Upgrade?

surfingjoyner

Hi,

I have a 2011 Orbea Aqua which I bought of here second hand and I am wondering about upgrading it. It rides well but is a touch heavy. It was not a standard build but I think the frame is the same as the Shimano 105 model but it has a full Tiagra 10 speed group on it and Mavic Askiums and FSA finishing kit. Looking at bikes around the £1500 mark they seem to offer a better group set (105 or Ultegra) but the wheels do not seem as good. Is it worth spending out on a whole new bike or should I just spend the money or a new groups set and/or wheels? Is the frame worth the new addditions. I was looking at getting a CAAD10.

Thanks,

Richard

de_sisti

There's a thread on this forum about wheels. You may want to acquaint yourself with it to get some
idea of what's available (that's if you're in the market for new wheels).

keef66

The Orbea Aqua was / is a basic alloy frame, so I'd say if the kit and wheels are still functional, leave it as it is. Maybe some light / supple / grippy tyres to spice up the ride?

And start saving for a new bike. The outgoing CAAD 10 should be available with discounts since I've just read a review of the CAAD 12. Or perhaps something carbon with 11 speed 105 kit?

ai_1

It all depends how heavy it is, why, how much it will cost to lose how much weigth and why weight is important to you.

To be honest small weight differences aren't nearly as important as people tend to think unless you're competitive and doing lots of hills. It can change the feel of the bike a bit, but again, it's not going to be earth shattering, especially with the same frame and anything but a major component upgrade.
Moving from Tiagra to 105 or Ultegra will save weight but not massive amounts. Likewise, you can save weight with wheels but if Aksiums weigh something like 2kg, you'll spend a fair chunk of money to save 500g. It will change the feel a bit, it won't impact performance very much.
Having said all that my main bike bike is nice and light and I'm quite happy about that but it's not really much faster on hills than my older bike which weighs about 3kgs more and that's a pretty extreme weight difference. On the flat there's no perceptible difference in performance unless I'm using the clip-on tri-bars on the old heavy bike in which case it becomes easily the fastest.

I don't know the Aqua but unless it's horribly underspec'd for the quality of the frame in it's current guise, I'd just buy a new bike. I reckon upgrading all the components on an existing bike will end up terrible value by comparison.

P.S.
Just saw Keefs post and he says the Aqua ais a pretty basic frame so as above, I wouldn't bother upgrading much.