Originally Posted by
FoldingSpace
Striking but somewhat poorly illustrative before and after shots of my Tern Eclipse P20 ludicrous upgrade spree. My company pays us a once per year fitness benefit if you don't use the free gym perk - taxable but still free money and a use-it-or-lose it benefit. I used last year's to buy a second Eclipse P20 even though I really wanted the "X22 Blackbird" with its Ultegra groupset and other upgrades. But that's Carbon roadbike money and I also didn't want to spend much of my own money on it.
So this year, I took the money and upgraded the second Eclipse P20 to near-as-damnit X22 Blackbird spec - in one or two cases, better than! So now I have the most confusing looking bike in Seattle - a mutant hybrid of Ultegra, 105 (crank) and at least one Dura Ace part because they were out of the Ultegra version - all on a weird looking bike that a lot of weekend Armstrongs think is an eBike because it's overtaking them on a hill.
It's dumb but I love it. I switched to cork Ergo grips and a few other little upgrades here and there.
Before
After
I wouldn't have done it any other way! Sounds kinda similar to what I did with the Hemingway above: After a pair of new tires on new bike day; better (and expensive) things started finding their way onto the bike; Bontrager grips, Litepro seat post for better geometry and handling, a sportier saddle off of mu brother-in-law's Launch, and finally, a full upgrade to Shimano pre-assembled hydraulic brakes with BL-MT401 alloy levers and BR-MT420 four-piston calipers, along with a 170mm Shimano rotor up front and a 165mm Avid rotor out back. I mean yeah, the added cost om top of the basic price of the bike possibly would've got me a nice Mu LX or a very decent Verge (or even a Birdy that I could probably pick up locally,) but where's the fun in that?
