Originally Posted by
jr59
The wheels and crank on the complete bike are not that good. Pretty bad in fact. Make no mistake, they work, but ...!
The drive train, ie; shifters, and Tiagra stuff works, the brakes, not so much.
I think, if you ride the bike for any amount of time, you would want the upgrades as quickly as you can.
I agree that the stock brakes are junk. Even with KS Salmon pads, I'm not a fan of
any low profile cantis.
The stock drivetrain isn't bad. The Tiagra derailleurs are durable and reliable; 3 years later and I'm still running the stock front and the shifters (which are DA barends.)
The crank is OK if they're still stocking the FSA Vero, but I did wear it out pretty quickly and it developed a wobble at the spindle, necessitating its replacement. This took about 7000 miles to do.
The stock wheels are actually pretty nice, IMO. The DA16 rim is the same profile as a DT RR1.1 (RR465 now) and with nothing more than a quick tensioning when I got them, the rear lasted me until I nearly wore through the brake surface. I still have the front as a project rim for another build.