Training for the London Revolution. What should I upgrade?

og5955

Hello everyone. I'm rather new to cycling (started about 6 months ago when we had that little bit of sun! I purchased the merida race lite 900 and am getting on well with it apart from the front gear grinding for a little while before finally shifting up which is rather annoying. Could anyone give me advice on whether something needs adjusting or if it would be better to upgrade certain parts? I'm also open to hearing advice on how to improve the overall performance of this bike in general...is there anything in the specification which is advisable to upgrade if I want to take it a step further?

Here is the link:
http://www.merida-bikes.com/en_gb/bike/ ... e+Lite+900

Thanks for your help.

Andrew

Omar Little

Will most likely just need adjusting, there are lots of videos on youtube about this or you could just take it to a bike shop and get them to do it.

The overall performance of the bike will not be a problem just concentrate on getting some good training miles in and save the money for upgrades when you need to replace parts when they wear out.

kentphil

Wheels are tyres are generally regarded as the best area for upgrading first. But as said previously wait until your fitness improves or the parts wear out before upgrading.

This link might help you. Its for a mtb, but the principle is the same as a road bike.
http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/artic ... ur--36198/

Wrath Rob

Hi Andrew, and welcome to the forum. You've got 3.5 months until the ride. I'd suggest upgrading yourself through some decent training for the next 2.5 months and then see where you are. If you're feeling good and have achieved the goals you've set, e.g. ride 100 miles, then reward yourself with some nice upgrades or a new bike. You can use the time between now and then to research and plan what to get. You might also want to invest in a bike fit as trying to do 180 miles in 2 days on a poorly set up bike will be pretty unpleasant.

Looking at the spec, I'd focus on wheels and tyres as your first upgrade. If you get some decent hand built wheels they'll be lighter and stiffer than the current ones and you'll be able to keep them when you switch to a new bike.

alihisgreat

og5955 wrote:

Hello everyone. I'm rather new to cycling (started about 6 months ago when we had that little bit of sun! I purchased the merida race lite 900 and am getting on well with it apart from the front gear grinding for a little while before finally shifting up which is rather annoying. Could anyone give me advice on whether something needs adjusting or if it would be better to upgrade certain parts? I'm also open to hearing advice on how to improve the overall performance of this bike in general...is there anything in the specification which is advisable to upgrade if I want to take it a step further?

Here is the link:
http://www.merida-bikes.com/en_gb/bike/ ... e+Lite+900

Thanks for your help.

Andrew

Sounds like you need to tension your cables properly if its not shifting well.

Apart from that some nice tyres like the Continental GP4000s will be a nice upgrade when the weather improves a bit -> you should get a pretty good idea of what you want to change once you start training and putting more miles in.