To upgrade or to not upgrade

westonpark

Afternoon all, hope you are all enjoying the weather.

I was out today on a solo ride and managed to, for the second week running get involved with a local race, it seemed to be for all abilities but what caught my eye were the bikes, very nice!

Now I have a defy 0 2015, good bike but is it a great bike, and it got me thinking. I'm starting to really enjoy the road biking (winter is for the mountain bike or turbo trainer) so I was thinking of upgrading to a carbon bike, or throw some upgrades at the defy.

What would be a good "next" bike or what upgrades could I throw at the defy.

Cheers

Mike

jeremy1

Hahaha my usual reply,

"How can a reply be given without knowing how much you can afford" £100 or £10,000

imposter2.0

My usual reply: "upgrade the rider"

westonpark

jeremy1 wrote:

Hahaha my usual reply,

"How can a reply be given without knowing how much you can afford" £100 or £10,000

I could go to a couple of grand.

Currently working in upgrading the rider. It's hard work!

johngti

I have a 2014 defy composite and a 2015 defy 0. The carbon fibre bike is heavily upgraded to full ultegra, zipp handlebars and campagnolo zonda c17 wheels and a top of the range Fizik saddle. The defy 0 is set up with full 105 5800 (I nicked the ultegra bits off it for the defy composite). The result is a carbon bike that weighs in at around 7.8kg and the defy 0 is at 8.6kg. Ride wise, the carbon fibre is more comfortable and slightly quicker but there's really not a lot in it if I'm being honest.

But I wouldn't get rid of either! I suppose I'm saying that if you've got the funds, just go for it but expect to get the urge to swap parts too. I reckon that if I wanted to "improve" on the carbon fibre bike I'd have to spend a small fortune. What I'd potentially gain would be internal cabling and an all up weight of around 7kg.

You might be better off getting some bling wheels and finishing parts but I suspect it's carbon you want so nothing else will do!

phospho123

I say do it

westonpark

johngti wrote:

I have a 2014 defy composite and a 2015 defy 0. The carbon fibre bike is heavily upgraded to full ultegra, zipp handlebars and campagnolo zonda c17 wheels and a top of the range Fizik saddle. The defy 0 is set up with full 105 5800 (I nicked the ultegra bits off it for the defy composite). The result is a carbon bike that weighs in at around 7.8kg and the defy 0 is at 8.6kg. Ride wise, the carbon fibre is more comfortable and slightly quicker but there's really not a lot in it if I'm being honest.

But I wouldn't get rid of either! I suppose I'm saying that if you've got the funds, just go for it but expect to get the urge to swap parts too. I reckon that if I wanted to "improve" on the carbon fibre bike I'd have to spend a small fortune. What I'd potentially gain would be internal cabling and an all up weight of around 7kg.

You might be better off getting some bling wheels and finishing parts but I suspect it's carbon you want so nothing else will do!

Out of interest what did you do to get the defy 0 down to 8.6kg?

johngti

Wheels mainly I think. Got some crc prime hoops on it that come in at <1500g without tyres so that saved some decent weight. And it's M size.

Garry H

I say do it.

Matthewfalle

Wot Garry said.

mfin

Yep, save up some more, start looking when you have 3 grand, buy wisely and you could be satisfied for years and years.

Or look to build something up, watch for framesets on sale, start with finding a great deal on something top line, then amass the rest in time.

2 grand on a carbon bike won't get you anything special at all.

MiddleRinger

Upgrade! #yolo