Moving on up

johngti

As per my posts in Buying Advice, I've just opted to get a Giant Defy Comp 3 through cycle to work. Currently riding a defy 1 which I'm planning to use as my winter/crappy weather in the week bike with mudguards and potentially a rack if needed.

Is it worth changing the groupsets around? The defy 1 has a full 105 (5700) group set including brakes. The Comp 3 has Tiagra except for the brakes which are Giant's own or Tektro or something. The mechanics of it aren't an issue - I've thought about just changing the shifters and brakes and leaving all of the cables attached (I'd accomplish this by basically swapping the handlebars over) and not bothering to change the mechs or I could go all out and swap everything.

Thoughts? And thanks

slowbike

Best gear on the best bike - well, certainly the bit that counts - ie in the cockpit ... I'd want the 105 levers on the best bike. However, possibly not by swapping them around - the levers are slowly reducing in price - so I'd probably just wait for a set to come along and then swap them out.
Tiagra/105 mechs & cranks - wouldn't worry about swapping.

gimpl

None of the above

Sell something: Wife, child, kidney. Supplement the R2W scheme and buy a Composite 1 with Ultegra - sorted.

I have a Composite 1 and it's awesome although mine is a 2013 with PSL 1 Wheels and full Ultegra (except cassette), they have changed it this year, wheels not quite as good and brakes not Ultegra.

I'm hoping to take all the Ultegra off mine in the winter and put it on an Alu Defy 1 frame and fork I've just bought to use through the winter/wet weather. Then the Comp 1 will get an upgrade (hopefully) to Ultegra Di2 (in the sales). It may go wrong in which case I'll happily settle for buying new 105 for the Alu Defy for the winter.

johngti

If only I could have stretched to the comp 1! And my scheme allowed me to pay more...

Thanks for the input so far - more opinions the better

iron-clover

as has already been said, take the best bits from both and put them onto your best frame. Then you'll have a really nice bike, even if the effect is more physiological, and your second winter/ high mileage bike will have components that are cheaper to replace in the long run as they'll inevitably wear out more frequently.

angry_bird

iron-clover wrote:

as has already been said, take the best bits from both and put them onto your best frame. Then you'll have a really nice bike, even if the effect is more physiological, and your second winter/ high mileage bike will have components that are cheaper to replace in the long run as they'll inevitably wear out more frequently.

Are you sure you don't mean psychological?

OP, nice bits on the nice bike!

BrandonA

Slowbike wrote:

Best gear on the best bike - well, certainly the bit that counts - ie in the cockpit ... I'd want the 105 levers on the best bike. However, possibly not by swapping them around - the levers are slowly reducing in price - so I'd probably just wait for a set to come along and then swap them out.
Tiagra/105 mechs & cranks - wouldn't worry about swapping.

I don't know much about your two frames but I definitely agree with Slowbike's first sentence and would want the better groupset on the bike I intend to ride the most.

johngti

Decision made - I'll leave it as it is until I get the first service done (it's cycle to work so probably don't want to mess about too much initially) then I'll see what the financial situation's like. At that point, I'll either swap the shifters over and get new mechs while leaving the chainset as it is or I'll buy some new gear to go on the best bike and maybe sell on the Tiagra stuff to offset the cost a little.

Thanks all!

markhewitt1978

As above, don't consider them as two seperate bikes, think of them as a big collection of components you can use to build two new bikes. You'll be wanting to build up a good bike and a winter bike and go from there.