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Hi everyone!
It's been a while since I did this! I've not been around here or cycling for quite a while, but I've been stalking the forums for a week or so and notice that there's a few names I remember from a while back (it's good to see you guys!) so hope that it's ok to raise this thread.
I've been getting a couple of rides in on a Trek XC bike which I bought years ago and have been contemplating why I never really connected with the bike in the way that I have with other bikes which I've owned.
Suspecting that part of the problem was that I never really sorted out my position on the bike, I changed the saddle, fitted wider bars and a stiffer stem. I am now significantly happier on the bike and don't spend every ride hanging my hands over the ends of the bars and shifting myself forwards and backwards on the saddle. (It's also true to say that I'm getting that 'I should have figured this out sooner' feeling.)
But it's led me to wonder - how much 'tweaking' is normal to be done to an off the peg bike?
Entirely depends, routinely i change grips and pedals and move the controls to how i like them.
The last bike tweaking included a complete change of suspension too.
Depends, I have had bikes I've done nothing to, and bikes where I've swapped so much that I might as well have bought the frame.
Routinely change contact points almost straight away, often bars, stem and seatpost as well. Unless you spend a lot of cash, most mtb's and gravel bikes have super cheap finishing kit to get the bike down to a price point.
I have a big box of cheap posts and bars - no idea what I'm going to do with them!
Tyres also used to be mainly rubbish on new bikes but they seem to have improved recently.
Occasionally I'll play around with the chainrings too
Grips, saddle, bar, stem, pedals and tyres are the things I usually change. Grips, pedals and saddles pretty much straight away and the remainder over a couple of months depending on what the bike comes with and available funds.
Weirdly, off the peg bikes I’ve bought tend to stay the same (until stuff wears out etc), it’s the frame up builds that are under constant parts rotation.
Usually everything. From day one. On the last bike I kept the rear axle and the frame and changed everything else.
Usually pretty much nothing - original parts stay on until they break or wear out.
That said I've been struggling to get comfortable on my CGR so there's been a bit of messing about with stems and saddles which is kind of new to me. I just had a bike fit which was very interesting.
It depends on the bike, but on my last two bikes both have come with a SRAM drivetrain, which has been swapped for Shimano before the first ride. Both had the grips swapped too. Sometimes the saddle. If it had a dropper with 150mm or less drop then that would be changed too.
If it comes with a slightly odd tyre combination then those too (my most recent purchase came with a fairly narrow Minion DHR on the front which was swapped for a wider Assegai)
Hey thanks for the replies everyone! Winston's comment above about components being fitted 'to match a price point' really resonates with my experience.
I had been under the impression that as it was largely Shimano XT kit throughout the drivetrain, the other components were likely to be a comparable level - that was until I saw a Berm Peak video and saw the same saddle as was fitted to my bike being taken off a $300 Trek.
Guess I'm well within the 'bell curve of normality' here - it's just taken me an age to work it out!
but on my last two bikes both have come with a SRAM drivetrain, which has been swapped for Shimano before the first ride.
Wow! I can't imagine a scenario where I'd change anything before the first ride - and I'm only talking about grips and saddles!
If you are doing major changes like drivetrain then its better to do it straight off the bat - I would happily buy 'new but fitted' off the forum, ebay etc but 'almost new, just 50km ridden' can vary enormously in my experience and so Id be less likely to take a punt unless it was much much cheaper than new.
ON MTB's it's Pedals, Saddle, Cranks (bikes almost invariably come with too long cranks unless you're 6 foot plus, or very long legged), quite often grips/bars/stem, brakes as well, lots of manufacturers skimp on brakes. Wheels on a case by case basis. Lots of mid/high range bikes have (very) low budget wheels on compared to the build. Very few don't.
Also, anything SRAM gets swapped immediately as well. Had enough brand new SRAM parts fail terminally within hours of first use to know that it's best to get rid ASAP, sell em while they are "removed from a new bike" rather than "used and shit".
On road bikes, it's just cranks, pedals, stem/bars (if they're the wrong length/width), saddle and wheels. I'd never buy a SRAM equipped road bike, so that's never reared it's ugly head!
Saddle height and position, handlebar rotation (most times), brake lever angle, fit my pedals and check how squidgy the tyres are...then go ride.
Happily weird but I don't tend to buy a bike and then spend money changing bits...will do once they wear out, but I do find a bike I'm wanting and if possible tweak the spec to my liking, but if that isn't possible then I ride the bike until the bits wear out.
Personally not a lot but that said I dont exactly go through bikes that often and the last one had lots of flexibility around the build (Bird) so if I had been needing to rebuild it I would have been a complete idiot.
I was thinking about switching the saddle out using an old one but the one included was nice enough.
Prior one to that was a whyte and didnt really see the need to rebuild it but then I had test ridden one and if I had really disliked the build and thought I was going to need to rebuild it I would have chosen something else to build frame up.
Obviously it depends on what comes in the bike but I’m particular on the following so if they’re not to my preference they g et changed:
Saddle
Grips
Tyres
Pedals
Bars
Maybe stem as well.
Pedals, then not much else unless I really don't like it. Tyres usually go first. Individual tastes are malleable with a little time.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a mountain bike that I haven’t immediately changed all contact points i.e. saddle, grips and pedals, usually bars also. Not since my first ATB (1990) at least.
Brakes - it depends what they are, but they need to be working absolutely perfectly otherwise it annoys me. As do any noises ie squeaks, clunks, slaps, squeaks, rubs etc so will hunt and vanquish any untoward sounds emanating from any part of the bike.
Wheels may need upgrading, or just tensioning/rims trueing - and tyres are a whole subject of their own
I’m in the same boat as a lot of people here, buy bike, change contact points and setup / adjust (sort bars, seatpost, saddle to fit me like I like it) to suit, change everything else when it gives up the ghost (or because I didn’t like the colour)
However…last year I bought an ex shop display identiti aka RC27.5 build from a NLBS (NEARLY Local Bike Shop), haven’t touched a thing (maybe rolled the bars back a touch and put eggbeaters on it) haven’t felt the need either,
Maybe I got lucky that the display set up on it seems to fit me just right and I like the components, maybe I’m just too lazy to faff with bits so much anymore, but nearly a year on untouched and it still gives me the grin as much as that first ride
Bars, stem, grips , pedals usually go over the first few months. Drivetrains are so alike nowadays I'll run whatever the bike comes with until it needs replacing then swap / upgrade as necessary. Suspension I've never really bothered replacing as I'm not super anal about hs / ls compression; will usually just play with air tokens to get a nice feel and stick with the factory tune.
Wheels are a big thing though. Within the first year I'll usually swap them out to something DT Swiss.
With a good LBS I find they'll always change stuff like contact points and tyres as part of the deal of buying a "stock" bike
As for actual suspension tyres and general setup for me it's an ever evolving thing depending on conditions and general feeling from the bike as things go on.
Unless there's a huge problem a good general setup is pretty quick for me but ongoing and always improving in small ways.
I'll usually stick bits that I know I like on almost immediately- brakes tyres grips pedals and saddle, usually. I'll try out what's on the new bike normally but I'm pretty much always going to fit the same ancient formula the one brakes, teh same charge saddle, that I have on everything else. And I'll put a 780mm bar on it if it doesn't have it. Generally I'll be replacing an old bike so I'll probably shift one of my long dropper posts too.
That's pretty much day one stuff. In the longer term, I like light wheels and I can get away with them because I'm very light and reasonably accurate, so I'll generally swap those- even really expensive bikes tend to come with relatively basic wheels.
But I like fannying around with bikes, it's just a different string of the hobby for me.
My Stumpy is about 7 years old and everything is original apart from saddle.
Very little straight away then it depends. One bike I only changed the tyres, another is like Triggers broom!
I don't buy complete bikes. Last time I did was around 20 years ago and I changed mist stuff because it wasn't what I would have chosen. Better just to build up with all the parts I would actually choose in the first place.
I don't buy expensive bikes though, maybe if I bought a CX bike for £6K I wouldn't change very much at all.
I change it only if it needs changing, otherwise it gets ridden how it is.
Saddles, I've spent a lot of money on trying to find the Grail - anywhere up to £200 per saddle. Yet some of my favourites are the ones that came with the bikes. They get changed only if they don't fit my behind. On the upside, I've now got plenty lying about to chose from.
Stem will get changed if reach is wrong.
That's about it unless I feel something is really out of place.
Tyres can transform the bike, but they'll generally only get changed before worn if I have specific plans and looking for the performance gains.
Maybe I'll change length of crank arms, but again, usually once worn. Otherwise you're getting into territory of should have bought custom bike.
Most things you discover as you ride and work out what to fine tune, so it gets done over a period of years. In reality, my stock bikes remain mostly stock.
With the likes of my Scalpel, it stayed stock for at least 18 months. The things I changed with the saddle and the tyres. The saddle because I lost a fair bit of weight and it didn't feel so comfy to my boney ass, the tyres because there was better xc tyres out there than the stock Maxxis Ardents.
On my Hello Dave, it was the bars, saddle and pedals. The ones I fitted aren't any lighter but they are a nicer fit. Also I fitted tyre inserts which I'm still trying to dial in.
So pretty much the contact points are up for a change but not so much to make the bike look more bling or to lose weight but to get a better or different fit.
Forgot to mention making the tyres tubeless, this is the same for all my bikes.
Just brought my son a brand new (ex demo) BMX, so far we've added grease to all the bolts and metal on metal surfaces as it came dry, moved the brake from the right to the left side & removed some of the stickers.
Personally for a MTB - every part would prob be changed within a couple years or so....
The bike i kept most stock was a Cannondale badboy used for commuting - think I changed the tyres, saddle and grips. But every stock MTB or road bike I've bought has been 100% "upgraded" by the time I've moved on to the next bike.
Just wanted to say thanks for all the replies to this question - really interesting to read the different experiences and reassuring to find that I'm not as much an odd-ball as I had worried.
Happy trails all.
built my bikes up from frames so changed nothing.
on sophie's bike I changed the saddle, bar, grips, pedals and stem. Had the pedals and saddle from another build. Eventually changed the fork, seatpost, crank, cassette, discs, headset, post clamp wheels and tyres.
I've just bought myself an Enduro Elite, TBH aside from the frame, fork and dropper there isn't much that I plan on keeping. I've already swapped the bars, stem and grips, I just didn't get on with the OE cockpit. The stem had a lot of rise and the bars had too much backsweep for me. I've already got a 2.5" Minion up front, as soon as I figure out whether to go with a High Roller or DHR I'll swap the Specialized rear tyre out too.
I'm not a fan of the NX/GX SRAM drivetrain either. Gearshifts are lazy compared with the Shimano XT I'd fitted to my old Enduro, I don't trust the SRAM BB not to shart itself after a few dry weeks of cycling either. There will be an XT shifter and mech fitted before too long.
The plan is to build myself a new set of wheels, I've a brand new pair of Stans Flow EX3 rims which I'm probably going to lace to Hope Pr4s. Thanks to two competing freehub standards, I'm going to have to combine the new wheels with a new XT cassette and will probably choose this time to fit an XT crank.
That said, I am impressed with the SRAM brakes though, these are very, very good.
All this is par for the course for me when I buy a new bike TBH.
My incoming spark will get a wheel and tyre swap. Probably the XT cassette and brakes will get swapped for the xtr ones off my genius.
Replace the bar, grips and swap out the fork for some Kashima then change the XT cranks for some fancy FSA ones.
Last year's Ransom, nothing is stock aside from the frame..oh..and the headset. All the tear off stuff is in a box.
Yes. I have a problem.
My new Mach4 I swapped out bars, stem, grips, dropper, shifter, saddle, cranks, chainring and will swap tyres at some point.
Guess the answer is I tweak a lot on new bikes!
Like most i'll cahnge some contact points. I'm not massively picky about grips. Tyres will get swapped for something better. Swapping whole drivetrains is a bit extreme though.
Depends on the bike, on previous complete bike I only changed tyres, saddle and grips during the first couple of years, after that fork, bars and brakes were changed.
On latest bike I have changed shorter stem, saddle, tyres and grips since buying it in October. Not really planning on anything else for this riding season.
Last new MTB I bought (2010) got new grips and saddle as I didn't get on with the stock bits. Over time it had 3 new back wheels as the bearings lasted 5 rides in mud and canyons warranty sorted me out.
I have a couple of 2nd hand road bikes. One had new stem, bars, tape, saddle wheels and tyres. The wheels were light and the finishing kit is much comfier.
The most recent one has had a new inline seatpost to move my position forward, thicker bar tape and fatter tyres for more comfort. This one came with light wheels anyway and the saddle despite looking horrific is fine for me.
If it's a frame only build then there's usually a constant churn of parts throughout. Full bike then very little, current bike (2 years in) so far is pedal change to spds and fork change to pikes as the revelations were noodly shite. I shortened the brake hoses too as they were comically long and were likely to snare small children and animals as I passed by.
Just looked at my fatbike, it was bought as a complete bike and the only original parts are frame fork and headset.
Then I looked at my Remedy, it was bought as a complete bike and literally no parts remain, I replaced every part but the frame then I replaced the frame.
One of my road bikes only still has the original frame and seatpin binder bolt.
In fact, the only original bits that remained after it's first half season were seatpin, binder bolt, saddle, frame, fork and headset. Even the paint was new.
On my most recent hardtail that was built from the frame up. So, everything.
The gravel bike before that... Tyres, saddle, pedals.
FS MTB before that, I stripped it to the frame and fitted invisiframe, and I replaced this lot when building it back up:
Bars
Stem
Brakes
Rotors
Cassette
Rear mech
Shifter
Tyres
Chain guide/bashguard
Seat collar
Pedals
And since then:
Dropper post
Dropper lever
Fork
Saddle
Bottom bracket
Cranks
Rear shock
Basically, only the frame, headset and wheels are original!
Frame is very likely to be getting changed this year, wheels will be staying though!
I was going to reply 'not much' to this thread, thinking that I'm not much of an upgrader, but when I did a bit of a count-up of parts on a much-loved Cannondale Rush I had for six years, the only original parts (apart from the frame and fork) were the headset and the stem. Oh well, there goes that idea.
It could just be a pedal swap and adjusting the shifters, brakes and dropper remote to my preferred positions and Invisiframe/chainstay silencing are or new pedals, grips, stem, bars, dropper. It really depends on how crap the existing kit is really.
But I can pretty much guarantee that it will have a battered pair of Burgtec Penthouse Flats and a pair of Minion DHFs before I roll out the door.
I've only ever bought one full MTB new, and that was a Bird so I had quite a decent input into the spec.
So I guess I'm fussy.