Inertianinja

My '09 Felt came with Rival, but was originally specced with 2009 Red.
The thinking was that i'd invest in the frame, and use the lower-level group while i was learning (this was my first 'real' road bike) in case i beat the crap out of it.
I bought it in January of this year, put about 3000 miles on it so far.

wear from my early-spring cross chaining shows that this was probably the right call.
I've always wanted to restore it to its full Red glory.
his winter, like last one, will see a lot of time on the trainer.

I'm thinking of putting money aside during the winter to upgrade for the 2011 season.
2010 groupsets are currently like $1400 on ebay.

what do you think of doing a 2010 Red upgrade towards the beginning of next season?

Or would you just hold onto the money for the "next" bike?

blamire

this is what I'd do

roadiejorge 

To quote botto: ride more, buy less. Rival is a great gruppo and the only thing I would upgrade on it would be the shifters because Rival doesn't have zero loss for the rear, but I'll only do that once the current ones break. I used to ride a Bianchi with Campy Mirage (their low end gruppo) and put thousands of miles on it before things gradually started breaking and I think I'll follow that logic this time around as well. Red is a great but I often see people mixing it up with Force and or Rival because of issues with certain parts of the Red components.

echappist

upgrade your shifters if you want, & feel free to get the yokozuna cables. the other upgrades won't do you any good other than maybe 250g (& that's pushing it) in weight savings. you seem to be quite serious about training, why not get yourself a quarq powermeter?

simonaway427

Rival is by no means a low level group.

Save your money for your next bike.

Inertianinja

believe me, man, i ride virtually every second that i'm able. 3000 miles since January is about the most i physically could have done without quitting my job and losing my fiance.

that's good info, thanks. the only experience i have with Red is screwing around with the shifters in a bike shop, and they felt good. I love my bike, I have just always known it's missing something that it once had.

i'm a big tech geek, so obviously upgrading is always on my mind. Would i rather have Red or save up to buy a new Felt F1 a few years down the road? probably the F1, if Red isn't going to be a big change.

echappist

you do realize there's no difference between the F-series frames, right? all that's different are the components, and i think everything F3 and above use the same fork

Inertianinja

I have a Garmin 705, which gives me everything but power data. The Garmin was 300 bucks. to add the power feature i'd have to spend more than the cost of a full Red group. i'm meh on that - tons of cash just to tell me how weak my ass is

Inertianinja

check out the new 2011 F1. not that i'd be buying that, since it's going to be hugely expensive, but it's a different/new design.
and the site said (at least last time i looked) that they use different modulus carbon.

roadiejorge 

Didn't mean to imply you don't ride your bike, just shared it because I use it to keep me focused on just enjoying the ride and not getting distracted with the bling aspect, though shiny new toys are nice. Jim's advice on a power meter is a good idea and probably where I would spend money if I had to choose between that and the Red gruppo since it will give you valuable information to help you train.

Inertianinja

no, this is good, i appreciate the info. I'm fine with saving up the money, i'm glad i got the info that the upgrade isn't necessarily worth the money vs. a new bike down the road.
it's like my iPhone:
i had the first one, it worked. i skipped the second one because the upgrades weren't worth the money.
i got the 3GS and 4G. not because my 1st-gen was broken, but because i wanted to upgrade.

now that i think of it, imagine if i went to HowardForums asking about upgrading to the new iPhone and some guy was like "BUY LESS, MAKE MORE PHONE CALLS!" upgrading is fun, even if some BF members are - for some reason - against it.

caloso

Agree. Save your money.

I got a complete Red group through a team buy two seasons ago, but piece by piece the components are really expensive. Couldn't justify another $230 cassette so when it wore out, I got a 1070. Couldn't justify a $190 BB, so when it wore out I got a GXP. And I couldn't justify a Red FD when I switched frames, so I got a Force FD. So, I'm actually "downgrading" my bike gradually.

roadiejorge 

If people have the money and upgrading products which are still functional makes sense to them then I'm not "against" it, but I take the role of being the contrarian to our disposable age. I've reached a point where I don't want to give companies my money just for a few bells and whistles even if I do have the money to do so. T-Mobile sent me a text announcing the G2 is coming out soon but I'm keeping the G1, which my friend described as a "garage remote", until it breaks.

achoo

Huh?

You can find a built-up wireless Powertap for around $1,000. Competitive Cyclist has this:

https://www.competitivecyclist.com/ro...563.380.0.html

You can probably build your own for $800-$850 or so.