Advice on my first upgrade

benscook

I have been riding a Specialized Secteur Elite and I am interested in any advice on what would be the first upgrade to help increase my average speeds and also which products would you recommend.

kentphil

wheels and/or tyres are generally considered to be the best value upgrade you can make. What's your budget?

benscook

My budget is about £250.00

Gizmodo

First upgrade is clipless pedals if you don't already have them. SPD-SL, Look Keo or SpeedPlay, and a decent pair of shoes to go with them.

Then as Phil says, tyres, then wheels.

Schwalbe Ultremo ZX or Continental Grand Prix 4000.

As for wheels, send a PM to ugo.santalucia, he hand builds some lovely wheels.

Bobbinogs

In my experience, buying nice things like wheels, tyres, etc., has dramatically improved the ride experience but I have yet to see this directly result in quicker average speeds. Hence, you may need to lower your expectations in that your goal should be to increase your enjoyment...so that you ride more...so that you improve your speed by getting fitter/stronger.

So, anything to improve your enjoyment will work. Tyres, yes with that budget. Instant ride improvement. Spend some of what's left on decent shoes/pedals. Perhaps a nice team jersey if you feel great when wearing it. A GPS computer so that you can Strava (these can start at less than £100). Great bib shorts will also help (notice that I didn't say "expensive bib shorts").

Mikey23

my best upgrade.... clipless pedals and garmin edge 500.

MrCubeLtd

My best upgrade = getting divorced with a clean financial break. even though I lost everything she can't touch my bikes now!

displacedaussie

The best upgrade I made on my 8 year old Specialized Allez was getting new wheels.

I bought the Shimano RS80 C24 wheelset from Planet-X for £300 and they're great.

simon_masterson

You could hopefully get some better wheels for that money. I would assume that to be the most worthwhile upgrade. If you sell the bike however you probably won't recoup the funds, and if you were to sell the bike with the original wheels and keep the upgrade ones, the upgrade ones probably won't be good enough for the bike you upgrade to (if you make a worthwhile upgrade).

If not that, there are some marginal gains you could make. Stiffer bars and stem, new seat (though you might be completely happy with the one you have)... Other than kitting out your bike, depending on what you already have, you could upgrade your shorts/shoes/helmet/etc.

I wouldn't bother with a GPS computer unless you're REALLY well kitted out with other gear. They cost a lot for what they are, and there are much better things that you can do with that money.

rolf_f

Simon Masterson wrote:

I wouldn't bother with a GPS computer unless you're REALLY well kitted out with other gear. They cost a lot for what they are, and there are much better things that you can do with that money.

The GPS would be vastly more use in terms of the OPs desire to improve speed than any set of £250 wheels. £150 gets you a GPS with HRM and cadence which will allow you to analyse your performance over a ride, planning training sessions and learn how to actually ride the bike better and really see how you improve. No pair of wheels can do that - a GPS can help you go faster, all a good pair of wheels does is make you go less slow!

I suspect better still would be to pay for a session or two with a professional coach.

(Just for info - my posh bike has a nice pair of Campagnolo Neutrons which are pretty light compared to most alloy clinchers. My Ribble Gran Fondo has Campagnolo Khamsins on which are superbly rugged commuter wheels but hardly light. The bike is heavier than my posh bike too. Without checking which bike was used on a particular ride, I would be entirely unable to tell which bike I used based on the ride data uploaded to my computer. Neither bike nor wheels make an obvious difference though the lighter bike feels flightier.

Bobbinogs

Rolf F wrote:

Simon Masterson wrote:

I wouldn't bother with a GPS computer unless you're REALLY well kitted out with other gear. They cost a lot for what they are, and there are much better things that you can do with that money.

The GPS would be vastly more use in terms of the OPs desire to improve speed than any set of £250 wheels. £150 gets you a GPS with HRM and cadence which will allow you to analyse your performance over a ride, planning training sessions and learn how to actually ride the bike better and really see how you improve.

Yepp, that was my logic too. Accurately tracking one's current performance should give a great personal inspiration to pushing harder...and then comparing progress against oneself/others on Strava. I don't actually have a GPS but figure it would be a good alternative to what I have as inspiration...trying to keep up with the best climbers in my local County club since that makes me want to train harder to go faster, not look for some other wheels.

richh

I'd agree with that too. My edge 800 is the best investment I've made in terms of "upgrades". Not only for training stats but also the ability to program in long routes miles from home means that I'm a lot more confident about getting out on the bike and going further than I otherwise would without having to carry a paper map and keep stopping etc etc.

Expensive, but money well spent.

rolf_f

For example, I was aware that my cadence was probably not what it could be. After getting a cadence sensor and logging it on my rides, I found that 'average cadence' as determined by the computer (flawed as I think it includes coasting but still a useful marker) was normally about 79. Generally now it is in the high 80s and rising. I could just use a normal computer to check against but it wouldn't give me a long term record of performance without manually recording it.

slowbike

On a garmin you can get it to ignore zeros for averages

hstiles

What will increase your average speeds? More miles in your legs and better technique. A decent cycle computer with cadence sensor should give you decent feedback and help you work towards maintaining a higher speed and faster cadence. A sports tracker app on your phone - assuming you have a smartphone - will allow you to track workouts and encourage you to work harder on specific rides.

benscook

Thanks guys for all of your feed back.

simon_masterson

Rolf F wrote:

Neither bike nor wheels make an obvious difference though the lighter bike feels flightier.

Exactly. I could recommend that he save his money just as I so often recommend that people don't buy £700(+) more bike than they need to start off with, but most people could make their bike a bit better, and if they're going to spend their pennies on something that will principally make them feel faster, they may as well scratch the right itch.

But there's no need to buy a GPS computer. Just over £100 will buy one with HRM, cadence and bazillions of other measurements. If you really want to know how fast you went up that hill (I tend to remember), or whatever, then be my guest, but it's quite a lot of money for a very small thing, which is why I say that they cost a lot for what they are. Horses for courses.

I'd happily buy one that can direct me, and probably will, but I fancy another bike first. I think I deserve it.

And the only reason for my disagreement with your suggestion of coaching sessions is that my assumption is that you won't get that many for the money, but I could be wrong to assume that however many that pays for will be a wasted purchase. I have to say, the thought didn't occur to me.

Since no-one's suggested it and the coaching suggestion made me think of it, something like a Retul bike fitting, or just an 'ordinary' bike fitting (yes yes, very funny...) would probably be just as worthwhile.

stueys

I just upgraded the wheels and tyres on my winter bike (spesh Allez). I mainly did it as I use the spesh for turbo-ing and wanted to make it easier to swap the turbo wheel out a a mate wants to borrow the bike to get started. I went from crappy stock wheels to mavic Aksium, cont 4000s tyres (same as posh bike so can swap if needed) and an ultegra cassette.

The bike is absolutely transformed! It's taken over 1kg of weight off and is much stiffer putting the power down. Excluding the tyres (which i had) the upgrade was around £200. I would start there, though I agree with all the advice on cadence and HRM. My cycling got a lot better by getting cadence right and training withing HR zones.