New bike or not?
 

My first post here gang, love the forum. I have a 2 year old Jamis Coda Sport. I had a riser put on my stem for a more upright position (back issues). I was thinking of a new bike (1000.00 or so) with some carbon on it for a faster smoother ride. As I chatted with mechanic about this he suggested new Shimono hubs and new Mavik Open Sport wheels would make a huge difference and save my money as the frame and the rest of the bike was fine. Any thoughts. By the way this bike has barely 100 miles on it as I haven't been able to ride since bought, but now after 2 back surgeries I can finally ride and get back in shape. Thanks.

If you've only got a hundred miles on the bike and it is comfortable for your back I would recomend leaving it alone and riding it for a while longer. You haven't got enough miles on your body to form a baseline of what you want to change. As you build up the miles it will become more clear what you do and do not like about this specific bike.
In other words, save your money now, you will get more bang for the buck later.

Good point. What I don't like now, is that this bike is 4-5lbs heavier than the new aluminum/carbon bikes. When I pick them up side by side I think ooooh I want a lighter bike! It will be much more fun to ride! But thats probably a head game.

We are usually all into "get a new bike!" mode here, but I agree with the posts above. First of all, you have a pretty (very) nice bike. Next, it fits. Finally, you don't really know how much you are going to bike. The Jamis will help you find out. 100 miles is not enough to wear the nubs off the tires. As most of us have found out, when you first start riding, the limiting factor in speed is not the bike, but the engine :p. One you feel you are better than your bike, then go shopping. If you feel you just have to change something, you might go for skinnier tires, if they will fit your current rims. BTW, I don't know that a carbon fiber fork or frame are going to give you a smoother ride than the Jamis' 520 moly steel. Many riders feel steel is the smoothest ride there is.

Welcome to the forum, Kordon!

Normally I would chime in and say "get a new bike! what are you waiting for?!?!"

But in this instance, I would say it makes more sense to ride the bike you have without making any expensive changes to the wheels. When you get more miles on this bike and a better sense of how you like to ride, then you will be able to make a better decision about what your next bike should be, as Dnvrfox said. But for anything you want to do on a bike right now, the Coda should be more than adequate.

It's hard to resist the lure of the next best thing, but you have a really nice bike there already and it makes more sense to put some more miles on that and then see what you want.

Colleen

Great points! Thanks! I'm going riding.

+1

Good advice from all above. Weight is about the most overrated selling point in bicycle marketing. Not that weight doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter as much as they want you to think it does for most purposes. Weight in wheels matters more than in most places, so your mechanic is right about that being a good place to upgrade. I would advise waiting a little longer and if you do decide to upgrade your wheels, go with a better rim than the Open Sport (formerly MA3). Open Pros would be a more worthwile upgrade.

Unless your body fat in pretty low, it really is a head game. Someone just 15 lbs. overweight carries the equivalent of an additional bike with them when the climb. I'd ride what I have a bit longer and then consider the mechanic's bike. BTW, welcome aboard.

Trust us.....there will be unlimited advice on what bike to get.....the whole forum derives great pleasure into coaxing someone to buy 1 more....

please reference all posts about N+1. Your going to like it here.

No new bike for you!!!

Come back, one year!

Getting a new bike
Would be foolish to do now
Ride hard and eat pie.

You've got a clued up mechanic there. A decent hand built set of wheels will make a difference to your current bike and it will be like a bew bike. And If you get a NEW bike now- What are you going to do next year?

And argument time- The rims- Go with Mavic as Most of us trust them but Go For CXP33's. As you have a Recovering back- Get them laced x 2 cross and not Radially Spoked which will give a harsher Ride. (Radial Spoking Is direct pull fom the hub)

Ok, can you guys tell me the difference between the Mavic Open Sport, Mavic Open Pro's and the CXP33's? Love to learn. Thanks.

Ok here goes. This is the world of Mavic "rims" (as opposed to complete wheels) for road use (700c and in some cases 650c for older bikes or special uses like Triathaon bikes)

There are 3 main variations

1. The Open Sport. (Son of MA3) This is the entry level wheel, it does not have a welded seam where the rim loops back on itself. It is instead "sleaved and pinned" (an insert inside the rim bridges the seam and is pinned in place) One characteristic of this is that you can see and feel the seam in the rim (on the side opposit from the stem hole.) Brakes will sometimes "tic" as they pass over the seam. In addition to being an entry level rim this rim is popular with the touring crowd and even the clyde crowd as the rim has two tubular extrusions inside its double wall shape for strength. This is a good general purpose rim for inexpensive custom wheels.

2. The Open Pro. This is considered by many to be one of the finest shallow section rims. It is the gold standard to compare fast training rims and even race rims to. It is strong, light and dependable. It has a welded seam, the normal for high end rims double wall section and double eyelets where the spokes go into the rim. In its expensive versions it can be gottin with special treatment on the brake track. This is the rim most often found on custom wheel sets (both machine built and hand built) Typically you can buy a set of wheels online with this rim, an ultegra hub and DT double butted spokes (just assume that this is good stuff) for $200/220.

3 The CXP family is a deeper section (AERO) wheel type built to be more streamlined and to reduce air drag on the bike at speeds of oh say 18mph and above. As a side effect, many wheel builders consider Deep V wheels to be stronger in the vertical direction (toward the hub) and it is common to see these rims built with higher spoke tension than lesser rims. Within the family, the CXP22 is the first cousin of the Open sport in deep V form. The CXP33 is the cadalac first cousin to the Open Pro in aero dress and the CXP23 is an OEM (told to me by a representative at Jensen USA) wheel that appears to be a CXP22 without the tubular extrusions.

These are the current generation of names for these rims. They have been around in older design form under other names but this is pretty much it for now.

There..............bored yet?

Then of course there are good rims by Sun, Ritchey, Velocity and others. Maddmaxx gave good descriptions of the Mavic rims above. Google is your friend.

Very well said and thank you for the time, "bored" never, love to learn. As you have read then the suggestion by my mechanic outfitting me is the right choice then? Or could I, should I go with the CXP33's as suggested in the previous post?