Originally Posted by
D-Fuzz
I am currently riding a Giant Defy with rim brakes. I have no complaints about the bike and it fits me well. As my riding and fitness continues to improve, I am spending more and more time in the saddle, which leads to the inevitable thoughts of upgrades. I have read lots about how upgrading the wheels on a bike make a huge improvement and I know that wheels on my Defy are entry level, so that is one angle I am looking at. Nothing crazy, but maybe a $500 set of wheels and keep the stock wheels for winter/training use. Option B is to upgrade the entire bike. My LBS will give me a great deal on a 2016 Roubaix SL4 Sport which puts my into a similar spec'ed bike to my Defy but with a carbon frame versus aluminum. Does one scenario make more sense than the other?
Upgrading wheels does not make a huge improvement. It can make a small improvement at times, but probably not in the $500 dollar range. However, having a second set of wheels has been a big lifesaver for me as at various times spokes have broken, hubs loosened, tires found with holes, etc., and just grabbing the other wheel and throwing it on when ride time came instead of having to deal with the issue has saved me many rides.
I also don't think carbon versus aluminum in and of itself is a big jump. Really depends a lot on the layup of the bike. Some carbon is better than some aluminum, and some aluminum better than some carbon. I doubt you would notice the difference in frames, though, for those bikes.
If you want to make an upgrade with probably the biggest bang for the buck, fast rolling tires are absolutely your best bet. The difference between a crappy pair of training tires and good (not necessarily expensive, some 30-40 tires are tremendously fast) tires is huge. So huge that I've flat-out stopped 10 years of riding crappy tires for training because of the differences in speed between decent tires (like Continental GP 4000s) and the $12 Nashbar specials I always rode before.
Even more of an upgrade, but one that requires a bit more work and possibly discomfort in the short term, is position on the bike. This would assume speed is the upgrade you're looking for, of course, but you can make tremendous gains by addressing how high you sit up on the bike, how wide your arms are, how high your head is, etc.