Road bike upgrade

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pvnisher
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Road bike upgrade

Post by pvnisher »

My old road bike weighs 23.5 lbs. All aluminum, 2004 Sora. Mechanically it's ok, and I already own it.

A new bike at $1000 will be the much the same weight, and nicer (carbon fork, disk brakes) but still do basically the same thing.
So I think upgrading might be the way to go. I should say that my goals are fitness in the flat lands, and then trying to get as good a place on hill climb races as possible, so weight matters. I don't plan on racing non-hill, so aero is great but weight is better in my case.

I found some clearance carbon gear like handlebar, fork, stem. All told, let's say $450, and I'd lose 1.5 pounds.

Or I could spend around that on wheels, and lose the same amount.

So what do you think would be a better improvement: a totally new front end, or new wheels?

Or other than tires and tubes, what's the best place to invest $500 to drop bike weight?

Or just forget it, maybe 1.5 pounds not that big of a deal for that much money?
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WishIWasInTheMts
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by WishIWasInTheMts »

People will drop a few grand to lose grams, so a few hundred to lose 1.5 lbs makes sense. Personally, I’d go with the wheels. In addition to weight loss you’ll also likely improve your rolling resistance, so that will help you out on that end as well. Thinking of going tubeless?
AndrewLyonsGeibel
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by AndrewLyonsGeibel »

If you’re gonna spend the money, it’s hard to beat new wheels. I’d have a hard time buying rim brake carbon wheels though (which is what I ride). Disc just wasn’t common when I bought my bikes. It’s not really possible or advisable to upgrade to disc unfortunately.
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Wentzl
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by Wentzl »

Try riding a steel frame before you decide to upgrade the aluminum. You may be surprised.
Last edited by Wentzl on Mon Sep 06, 2021 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cedica
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by cedica »

pvnisher wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:19 pm I found some clearance carbon gear like handlebar, fork, stem. All told, let's say $450, and I'd lose 1.5 pounds.

Or I could spend around that on wheels, and lose the same amount.
I don't think that you'll be able to drop 1.5 pounds from the wheels no matter how much you spend, but losing only 100 grams of rotational mass would already feel like an improvement.

Imho, dropping 1.5 pounds from the frameset or from your lower back would pretty much result in the same power increase. But nice carbon front end would do wonders for arms/neck/shoulders aches and pains on long rides.
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justiner
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by justiner »

You may want to first check what you can buy in terms of bike parts as things are getting hard to come by. Sora is not the greatest group set, but I don’t know if there’s anything out there to upgrade too! I think a good set of hand built wheels is the best upgrade you can do to any bike.
TomPierce
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by TomPierce »

If you know what you're looking for and are patient, you can find what you need on ebay. Either lightly used, brand new, or discontinued with tags. Good stuff...I mean really good stuff. I've built entire bikes with parts off ebay.

-Tom
AndrewLyonsGeibel
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by AndrewLyonsGeibel »

Wentzl wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 9:39 pm Steel Frame is the only way to go unless you can afford titanium.

so junk your aluminum frame, you are just throwing good money after bad.
I dunno if that’s really true. The Caad series of bikes are pretty darn good. I can’t think of a pro that rides anything but carbon. All of the materials have their pluses and minuses.

You can find a lot of good quality stuff on the market. Don’t know off the top of my head what the 2004 sora configuration or spacing is so you’d want to be careful picking your parts.

I’ve built up both of my bikes with “new in box” parts from eBay for much less than retail using a mixture of Red and Force parts. The wheel upgrade was by far the one that made the biggest difference in riding experience.
seeking timberline
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by seeking timberline »

Bikes have improved a LOT since 2004. The technology, in terms of weight and mechanical efficiency, is so much better on new bikes. I think you'd be surprised. I'd recommend looking for something used that sold for $2K - $3K one or two years ago. You may be able to find something on eBay but remember, the most important thing is fit, so make sure you try it first. I've never regretted spending more than I thought I should for a bike. The initial financial pain is forgotten as soon as you throw your leg over it for a ride.

But if a new bike is out of the question, then I agree with what others here have said. New wheels are your best bang for the buck.
mac hike
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by mac hike »

Ride your bike and exercise regularly, eat good food and you will realize weight loss that far exceeds the $500, 1.5 lb weight savings of a wheelset you can probably do without.
Pedal on!
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justiner
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by justiner »

TomPierce wrote: Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:56 pm If you know what you're looking for and are patient, you can find what you need on ebay. Either lightly used, brand new, or discontinued with tags. Good stuff...I mean really good stuff. I've built entire bikes with parts off ebay.
It's totally crazy right now. There's a real shortage of "affordable" bikes as well the parts to fix any bike. Maybe you can eBay a used bike from someone oblivious to Worldwide trends, but you may not be able to then fix it up.

For example:

https://www.competitivecyclist.com/pre- ... t=%2Bprice

Three complete road bikes < $2k (ok TWO bikes, but the third is close).

The All City is available in 43cm, 46cm, and 49mm - so if you're 4'4", you're in luck.

The Ridley is available in XS and XXS

The Devinci is available in S

This is not a great market to grab a cheap used bike.
pvnisher
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Re: Road bike upgrade

Post by pvnisher »

WishIWasInTheMts wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:33 pm People will drop a few grand to lose grams, so a few hundred to lose 1.5 lbs makes sense. Personally, I’d go with the wheels. In addition to weight loss you’ll also likely improve your rolling resistance, so that will help you out on that end as well. Thinking of going tubeless?
I don't think I'll go tubeless. Seen too many videos of people having issues. Seems like they're great when they're new, or factory installed, but after putting them on and off a few times it's problematic. I don't need more hassle.
I got a decent set of clincher tires, and a slime tube I'll use for training with light tube for race.

Found some aluminum wheels for like $550, weight about 1600g. Would love to get lighter if possible.

Still on the fence about getting new front end (drop more weight) or new wheels (many people say better overall investment and better feel).

I did find a Chinese knockoff"carbon" saddle for $30 that's super light. I have no idea if it's actually carbon, and don't care as long as it doesn't splinter into my nethers. So that saved me around 200g, although I think it'll be just for racing, it's completely unpadded, not even lined!
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