Btwin 500SE advice ?

mr_eddy

Hi

About to pull the trigger on a Triban 500SE - I finally got a credit note voucher from a duff tent I bought last year at Decathlon. I could put the money in the bank but that's not the done thing. I have borrowed my mates size large 500SE for a day and it seems to fit like a glove - I will be putting my go to Deda 70mm stem on though.

Any obvious areas to upgrade ? (sensible upgrades that is , no point putting £250 wheels on it etc) - So far I have decided on some Gatorskins 25c for comfort and reliability and some crud racers (the bike can take up to 28c apparently).

Are the BTwin in house brakes / brake pads any good ? If not what pads should I go with instead ?

Is the Claris Octalink BB ok ?

Should I invest in a carbon seat post ?

Advice would be much appreciated, I am happy to spend up to £100 extra for some choice upgrades - The Gatorskins are from my old bike so that is free and the Crud Racers are about £20 so that would give about £80

Thanks

jlloyd

Hi,

I'd definately swap the breakpads, the orginals aren't great. Swissstop are popular, but i used ultegra and it vastly improved the stopping power.

I also upgraded to an sram chain and cassette, but only did this when the original wore out (about 2.5k miles)

The wheels are bombproof, but a little heavy so bought a pair of campagnolo khamsins (which i saw somewhere for £75 recently), and do they make the bike feel nippier. I use the orginals for winter.

Don't know much about the bottom bracket, as i have the sora version

Hope this helps

kingofthetailwind

Yeah, brake pads and tyres. The wheels on the Triban 3 I had were garbage but I think they've improved. The stock saddle wasn't great either.

If you're fitting Crud Roadracers you'll not get anything bigger than 23c tyres under them in my experience. Continental 25c tyres will just about fit but with a lot of rubbing.

A 70mm stem on a large frame (57cm I presume?) feels weird. I went on Decathlon's advice and bought a 57 and it was too big. Had a 70mm stem on it for a while but the handling was awful. Made do with a 100mm until I sold it,

nickbotfield

mr_eddy wrote:

Hi

About to pull the trigger on a Triban 500SE - I finally got a credit note voucher from a duff tent I bought last year at Decathlon. I could put the money in the bank but that's not the done thing. I have borrowed my mates size large 500SE for a day and it seems to fit like a glove - I will be putting my go to Deda 70mm stem on though.

Any obvious areas to upgrade ? (sensible upgrades that is , no point putting £250 wheels on it etc) - So far I have decided on some Gatorskins 25c for comfort and reliability and some crud racers (the bike can take up to 28c apparently).

Are the BTwin in house brakes / brake pads any good ? If not what pads should I go with instead ?

Is the Claris Octalink BB ok ?

Should I invest in a carbon seat post ?

Advice would be much appreciated, I am happy to spend up to £100 extra for some choice upgrades - The Gatorskins are from my old bike so that is free and the Crud Racers are about £20 so that would give about £80

Thanks

I've got the 500SE and I have left everything as stock apart from the wheels! I got some £200ish deepish section wheels from Superstar and it's made a massive difference. It really increased the liveliness of the bike and made it much nippier and fun to ride (not that it's not fun to ride with the stock wheels).

I've had it two and a half years now and I'm only now thinking about upgrading the groupset, only because I'm not a huge fan of the gear cables coming out of the side of the shifters. Everything else I'm really happy with.

daniel_b

JLloyd wrote:

The wheels are bombproof, but a little heavy so bought a pair of campagnolo khamsins (which i saw somewhere for £75 recently), and do they make the bike feel nippier. I use the orginals for winter.

Campags can be nabbed for £75 at Planet X with their latest clearance code thing.

drlodge

I bought a Triban 3 for my son, and immediately replaced the brake pads. The ones they supplied were useless and didn't stop the bike at all. As for everything else, I would replace only once the original parts are worn out. Tyres will wear and need replacing at some point anyway, wheels will be fine but a nice hand built pair will be good for the better weather and use the original wheels in the winter.