To upgrade or not?

dinyull

Own a 2010 Boardman Comp and recently upgraded the wheels - from Ritchey Pro DS to Mavic Cosmic Elite - due to destroying the front wheel.

Have been abusing her a bit over the winter, out every weekend no matter the weather - without mud guards and haven't cleaned it as often as I should. Because of this, front mech and rear brake calliper have both seized up and even when fully clean and indexed I'm starting to get a little bit of slip.

On top of new front mech, rear caliper, cassette, chain I'm in need of new tyres and brake pads. Bike is now 4 years old, is ex-demo and has been used heavily for 2 of the 4 years.

Have just noticed Merlin selling 105 groupset for £300 this week only, so I'm in 2 minds to replace the full groupset and sell on the (working) old kit - or to just buy what I need?!

Does the frame justify an upgrade to 105? Is it even be much of an upgrade (tiagra/105 5600 mix to full 105 5700) for the money? Or would I be better served putting the £300 towards a new bike?

markhewitt1978

Tiagra mix to full 105 won't be much of an upgrade - however having all new components will in itself make the biggest difference.

smidsy

Not worth it (regardless of frame) as there is very little step up.

Besides YOU do not justify it with your slack maintenance regime and general lethargy towards caring for the bike :-)

The best upgrade you can do is keep the thing cleaned and lubed and generally fettled.

dwanes

At that price I would upgrade.
I noticed a big difference in upgrading from Tiagra to 105, in smoothness on shifting and braking. Not sure how people can say they didn't notice a difference, yes both work fine but there is a difference.

And then from there, like smidsy says, keep on top of the cleaning.

rolf_f

smidsy wrote:

Not worth it (regardless of frame) as there is very little step up.

Besides YOU do not justify it with your slack maintenance regime and general lethargy towards caring for the bike :-)

The best upgrade you can do is keep the thing cleaned and lubed and generally fettled.

Exactly. Nothing wrong with the bike that a clean won't solve. A neglected Tiagra groupset isn't going to perform any less well than a neglected 105 groupset. Arguably, you'd be better downgrading. Clean the Boardman, sell it for as much as you can and use the money to fund a Triban. If the bike isn't fettled it really doesn't matter what you ride.

Re cleaning - take off the mechs and clean them using an Ultrasonic cleaner (cheap enough from Maplins). If the mechs are still stiff, you probably need to replace cables (first inners, if that doesn't work, outers).

slowbike

Front mech and rear brake being a little stiff don't equal "slip" ... sounds like you've let your chain and cassette wear too much.

If you've got £350+ laying around then why not buy the groupset and new tyres, then just fit what needs replacing ... keep the others as spares (or sell on)

It really depends if you like the bike/frame - riding around in winter without guards means you're getting it filthy dirty and as you've seen that makes a difference even to the lesser moving parts - you really do need to keep on top of the cleaning to reduce the risk of failure on the parts.

If you're not that bothered about the frame then strip and re-clean the brake & front mech, replace the chain and cassette and pray you haven't worn the chainrings ... (or just replace them too) then vow to spend a little bit of time cleaning the bike after a ride ...

dinyull

I take it on board that my bike maintenance must improve, it's mostly been circumstantial but that's not really an excuse. Also, I know the slip sin't coming from the brake/front mech, that's why I've costed for cassette and chain.

I'm just worried that, if I replace front mech, rear brake, cassette and chain I have to source old parts which are more expensive/harder to find than the newer versions. And once they're replaced, if the front chain ring's are worn/go soon it's going to be around the same price of a full new 105 groupo.

rolf_f

Dinyull wrote:

I'm just worried that, if I replace front mech, rear brake, cassette and chain I have to source old parts which are more expensive/harder to find than the newer versions.

No - you won't have to source old parts but if you do, they'll probably be cheaper than the newer versions and perfectly easy to get hold of. You have to go back a fair way before new old stock becomes more expensive than equivalent current products.

Cassette and chain are consumables. Replacing them is not a reason to 'upgrade'. Your front and rear mechs probably don't need replacing. At the moment you have no reason to assume that the chainrings need replacing. That doesn't mean that they don't but that is something to be considered when you know they do. They might be good for another 10,000 miles.