Road Cycling - Why buy a new bike?

Hi everyone. I was very happy to come across this forum. Basically my brother purchased a Trek road bike about 10 years ago. It is made of Aluminum(easton) and has Shimano components. The shifters are on the downtube ( I will get the specifics later, for some reason I am drawing a blank now). He purchased a Gios bike that came with Campignolo components. The Trek was much lighter than the Gios ( aluminum vs. steel ).

I bought the Trek from him 6 years ago and did'nt ride it that much until 2 years ago. I still consider myself an amatuer rider but have been riding on average of 17 miles a day, 4-5 times a week. I recently purchase a new seat to help releive the soft tissue discomfort. Everything seems to work purfect. I like the clean look of having the shifter on the downtube so the brake cable are not hanging in front of the handlebars. I understand that having the shifters built into the brakes makes changing gears easier and safer.

My question is this. I feel that this bike works great. What major improvements would I see by going to a new bike? Would I go faster? Will climbing hills be easier somehow? What makes a bike worth $2000 - $5000 ?

Thanks for your replies. I will update this later with specifics on my Trek.

Thanks,
Manny:D

If you're happy with your bike at the moment, I would suggest you continue to ride it until the components start to wear out - which could take years, or until you progress to a point where going fast is the point, like racing.

More dollars buys you some or all of the following: light weight, better ride, stiffer frame, more durable components, better wheels and, generally, the latest and greatest.

For racers and high-milage riders, some combination of these attributes are a must. Cyclists that don't race, but ride many thousands of miles per year look for a quality ride and durable components. Racers always want light weight for climbing and a stiff chassis for sprinting, and the best components for reliability.

There are some benefits, but they fall in the category of nice-to-have, rather than have-to-have.

Lightness is a function of the bike you choose. You can also get heavier. Your wallet may be lightened considerably, but then you probably don't ride with your wallet.

STI/Ergo shifters are nice, IMO. The hoods are bigger, which makes them more comfortable, and since your hands are always in proximity of the shifters, you tend to shift more often. You can also shift while standing... not a big deal for a recreational cyclist.

You would pick up another gear or two, depending on whether the Trek is a 7 speed or 8 speed. The 9 speeds work okay, and don't require an extremely expensive chain. I like having a wide range of relatively close gears on with a double. I think you can fit up to a 27 on a stock shimano rear der. That may help your climbing... don't know if that's any different than your Trek.

Aside from that, a new bike might come with low spoke count wheels. They are light, with lower wind resistance, but more difficult in terms of maintenance if/when it becomes necessary.

Hi again. Here is the information on my current bike and a picture.
It is a Trek 1200. The components are Shimano RX100. It has a 7 speed rear derailer and an older set of Look pedals. It has Matrix rims. I recently added the seat and new Vittoria tires with kevlar. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Manny

P.S.
Any background info on the components would be great. Like what is todays equiv. of the RX100 components? Are Matrix rims still available and are they decent?

Originally posted by roadbuzz
Your wallet may be lightened considerably, but then you probably don't ride with your wallet.


:p That's the best quote I've heard in a while!!

I was riding an old Novara with shifters on the down tube until a few weeks ago. It had a triple on the front, 5 gears on the rear. Admittedly it's not as nice a bike as the Trek you're talking about. A few weeks ago I got a brand new Habanero Ti frame bike with Ultegra components and man, am I in LOVE with the new bike! I loved riding the old bike, but riding the new one is PURE JOY. It's a combination of the lightness, the STI shifting, and how totally cool the bike looks.

It set me back more than I had hoped when I first started looking for a new bike, but I'm so glad I got it. The Ti frame should last forever barring a serious crash, so when I amortize the extra several hundred dollars over 20 years (or more) it's comes out to like 20 bucks per year. Best money I've ever spent.

So should you get a new bike? If you really want to consider it, I'd say visit some LBS's and take out a new bike with STI or Ergo shifting on a LONG test ride, like more than an hour. (I LOVE doing LONG rides on the new bike. Just got home from a 4 1/2 hour ride that would have been longer but it started raining and it's not as much fun for me in the rain.) Try out several bikes on long rides and see what you think about the new shifting. For me, it's definitely worth getting a new bike to have the STI shifting. I'm sure the other components help too.

Iffn you want to upgrade to 8 speed there is a lot of Ultegra componets for sale on ebay now and they are not bringing much, you can find 8 speed Ultegra downtube shifters there too. 105 may cost less but not much and harder to find there. I have almost a compleate gruppo now awating a worthy frame.
bottom feeder kev
PS: I really like down tube shifters yet, they just work!
PSS: I have a bike with RSX100, so far it works fine, will upgrade when nessarry.

Originally posted by quattro100
Hi everyone. I was very happy to come across this forum. Basically my brother purchased a Trek road bike about 10 years ago. It is made of Aluminum(easton) and has Shimano components. The shifters are on the downtube ( I will get the specifics later, for some reason I am drawing a blank now). He purchased a Gios bike that came with Campignolo components. The Trek was much lighter than the Gios ( aluminum vs. steel ).

I bought the Trek from him 6 years ago and did'nt ride it that much until 2 years ago. I still consider myself an amatuer rider but have been riding on average of 17 miles a day, 4-5 times a week. I recently purchase a new seat to help releive the soft tissue discomfort. Everything seems to work purfect. I like the clean look of having the shifter on the downtube so the brake cable are not hanging in front of the handlebars. I understand that having the shifters built into the brakes makes changing gears easier and safer.

My question is this. I feel that this bike works great. What major improvements would I see by going to a new bike? Would I go faster? Will climbing hills be easier somehow? What makes a bike worth $2000 - $5000 ?

Thanks for your replies. I will update this later with specifics on my Trek.

Thanks,
Manny:D

Will a new bike make you go faster. No. You are the engine. Will climbing hills be easier - probably not. Hill climbing is mainly a matter of having the right gears for your power, weight and grade and if you have that on your current bike, a new bike will make an only very minor difference.

You are riding about 100 miles per week, which makes you a reasonably serious rider, but you are still a recreational rider and probably not a high performance rider.

To give you some proportion, in our club we have speed categories A, B, and C. We have people who ride at an A-. These people ride with the A group but eventually get dropped. Most of these riders ride at least Shimano 105. Some of them have gone out and bought a spare no expense bicycle and noticed ZERO effect on their performance.

In your case, going from your bike to a top end bike may give you a slight performance gain but unless you ride with someone else and do a little competitive stuff, there is a good chance you would not notice it. A friend of mine used to ride a 15 year old nishiki sport touring bike. He got an ultegra equipped bike. And it seemed to me that he SLOWED down!?! He had this gear on his nishiki that he rode in about 80% of the time and I think it took awhile for him to get comfortable with the gears on his high performance bike.

A high performance bike will be lighter. It will have the STI shifting which makes shifting easier so you do it more often. Also the bike will probably be more responsive, turn faster and accelerate a bit faster. But the ride may be more harsh than you current bike.

You seem pretty happy with the bike you have. And you may not have considered something. With your old bike, you have an excuse if someone drops you, but if he is riding the latest and greatest, he has no excuse if you drop him. That is not exactly a bad thing is it?

Pat, you said: "Will a new bike make you go faster. No."

I have to disagree. I believe the answer should be "maybe. It depends on the differences between the old bike and the new bike."

In my case, getting a new bike has resulted in my going faster both on the flats and in climbing hills. The main reason: the old bike weighs 26 pounds, the new bike, 19 pounds. I believe most riders would notice a difference of 7 pounds, especially riding uphill.

If I had gone from a 21 pound bike to a 19 pound bike, I probably woudn't notice the weight difference, and the weight difference alone would probably not affect my speed or climbing ability.

The other big difference for me was going from a 5 speed free wheel with shifting on the down tube to a 9 speed cassette with the shifting right there at my fingertips. Now I can always match a gear to my cadence and I believe that has improved my speed on flat or rolling terrain.

So in my case, did a new bike make me go faster? The answer is YES. Hell, yes! And there are other intangeables: like, is riding the new bike more fun? YES! Hell, yes! And for me that's worth a lot more than improved performance. The reason I ride has nothing to do with competition or dropping someone -- it has to do with joy. And even though I don't race and I'm not into riding to kick someone else's ass, I still consider myself a serious rider. I get on the bike and ride for hours. I do rides with elevation gains of 4.000 to 6,000 feet. I'm planning to do RAMROD in a couple of weeks. The elevation gain on RAMROD is 10,000 feet.

So I got the new bike and it's lived up to my expectations: it's more fun to ride. And that's why I got it. But I also got a noticeable performance improvement as part of the deal. Like a bonus. Will everyone who gets a new bike get a noticeable performance improvement? Of course not. It depends on the differences between the old bike and the new bike.

Originally posted by roadbuzz
.

Lightness is a function of the bike you choose. You can also get heavier. Your wallet may be lightened considerably, but then you probably don't ride with your wallet.
.
But I do ride with my wallet, my wallet goes with me were ever I go, I know its empty, but the plastic card is still there. as for the bike, you have a nice bike specially the paint job, and if your not in any type of competition the component should just be fine