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Aluminium road bike upgrade to carbon

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    #32
    a148pro
    Registered Users Posts: 2,204 ✭✭✭a148pro


    Op I've just bought a new bike, not sure I made best decision but here's what I learned along way

    - ride as many bikes, new or second hand to get a feel for something you like. Even better if you can borrow a friend's Bike and do a decent spin on it. This will help you identify what you like about bikes, and in particular whether you want an endurance or race frame

    - ask yourself what you would change about your existing bike. Weight would be a good start, 12.5kg is very heavy, you can get a vitus vitesse on wiggle 105 for 1100 and it weighs under 8kg. But online only so you'd have to find someone who owns one to give you a spin.

    - Bear in mind that you might like a particular bike feel because it has nice wheels or tyres or they're inflated to a pressure that makes the ride feel good or you might happen to hop on one that hits your sweet spot for fit. Ie, you might prefer one Bike over another because the one you tried simply fitted better as opposed to that bike being definitively more suited to you

    - decide how much you like hills and if you do ensure you buy a bike with appropriate gearing. I have 50 - 36 and a 28 cassette but would still prefer more gears for hills - will get 32 next time I think. Take your existing bike up a hill and see would you like more gears.

    - also Bear in mind the clearance you will have for tires on a particular model. The trend is for bigger and bigger tyres, they give a much smoother ride but can feel sluggish too. I can't fit 28s on my bike and I'd like to be able to

    - the consensus is that 105 is a perfectly good system and you only pay more for ultegra or dura ace to save weight, which for the money should only really concern racers or athletes. If buying new aim for 105 as anything else is unlikely to be in your budget or will scrimp on other things. On the other hand I got di2 electronic gears on my second hand bike and I think it'll be hard to ever go back so you can get great value second hand

    - Bear in mind that almost all the new bikes at 105 level will have crap wheels, except some of the online offerings, canyon in particular


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