Lightweight, aero or just better

I think this thread peaked

I think this thread peaked early on and is now well and truely in the decline.. 

You’re enjoying bike riding and are getting fitter and faster. Buy a new bike, it is the answer. Yes you can buy more speed by upgrading your current bike parts, but at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a bike which will bug you. Buy that new bike.. it’s part of your initiation to the quirly world of cyclists who’ll tell you not to buy a new bike (however have probably brought a gazillion new bikes in their past)… Buy the bike and get the new bike feeling.. quick before summer gets here!

I believe for your budget, if you looked at a new bike you should upgrade to a road race bike, it seems the kind of riding you’re looking to achieve is racy, so although you’re doing well on a more upright bigger clearance sort of bike now, any ‘normal’ road bike will show you ‘some’ advantage over the Jamis you’re on now. For your budget you should consider Aluminium framed bike, which nowadays will be far better than any entry level carbon frame…. the Cannondale CAAD12 Ultegra Disc is about £2k, I bet you could source last years for under £2k, you’ll not get much better bike and spec for your requirements than that (you should be able to get 10% off ‘any’ new bike anyway in an LBS or decent shop which would bring it down to less than £2k).

I also see a cannondale synapse ultegra with discs for about £2k, this is not the same as ther caad12 which has a far nicer crankset and acessories, don’t be fooled by the carbon factor.

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Also going for discs is another 8-10 watts or so ‘lost’.

He’s already got discs on the bike so tricky to avoid. Also for a fixed speed and yaw angle, could be 8-10 watts, could be 10-12, could be 1-2,  could be less, we just don’t know on this set-up – there’s no general “discs cost X watts” factor to apply.

The differences are going to

The differences are going to be minimal, unless you are particularly anal, especially on a £2k bike. You’re always going to ride a bike that you’re comfortable with and less likely to ride a bike that you don’t get on with. It’s not like you have the paycheque incentive.

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

I think that most claimed aero benefits for bikes/wheels etc only really kick in above 40kph (25 mph). If you’re not likely to be hitting those sort of speeds on the flat then in reality the aero benefits for frames/wheels etc will be much lower. My advice would be to forget aero/weight and go for comfort. Get a good bike fit and then find a bike that matches your suggested geometry as closely as possible. If you’re on a well fitted comfortable bike you’ll be able to maintain a more aero position for much longer giving you far more of a speed advantage than any aero bike or wheel. As an aside it’s also worth looking at your tyres, when I switched from a fairly basic set of panaracers to some schwalbe pro ones I was amazed at the difference in speed.

Chris Boardman says that aero has an impact even at low speeds, even going sloly uphill, he repeated this this morning when commentating on the ladies road race in the commonwealth games.

Aerodynamic benefits of bike and body are by far the biggest factor in terms of effort expended, the body is roughly 80% of all the resistance.

people are very willing to put up with a less than perfect comfortable body position to gain extra speed.

Your advice to forget aero is well off, it should be something first on the list, the bike the OP has is more of an endurance bike so more upright, a subtle change in body position, arms and clothing not to mention a more aero frame and wheels will ‘buy’ you less effort for same speed all things being equal.

Also going for discs is another 8-10 watts or so ‘lost’.

Instead of dropping £2k on a bike maybe look at:

Lowering the stem/changing body position/getting some well fitted clothing, are you in the drops/on the hoods/on the top of the bars.

Think about how and when you raise your head, when you sit up/open your body as this changes your aerodynamic profile.

Think about shoe/pedal interface are your shoes reasonably stiff

Think about tyres and tyre pressures, could your tyres be swapped for a lower rolling type, how often do you clean your drivetrain.

Think about cadence, a faster cadence is more efficient than a slower one for most people.

Also, can you lose some body fat, how is your food before and during the ride, can this be improved so your perform better, even warming up before a ride can have an impact.

Once you’ve checked things you can do without buying a new bike and checked to see if this has made a difference then go spend your money, even if you don’t ‘need’ a bike, a new bike can often have a placebo effect even if the reality is that the aero and weight difference is negligible.

Looks like a decent bike.

Looks like a decent bike.

A new bike is always nice but you don’t need any more than an aero pair of wheels, tyres, maybe an aero handlebar, save a few watts. Although the recommendation of upgrading components isn’t a bad idea.

Aero helmet and clothing could also save you watts. These elements are all to optimise your potential.

The rider is most of the drag, that’s the cheapest and simplest way to gain speed, without meaning to sound rude, you probably have good potential for improvement here.

Improving the rider is about maximising your potential. Changing what the rider wears or rides is generally just tinkering around the edges, unless you’re riding a Brompton… in a suit. Hope that makes sense? 

I watched this a few days ago
I watched this a few days ago. Really interesting to see how super bike vs mid bike. If its real then basically unless you are a pro it won’t make a difference once you break the £1000k mark.

Aero is faster, even at

Aero is faster, even at speeds of only around 17mph. That said, don’t base your decision solely on which bike is theoretically faster.

Wheels are far more influential than an aero frame – again though, these figures shown here are for a very specific condition – https://bit.ly/2vabTMw

At 2k, I would recommend sacrificing “aero” for superior components. Most aero bikes around the 2k mark have shallow “training” wheels on them to save money, and often they’ll mix groupsets (lower spec components).

Getting your body “aero” is far more important than getting an aero bike. If you (for example) don’t have good flexibility (so can’t get long and low) and weigh a fair bit, then riding an aero bike may not be suitable/comfortable.

I think I should also add that the Jamis Renegade Elite is a very good bike (I’m assuming you have this one http://road.cc/content/review/152497-jamis-renegade-elite) for £2k, you won’t get anything much better. I would consider upgrading to Ultegra R8020 (hydro or R8070 (hydro Di2). And/or getting some aero hoops (Hunt or DT Swiss).

Glad to hear you are getting more into cycling, always great to see more people involved :D!!