Road Bike - Upgrade, Keep As Is, Buy New

Do you tend to climb a lot of hills and do you like attacking them?

My '16 carbon Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc arrived weighing 9Kg, with Shimano 2x11 105 5800 groupset plus br505 brifters. I've switched out the alloy seatpost and bars for carbon, plus switched out the alloy Fulcrum Racing Sport 77 wheels (that came with 25mm Conti Grand Race Sport and butyl tubes) for carbon VEL 50RL wheels (with latex tubes and 25/30mm premiumish tyres). A fraction under 8.5Kg iirc.

Aero will usually start to trump weight savings if you can typically climb faster than 12mph, moreso the faster you can manage.

These days, you would probably have to spend £1500+ in a sale on a good day, to get a carbon framed hydraulic brake road bike with wheels weighing close to 2Kg.

You won't take big lumps of weight out of that, even spending a lot of cash. You could do a gradual upgrade as bits wear out, but its not going to make much of a difference and road stuff doesn't die the way MTB kit does.

I adore my 17lb steel Enigma summer roadie (OK, its a few years old and rim brake). The ride quality is sublime and while its not featherweight, it's light enough compared to my other bikes to feel properly zippy. I enjoy riding it just for the sake of riding it. It was a "do it right" build though - 40th birthday present to myself and as a result, quite spendy.

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A new bike might not change the earth, but should give you something to smile about

Hills ... where we are going we won't ride hills.

There is very little in the way of hills/climbing in my neck of the woods.

Are those Gravelkings?  I'd have thought some nice speedy road tyres for the summer would make a considerable difference to the feel albeit not much to the actual weight, perhaps with lightweight TPU tubes.  Something like Vittoria Corsa -I use the Corsa Control variation which has good puncture protection for the odd (dry) gravel linkup between quiet roads though a few watts penalty over the standard or speed variations.

I deliberated for ages and ended up getting a sonder Colibri Ti 105 with carbon wheels. It's similarly road+ with 32c bobbly (not knobbly) tyres and mudgards so it shrugs off the occasional bit of smooth gravel.  Got a bargain when they were on sale, about RRP but with carbon wheels and a load of bikepacking gear for the same price and paid for via Halfords C2W!

You won't take big lumps of weight out of that, even spending a lot of cash. You could do a gradual upgrade as bits wear out, but its not going to make much of a difference and road stuff doesn't die the way MTB kit does.

+1 it's not faster than my old bike.  Although it's not slower either which isn't bad going from a 90's race bike to a 2020's tourer!

If I were you and had money burning a hole in my pocket I'd get some nice carbon wheels and 32c tyres to speed it up a little. Zipp 303s are nice and wide so you get the benefits of speed and the bigger tyres. And a nice carbon seatpost will make a massive difference to the overall comfort. And if you still want a new bike after that then it's not wasted money because unless you're spending huge sums it's rare for bikes to come with decent wheels or seat posts!

Did you take the pic with a wide angle lense ? The seat looks like it’s point down, the bars pointing up and the frame big, but top tube length short !

Nothing wrong with 105 though, I wouldn’t pay more money to upgrade it. Maybe when things wear out upgrade but each time I think about doing that with my 105 , you cat beat the value, and the weight saving by item is minimal 

IMO road bikes, if you like the look of it , then it will be fast and you will ride it. If it doesn’t look good you won’t ride it and you will blame it for making g you slow

Agree with above, tyres will help. Not sure what those rims are, but decent aero rims can transform how a road bike rides

Thanks all ☺️

Some good considerations to mull.

@FunkyDunc … I think the image distortion is down to my rather lacking photo skills than the bike set up!

Saddle is level as are the tops of the bars (transition into the brifters).

I’ll definitely look into tyres.

Wheels are off the peg hope 20five wheels with RS4(?) hubs. 

Nice wheels with quality rubber will improve a bike more than anything else l. A weighty bike with race geometry will fell better than a light bike with slack geometry. If you like the fit and handling, and it will take wide tyres, get two sets of wheels; one for gravel and another for road. Ideally with the same hubs. Tyres are the biggest innovation in cycling. That and electronic shifting. If you want that, by a new bike.  

Whatever the fastest current road tyre is in 30mm with TPU tubes would probably make a nice difference. However I had some of those gravel kings in 38mm on my cross bike and they're not that much slower than the 28mm GP5000's on my road bike and a lot more comfortable. They were much to thin though and punctured constantly.

+1 for lighter weight tyres + TPU tubes as the best starting point. If it's still sluggish and you want to throw more money at it then maybe look at direct from China carbon wheels (several of the manufacturers offer quick release conversion kits for them so I assume you can run them on your rear drop out?), I doubt they would transform it into a lively engaging bike though as a lot of that will come down to geometry.

It sounds to me like you just need to buy a road bike. Either that, or buy some 50-60mm deep carbon wheels and see how you get on. But it's a steel frame and fork with a relaxed geo so it's never going to feel that agile. What you've got is a lovely winter bike, now you need a summer bike to go with it.

You'll go much faster on a dedicated road bike. Comparing my tricked out sworks tarmac with my croix de fer with road tyres on it, it was night and day. On the flats and the hills

But the question is, if you are not racing, not looking to beat your mates etc, why does it matter? Get a set of decent road tyres for 100 quid, they may make you go a bit faster and then enjoy what you have. 

Just swapped to 30mm GP5000s - Merlin had a deal - and the ride feel is much nicer than the Schwalbes I had before. Smoother, feels faster, makes me feel faster, more importantly. 

Was expecting to be disappointed as they seem to be hyped a lot but definitely happy at the £100 spend (2 tyres in Black Chilli formula and 2 Conti inner tubes).

Posted by: tpbiker

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But the question is, if you are not racing, not looking to beat your mates etc, why does it matter?

Because riding a light, fast, agile road bike is a joyful thing. 

Posted by: MoreCashThanDash

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makes me feel faster, more importantly. 

This is my approach too. A lot of the joy in road cycling for me is feeling zoomy, so anything that does that is a win in my book.

I'd agree with others that some racier tyres will mikely make a big difference, as will some fancier wheels. Those hope wheels are good, but something lighter and/or more aero will feel very different. I remember going from the OEM wheels on my first road bike to some decent mid-range wheels and just laughing out loud at how good it felt.

If that saddle is level then the bricks behind it are well out.

If it's steel framed then that's where a lot of your weight is. But there's no need to change it, although if you want to that's a different matter.

I've a couple of mates with pretty high end Ti gravel bikes and my carbon one is loads lighter.

Wheels can make a big difference though. You could certainly add as set of road specific wheels & tyres (poss aero?) and then it's an easy swap depending on what you're riding. My gravel bike replaced the road one when the frame died, so I use the wheels from that (54mm aero carbon) for road duties and the wheels it came with for the rough stuff. Not sure how heavy the 20Five's are, but you'd probably get a 250-300g saving along with an aero benefit.

If it's a 11/8 steerer you can still get carbon forks to fit. I saw one listed last year when getting a mate a replacement rim brake/QR fork.

Other than that it's wheels/tyres, seatpin looks like a lump, and then the rest, replace when worn out. Or upgrade when worn out!

Depends what your budget is, but I was going to say that^^,chuck a carbon fork on along with faster wheels/tyres . 

Oh and..

If that saddle is level then the bricks behind it are well out.

😉 🤣 🤣 

Oh you lot leave my bricks alone … 😂 I won’t be bullied into trying to take a better picture (showing the perfectly level saddle) 😂

Thanks again for the comments and thoughts.

Oddly the saddle (that is level) and seatpost (SDG I Beam) are both really quite light and more importantly comfortable. 

If you want to lighten that bike up then it’s going to mean hurling fistfuls of carbon at it; seatpost, Rims, cranks,  fork maybe the bars, and after all of that it will still only be ‘less heavy’ never ‘light’.

But then again that’s not really the point is it. It’s a lovely bike I’d chuck some money at a carbon fork first, then some rims and a carbon post, and probably stop there. 

Because riding a light, fast, agile road bike is a joyful thing

If you say so. I'm not going to pretend riding a heavy bike is as much fun as a light one, but on the list of things that make a great road ride, it's fairly low in the pecking order, for me at least. Especially if hills aren't involved.

Tyres make or break a bike imo, so get some good ones. But the joy for me is the scenery and the weather, and being out with my pals. If I want to smash myself I take the tarmac, if not I'll take one of my other, far cheaper bikes and have just as much fun

Now if the op has the cash and wants a shiny new toy then that's an altogether different matter. And if a new bike is going to make him enjoy cycling more then even more reason to get one.

If you'd basically just like a lighter road bike, I'd sell that to a steel enthusiast and buy a secondhand carbon road bike. 

Will probably work out cheaper and more effective than throwing carbon bits at that.

Modern disc road frames with wider tyres feel less fragile than rim-brake frames ones used to as well, FWIW