Hey guys help a cyclist on a budget - need advice.

[episodic]

My bike riding has seen the following bikes:

When I was a super clyde - I started with a Fuji Crosstown (comfort bike). Rode that till the wheels fell off.

Got a Surly Cross Check at 275 - rode that till hit by car (the frame was too small, later found out the bike shop owner was partial to the 'race fit' small frame thing). It was a 52'.

At 225, I got a Salsa Casseroll (steel frame rando bike) - 56 frame - fits me like a glove.

Now at 175 - I'm feeling the bike holding me back. Yesterday, for instance, I did a 50 mile group ride at 18.5mph average on this bike - but it 'killed' me. Usually, I can hold 16 no problem on the bike. We live in rolling hill country - and to top it off we had a headwind 30 of the 50 miles.


So I was considering one of these two things. My only LBS sells felts and konas. I have a beer budget if that makes sense. I was looking at the Felt Z100. It is 22lbs at 56 inches. It uses microshift components (my son's bike uses them too, and he has won some crits - so I don't mind this). It still uses a 9 speed cassette - which to me is an advantage considering my LBS is 60 miles away.

OR

I an spend that money getting a smaller lighter wheelset. If you are familiar with the casseroll, it comes with salsa delgado cross rims that are heavy. Also the rim width precludes 23mm tire - the minimum is 28's - which I run. I was thinking of having the bike store build me up something with ultegra hubs 28 spokes, that can use 23mm tires. I'm almost 40 - don't have any ideas of winning races, I just want to keep up with less effort.

Thanks for thoughts!

Edit:

I would gladly go used - but there is NO used bike market around here. No craigslist for 100 miles, and local papers only get big box bikes selling for more than the store (lol).

[chasm54]

First of all, congratulations on the weight loss. Very impressive. And 50 miles into a headwind at an average of 18.5mph is pretty impressive, too.

I see the Felt is 22lbs for the complete bike. And as I understand it, the Casseroll frame is just under 5lbs. So there is no reason you couldn't get the Casseroll down to 22lbs with lighter wheels and components.

Usually, though, it's the components that cost most of the money. So if I were you, I'd look at how much weight you could cut off the Casseroll with new wheels, maybe a new fork, and so on. If you can get it down to a weight comparable with the Felt for less than the Felt would cost you, you've got your answer - after all, you're comfortable on the bike. If putting it on a diet ends up looking more expensive than buying the Felt, buy the Felt - and then you have two nice bikes instead of one.

[pdlamb]

What do you want to buy?

Even before you go out at pick one, I'd suggest you look for some light tires if your current 28s are heavy. Lighter tires are thinner, and more compliant; the difference in feel between a cross tire and a race tire is pretty significant.

Finally, what's holding you back? Are you certain it's not your leg speed? Or do you maybe need some taller gears to cruise with less effort? Or do you need to learn how to ride in a paceline or echelon to deal with the headwinds? It's possible you might be more motivated with something new (bike or wheels), but if that motivation doesn't work, you might feel pretty stupid after you spend all that money and are still beat after dealing with winds for 2.5 hours.

[Homeyba]

Here's what I'd do if I were you. I'd take that beer money and stuff it in a savings account and wait until you have enough money to buy exactly they bike that you want and will fit you properly. The Felt or Kona's are fine bikes but they may or may not be the right bike for you. You don't want to be stuck with an unsatisfactory bike just because that's what your lbs has. Remember that a bike is a package, frame, wheels, fork, handlebars etc. all come together to provide the ride and functionality that you are looking for. While you are saving your pennies, do some research and pick out the bike that is going to be the best one for you and what you want to do. If you have the choice, I'd go with 10sd just because the 9sp stuff is already getting harder to find.

[dave5339]

What about selling the Casserole and using the proceeds to help fund the new bike?

And where in the south? A 56cm Casserole is one of the bikes on my "hmmm list".

Semper Fi

[rogerstg]

If you're a little bit mechnically inclined, UPS delivers to your door.
IOW, consider online supply like Bikes Direct or similar.

[lonesomesteve]

I'm feeling the bike holding me back.

No offense... lot's of recreational cyclists say this but it's very rarely true.

I'm with Homey. Save your money. Keep riding what you've got. Someday you'll have enough saved up to buy something really nice. But don't buy it because you think it will make you faster, because it probably won't make a big difference. Buy it just because you want it.

[thebulls]

No offense... lot's of recreational cyclists say this but it's very rarely true.

I'm with Homey. Save your money. Keep riding what you've got. Someday you'll have enough saved up to buy something really nice. But don't buy it because you think it will make you faster, because it probably won't make a big difference. Buy it just because you want it.

I have the Salsa Delgado's on my commuter bike. Nice, rugged rim. Noticeably heavier, though, than the Mavic Open Pro's or the Velocity Synergy's that I run on my randonneuring wheels. So while you're saving your pennies in the long-term, getting lighter, more-responsive wheels with fast-rolling tires (see the tire thread that's going on for some advice here) can make a big difference to how responsive the bike feels without costing a great deal of money. Personally, I wouldn't go for the fancy, boutique wheels. Just 32-spoke wheels with lighter rims. But that's because I want to be able to true around a broken spoke when I'm hundreds of miles into a ride.

[mander]

You can put 23's on delgados if you want. The old wisdom on 23mm wide rims was that they are too fat for 23 mm wide tires---if you look on Sheldon, for example, this is what you'll hear. However, somewhere along the line roadies decided that a 23ish mm rim width is *optimal* for a 23mm wide tire. So now we have 23mm wide rims like the velocity a23 and the h plus son archetype and tb14, that are marketed specifically as rims for roadies to put 23's on. The new line is (i quote from the h plus son web site), "The well accepted 23mm wide profile mimics a tubular tire [with 700*23's], where the advantage can be felt immediately while taking corners as the tire is no longer shaped as a light bulb, flopping over with high load."

And I'm with the other posters about whether you need to buy mch new gear. There are gains to be had from getting a lighter bike, but imo they are orders of magnitude smaller than the gains that cyclists at our level can get from training a bit. Over a hilly 200 you might gain ten minutes from lighter wheels. Maybe twenty if you want to be more optimistic. However, at our non-elite level there are literally *hours* to be gained on a 200 by simply getting stronger and developing nutrition/hydration/pacing/group riding/etc skills. not to say it doesn't feel great to upgrade your bike, cuz it does. just don't kid yourself too too much about the increases in performance those upgrades will bring.

[Hangtownmatt]

At 225, I got a Salsa Casseroll (steel frame rando bike) - 56 frame - fits me like a glove.

Fit is very important. I vote for lighter wheels/tires.

Matt

[berner]

I go along with Matt. If the Casserole fits well, hang on to it. Get nice wheels now and you can eventually put them on any bike you may subsequently get at some point in the future.

I just saw, (it may have been in Velo News) a list of tires used for Paris Rubaix Paris. Many teams used tires that were 17-28 mm wide. I use a 28mm tire in the back and a 25mm tire in the front mounted on Velocity A23 rims. They sure are smooth.

[evand]

I am a casseroll owner. I feel as it the bike would benefit form faster thinner tires a 25 tire would make a difference. The stock tires are wide and also have a flatter profile than other tires.



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I tried these on my hybrid which had 32's on before and it felt much more responsive.

[IMG=http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6889/photo20gs.jpg][/IMG]

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[evand]

20$ for these tires look good to try fits in with the beer budget theme
http://www.amazon.com/Vittoria-Zaffi...9384788&sr=1-1