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Best upgrade to make
I currently have a giant defy with shimano sora groupset..
It rides spot on but what upgrade could I make or would you make to your bike to see the biggest advantage in performance?
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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23 comments
Well the obvious answer is to upgrade the wheels, but being a big lad that's hardly a priority for me, therefore you sometimes need to think out of the box.
1. A tandem - Sure being the stoker isn't the glamorous perch to take, but get a driver, female preferably, with a great ass and enjoy the view.
2. A trailer - for carrying your esprosso maker and all manner of bike porn giving maximum inspiration while out on your ride.
3. Unicycle - Cut the cost of parts and maintenance by half. Gives you even more money and time to spend out on your bike.
1a. A quick-release tilt system for the rear seat of your tandem, for jettisoning the sexist boor behind you.
Agree with the majority that wheels are the way to go but I am going to question this love of "hand built" wheels, i have gone over to "factory built" (quite often hand built by a man in a factory) wheels and have had no problems with them (apart from two Campag Zonda freehubs both destroying bearings in 2-3000 miles). Have a look at something like Pro Lite Bracciano A42W, will take 23 to 35mm tyres and are tubeless ready too. Dont get me started on tubeless either, I have gone back to tyres and tubes after getting fed up with having to top up sealant, when the sealant dries up or gets below a critical amount, tubeless are just as prone to punctures as tyrea and tubes.
Definitely hand-built wheels: Open Pro UST or Kinlins are tubeless ready, wide rimmed and can be bought from wheelbuilders such as Harry Rowland in Ramsgate. Both are excellent - circa £300. Tyres would be the next upgrade, depending on what you have already. Then your groupset to 105.... A decent stem and handlebars can change the front end feel of your bikes massively and can be had from eBay... Thomson and Deda carbon bars are great.
Spoke to Harry this morning and he suggested the mavic open pro rims with the 105 r7000 11spd hubs for future proofing. Black sapin race spokes..
has anyone got this wheel set?
i should see an improvement over the pr2 giant wheels?
If I were buying new wheels today I would absolutely make sure that they would accept tubeless tyres. I believe that some rims in the Open Pro family do and some do not, but I could be wrong.
I am also a large lad, a tad over 100 kg with my 200 miles a week riding rate, and I am currently running Rolf Echelon which are very low spoke count wheels. They run around $600 US and I am not sure if they are availabe in the UK.
They were within spec until a week ago when a rear spoke broke. That wheel set probably had 3000 miles on it.
The front is still within spec. I am running an older bomb proof touring wheel in back until I get the spoke fixed. If I break another I will maybe get a tubeless compatible bomb proof wheel for the back.
You might consider a setup like that: light weight moderate aero in front and that Open Pro UST in back.
If you mean the UST Open Pros, these are the ones Harry built for me - 32 spokes front and rear. I really like them: light (sub-1.5kg), comfortable, no flex, and pretty robust - but if you're intending to run tubeless then you must use Mavic or Hutchinson tyres (Mavic are made by Hutchinson) as nothing else will hook under the proprietary dimensioned rim that Mavic uses. I think that the Open Pro UST Exalith is available now if that appeals....I'll probably try them next...
Did you find them a big improvement over what you had before?
i wouldn't be running tubeless on my road bike tbh
... I have a few pairs of wheels. The Open Pro USTs replaced an old set of Open Pros and a set of Hed Belgiums.... The probably are an improvement over both, but I have sentimental attachment to old Open Pros. I have sympathy with your point on tubeless...I've just had a nightmare with one of mine detailed in another thread...but I did get a puncture this afternoon on the only set of wheels I have with tubes and it was pissing down, blowing a gale and about 3 degrees.... I don't think my tubeless would have gone down. It was another piece of 'welcome to Norfolk' flint...
Harry also built me a set of Kinlin wheels (also used by Hunt on some of their alloy wheels). They are pretty sturdy and ride well too - more robust than the Open Pro USTs (which are lighter and the rim is considerably thinner). The rear is asymetric, however, so if you did run tubeless you'd need a DT Swiss valve adapter.
I have AL33 rims - CXray spokes on Alto hubs from DCR.
AL33 are tubeless ready.
Wheels - handbuilt all the way.
Speak to David at DCR wheels and he will advise and build a set specific to you and what you want to do with them.
+1 for David at DCR, he built me a beautiful set of wheels using his own wide rims on a pair of Campag Record hubs I had sitting around laced up with CX-Ray spokes. Smooth as butter, laterally stiff and comfortable too. Like magic!
Apart from the usual, relatively easy and cheap(ish) upgrades like saddle, tyres, decent bar tape etc, I was always told it was wheels. A lot of people go for factory built wheels, but if you're prepared to invest in some hand-built wheels (components can be serviced and replaced in the future) you'll end up with wheels that you could move onto a new frame if you were into building up a new bike in the future. Off the shelf bikes often have a lot of cheap components that may well need replacing relatively soon after purchase so investing in decent components means a 'new' bike is more a case of upgrading the frame and shifting the components over. More complicated, and potentially more expensive up front, but balance that against an off the shelf bike that you know comes with some cheap components fitted. A bike mechanic said to me once that 'when you buy a bike you get a frame and a fit'. If you've got an unlimited budget then, yes, an off the shelf bike will come with top-end components; at that level you may well be buying the frame and picking the components you want.
Given that you admit that you're on the heavier end of things then wider tyres would be a good idea.
Most tyres will feel nicer than Gatorskins so that's a nice, cost effective upgrade.
Wheels are usually rated for a certain weight, often 90-100kg which includes rider and the bike. If you weigh more than this it'd be worth speaking to a wheelbuilder who can build a robust but quick set of wheels for you.
More training.
100% this.
Some nicer tyres would be the other thing - Conti GP5000s, Schwalbe Pro One, Vittoria Corsa or similar supple, fast rolling rubber, preferably 28mm. Don't pump them up too hard, lube your chain and start getting the miles in.
Good wheels are expensive and in reality they won't make you much faster. Tweaking the engine always brings the biggest gains.
At the minute I have gator skin tyres on my bike. Still life left in them. I've had new bar tape put on. The groupset is fine no problems.
wheels are still the standard wheels any recommendations on wheels? I'm not the lightest bro n an ex rugby player!
https://www.huntbikewheels.com/collections/road-cx-rim-brake-wheels/prod...
there are loads of wheels out there: this is but one that generally gets good reviews - it's at the sort of price point that would be a worthwhile change, if you're happy with other (cheaper) aspects of the bike and its upkeep.
Depends if you want aero or lightweight and your budget
Tyres are always a good thing to upgrade.
And not really about performance, but you will notice a big difference in contact points, handlebars and tape, saddle and pedals. And these are often the parts manufacturers make savings on too.
The groupset, upgrade as it wears or breaks. Though fresh quality cables will feel fabulous and work really well.
Agreed.
From what I've seen, benefits in performance from different components are generally measured in seconds over some quite long distances.
My old bike felt very different when I upgraded to good quality 25mm tyres, saddle, seatpost (to carbon), some new bars and posh bar-tape. Quicker? probably not, but definitely felt plusher, more 'expensive' and more comfortable, and did not cost a fortune all-in.
Agree on tyres as first thing to upgrade.
The difference between a set of gatorskins and GP5000 is massive and not in a handy wavy "they're supple and grippy" way. You can easily measure it and feel it straight away.
After that I'd consider removing spacers from the front as your flexibility improves but never at the expense of comfort.
If you're comfortable currently I wouldn't consider changing anything else until your stem is slammed or you're sure you can't improve your flexibility further. ...or you're bored and just want to.
Comfort is important for speed because you're 80% of the drag and if you have to sit up after 50km because your back's sore the drag is going to cancel out any gains from expensive wheels or other kit.
Probably the wheels.