Logical Upgrade Strategy
 

A few months ago I bought my teenage daughter a Trek 1.2 because she was interested in getting into road biking after spending most of her summer on an mtb. The kid at our LBS pointed out that it would be cheaper in the long run to buy a bike with better components than to upgrade later. But I figured, hey, entry-level bikes are there for a reason and I'm out less if she decides road biking isn't her thing.

After seeing her hit the road, I got interested and bought myself an OCR-1.

Now I'm feeling a little guilty about her el cheapo gruppo, and wondering if it would be worth upgrading.

Here's my thought: Buy the Ultegra groupset for my bike and put my 105 components on hers. That's upgrading two bikes for less than $600, assuming I can buy/borrow the necessary tools and am competent to do the work. Might be a fun winter project.

Make sense or not?

Looks like a good way to put two bikes out of business if you don't know what you're doing. If you're sure, though, go for it.

Sounds legit to me.

Good components really make or break the bike. A turd frame with Dura-Ace beats a Pinarello (biased:love:) with Sora anyday.

There is a big jump in quality from bottom level stuff to mid level, and a smaller jump from mid to top in my opinion.

if your daughter has el-cheapo frame, you should give her the Ultegra or maybe the 09 Rival
to make up for being cheap the first time.

Eventually, for sure. I thought the Trek frames were identical on the lower end, i.e., a 105 groupset on that frame would essentially make it comparable to a stock Trek with 105 components.

Mechanical ability is always an open question. I sure wouldn't tackle something like casually.

BTW, she's dating the LBS kid that I mentioned earlier, so maybe I can get him to do it if he sticks around long enough.

Now you're cooking with oil.

Makes sense to me, too.

I'm kinda going the other way -- as stuff breaks on my not-as-sweet bike, I'll move parts from my nicer bike onto it and get nicer stuff for the nice bike. ;)

if you've got mechanical skills, you'll be okay.

of course, i learned how to wrench on a total beater bike... and that beater bike has its fair share of wrench marks...