Last year I purchased my first road bike: an early 90s C'Dale Crit 3.0 w/ 7sd 105 group. I am very green to cycling, but am a very experienced general wrencher. My education is ME and I have grown up working on cars and motorcycles so systems are easy. What seems hard is the cycling "inside information". Things like what to upgrade, when to upgrade, what you gain, what to pay; these seem hard to come by.

I recently got a set of Sora STIs on here for $75 shipped, they were a Triple/8spd set but I set them up to work for my drivetrain. A set of housings and cables for the brakes and shifters were another $15. So for $90 I "upgraded" to STIs. There was not really anything wrong with the DT shifters, but I had a hard time keeping up with my friends who just bought new Trek 1.5 and 1.2s when it came time to climb and decend hills. Once I got in gear I could out climb them but the time it took to take both hands down and find the gear I needed was enough to drop me 4 or 5 bike lengths.

Personally I think the upgrade was worth the $90. It gave me more confidence pounding down hills at 35-40 mph knowing I could keep my hands on the hoods and find the gear i needed at the bottom. Is it worth it to continue to pour money into the bike, what other upgrades would really help, ect ect. I know the SEARCH button and I spend a good bit of time together - yet I still have a hard time with answers to questions like these.