest spec frame, which cost more than the new bike I bought.
But i have changed as much as I have kept to set it up how I wanted:
Still original: frame, fork, headset, stem spacers, brakes and hoses, front and rear derailleurs, chain, axles, seat clamp, Di2 battery and cables, bar tape
Changed: bars, shifters, stem, saddle, seatpost, crankset, BB, wheels, tyres, tubes, disk rotors, cassette
When you buy a frame set and
When you buy a frame set and seperately components and built it, it will most likely cost you more even if you do the assembly, due to economies of scale.
I think building up a frame makes more sense when you have a bucketload of money and uniques tastes, you are ahead of your era (early monstercross builts were practically the gravel bikes of today), you have or can get used components at low prices or simply you have made very bad planning of your cycling needs and you keep changing components until you have been left only with the frame, fork, headset and seatpost clamp.
cyclisto wrote:
The benefit is that you get exactly the bike that you want, with no waste.
I have never built a bike up from scratch with new components, but I have upgraded my bike over time with the components I want. The last upgrade was to a new frame, I simply transferred most of the parts off the old frame. If I added it all up it would not compete with a pre-assembled bike, but I haven’t had to pay it out all in one go. I now have the perfect bike (for me), and that is something that I could never buy off the shelf.
I was the last category, very
I was the last category, very bad planning, so ended up with just having the original frame, fork, headset and seatpost clamp. Yes, most of the parts were resold, and helped reviving another 90s bike that I stripped and repainted, but had I spent the same money (after subtracting money from reselling old parts) on a new bike, I would have a much lighter one and better specs.
But on the other hand, I don’t think of ever changing it. It does its job after all quite good, has a good fit (I think) and given its history, it still looks cool to me.
Saddle, BB and crankset were
Saddle, BB and crankset were from previous bike. Bars, shifters, wheels were from ebay. Leaves only stem, seatpost (both bike specific), tyres, tubes, rotors and cassette being new.
Items removed have either been sold (shifters, cranks, BB) or moved onto another bike (cheap training/winter/pub bike) built around v cheap frame off ebay plus other bits I had hanging around.
Havent done the maths, and difficult to know what the price for the frameset alone would have been anyway. However next bike up the range is nearly double the price, and I still would have changed nearly all the same items (not shifters and probably not wheels) even though better components, as ultimately most are about getting the perfect position on the bike and the way it feels/rides.
If you buy a new car you can specify certain things eg wheels, stereo system, upholstery. Few bike manufactures do the same.
Well, they are in so far as
Well, they are in so far as you can often buy the version with the cheap aluminium wheels or the one with the carbon wheels. And some sellers allow you to choose items too. I just bought a new bike from Pearson and handlebars plus width, crank length, wheels, group set etc were all options.
NickSprink wrote:
Are accessories such as
Are accessories such as lights an upgrade? I’d say no, unless you got a bike with lights such as a city bike or that C’dale Synapse thing, which this (whichever one it is) is not.
What is an “upgrade”, and
What is an “upgrade”, and what does it matter anyway?
So in your argument against
So in your argument against butyl tubes, you’ve given the very reason for them. Brilliant.
Jamie, that light mount looks
Jamie, that light mount looks great, but there are two problems:
1) Since the angle isn’t adjustable, you have to be extremely careful about choosing a light and brightness level that don’t blind oncomers.
2) You’ve got the lens cover on upside down! Those little lines should be at the top to help act as a cutoff and throw the light downwards onto the street and away from oncomers’ eyes, but you’ve got them on the bottom throwing the light into the sky and oncomers’ eyes. (It’s easy to pull that cover off and flip it around.)