rydabent

With a good serviceable frame, up grading componets as needed is a good thing to do. The simple fact is that good frames last years and components dont. Buying a new bike to get better components if the expensive way to do it.

fietsbob

But you do have disc carbon forks sold in the marketplace.. so there is still that option ,

One is left to assume
the fork design was changed to support the caliper stresses.


Buying a whole new bike the OEM cost they pay for the components is the Low end,(Pallets of Cases)

One at a time, Retail, the cost is more ..

Dryvlyne

Interesting, what would you suggest? Truthfully I'm a little worried about the size of the tires. They seem too thin, like I'm going to need to watch carefully for any bumps or cracks in the pavement.

wphamilton

It's difficult for me to suggest a specific wheel because there are so many preferences about what's worthwhile in a wheel for a given cost. I personally don't care that much about a super light wheelset, or aerodynamic wheels, but lighter is better. I have budget priced Vuelta Corsa Pro wheels which may weigh about the same as your wheels, or maybe only 200-300 grams lighter, but I'm good with their weight. Your rim is pretty wide, and high spoke count, which will be an aerodynamic penalty at some higher speeds. You might not care about that, especially at first. But I'm pretty confident that they are budget wheels and fairly heavy (relatively speaking).

I wouldn't worry about 700x28 tires being too narrow. That's just about the sweet spot for riding around, not slowing you down but wide enough to take some abuse, even if you're a heftier guy than most. Up sizing to 32 is great also in my opinion for more cushion but more weight and resistance than is my personal preference for tires.

BTW that Mercier is similar to the bike I ride now and I'm not in a hurry to upgrade anything. I'd probably even like the saddle, you don't know until you get some miles on it.

Dryvlyne

^ thanks for the info. I don't know that I care too much about speed just yet. Need to get some base lines first and then I'm sure I'll start to care about the weight of things. Good to know the size of the stock tires shouldn't be too bad as far as taking abuse. I assume having a carbon fork will also help with the absorption of any small cracks or bumps; at least I hope cause I don't want to feel every little thing.

Wilfred Laurier

plenty of cf forks can be used with disks
but only ones with disk mounts

pdlamb

It's usually cheaper, and you usually get an overall better bike, if you just buy a new one. As you note, that may be uncomfortably expensive.

You might want to build your $1,500 bike a bit at a time to keep SWMBO happy. New $100 saddle? You want to reduce chances of a saddle sore, no problem after the first time you have to ask her to lance one. New pedals and shoes will let you ride longer. New wheels, after the first 2-3 broken spokes you just point out you've bought half a wheel and have 25+ more spokes to go on the original. When you get to where the shifting just isn't crisp, go to the bike shop and find out how much a new set of brifters and derailers cost, installed. Then go home and ask if you should replace those worn-out shifting components on the old bike or just buy a new bike.

nfmisso

Everyone's body is different. You have to try various ones to see what suits you. I find this one comfortable:
Robot Check
and this one very uncomfortable:
Amazon.com : Retrospec Bicycles Saddle Fixed Gear Single Speed Fixie Urban Road Bike (Black, One Size) : Bike Saddles And Seats : Sports & Outdoors
but my wife likes the latter and hates the former.

My methodology - because I am cheap. I have a couple of cheap saddles that I have had for decades that I find comfortable; starting with the cheapest ones on Amazon, I looked for ones that looked similar, and purchased the least expensive two, repeat until I found a comfortable one for me. I typically ride less than 20 miles at a time. For me, chafing of the inner thighs is the main thing. A saddle suited to you will not chafe you no matter what you wear (or even don't wear).

Vexxer

It all really comes down to only one thing. What kind of riding do you plan to do? If your just a recreational rider, then what you have is perfect.. I would just upgrade the pedals is all, at least initially. If you are riding with groups alot, you may want thinner tires to help you keep pace.

nfmisso

Regarding the wheels. Before you ride; true, tension and stress relieve them. Machine built wheels are rarely finished, they are assembled, trued and tensioned - they are 80% of the way there. The final 20% involves stress relieving, truing and a bit more tension, then repeating the stress relieving and truing loop a few times until the stress relieving is no longer effecting the trueness of the wheels. I build my wheels with less than ±0.1mm (.004") radial and axial run-out - of course the tires have about 10x. They are strong, round, no wobble and last. With wheels, the quality of the parts has minimal effect, it is the how wheel they are put together.

If the spokes are taken care of as suggested above, and you are good about servicing the bearings, the first failure mode on the wheels that cam with the bike is likely to be the bearing cups in the hubs. That will drive a hub replacement, which will probably translate into all new wheels. This will not occur for at least 10K miles, if you are tearing the hubs apart, cleaning and regreasing every 1K to 2K miles.

RoadTire 

For some of us the saddle / bike short fitting is harder than getting shoes. My preference is to find local LBS(s) that will let you test ride them for 20 miles and return w/o any issues as long as the saddle / packaging is completely re-sell-able. (Like, don't crash and scratch the saddle. Use electrical tape on the rails and be very careful not to scratch them). But first run your existing saddle until you know whether it fits or not. Make lots of small changes to your saddle positioning and ride both the tops, hoods, and drops to see what feels ok and what is uncomfortable. It's a learning experience.

As far at the tires, 28's will give you a very nice ride over a lot of different terrain, even hard packed dirt if needed. Adjust the air pressure from higher to lower on successive rides until the are *just* comfy but not squishy or squirmy.

Dave Horne

+1

Retro Grouch 

"Does it make sense to upgrade components or the bike?"

It depends. What are you trying to accomplish?

If your goal is to ride faster, you can spend a ton of money on new components and still not ride significantly faster. To go faster you need to work on improving your personal fitness and to work on improving your position on the bike.

If your goal is to ride more comfortably, saddle and tire changes, and improving your fit on the bike can make a huge improvement.

If your goal is to have the newest, most high tech bike, you're probably better off replacing the whole bicycle. Everything on a bike works together so, if you try to upgrade one major component, you usually have to change something else to make the whole package work.

If you consider your bicycle to be an art project as much as a tool, have at it. It's rare for me to go an entire month without changing something on at least one of my bikes.

Dryvlyne

Good points... I think #2 and probably #4 apply to me. Usually when I get into a hobby I like to learn about it as much as possible (hence this thread) and tinker with stuff. I'm sure between this forum and YouTube I'll be able to find plenty of advice so I can become a competent DIYer.

Dryvlyne

Is this something I can do myself? Any good reference material? If this is something that should be done by my LBS, how much would that typically cost?

Retro Grouch 

"I'll be able to find plenty of advice so I can become an obsessive compulsive DIYer."

Yup. You're doomed, man. Welcome to the club.

nfmisso

Read: Wheelbuilding

Preferably the whole page, then you decide if you can do it. We do not know your skills or tools.

RoadTire 

REI here in the Twin Cities charges $35 to pull the tire and re-do all the spokes. My thoughts on that are mess with them yourself, and if you just can't get it right, keep them true, or totally botch it, then go have someone put it back to rights. (By "mess," I mean read everything you can online, watch videos, tweak them a little, see what happens, and go through the process again.) As I understand it from BF, spokes should have annual maintenance, and loose spokes on machine built wheels are one common cause of breakage.

I'm going to do my son's wheels, assuming it will take several tries before they stay true, and if botched, my favorite mech at REI is my backup. The problem is finding a mechanic that is willing to get to know you and does reliable work.

Zap Hassellhoff

Nice bike man. It will make a great commuter. As the others have said, ride it for a couple months really think about how the bike feels. Then, make the upgrades that you feel are necessary. I imagine, a saddle, koolstop pads, pedals, lights and rack will all be considered at some point.

On side note, I'm digging the improvements to the entry level Shimano groups. This Claris group looks great. the fit and finish is impressive. Sora and Tiagra are down right respectable.