Any of yall done anything over stock to your bikes yet? I won a new front derailleur on ebay for next to nothing yesterday. Thinking I'm going to try and get some higher end components on it, got a few more auctions I'm watching, shifters/levers & brakesets.

Would really like some new wheels, but it doesn't seem deals on those come around too often.

Mine came with 105, so not sure where else to go next. I'm happy with it so far.

I did get the Aero Bars (at xmas) put on mine and I really like them on certain stretches of roads or wind. Helps me relax my shoulders too.

I did replace my cheap tires....made big difference in sound, smoothness and speed. I just wish I had gone with the GP4000 instead. It's faster they say than the Gatorskins.

I added speed and cadence sensors. (also xmas gift)

Next thing I want is a power meter....but dang $$$

What bike do you have?

I don't know if I would, but Ultegra then Dura-Ace are the next levels up.
And yeah those power meters are ridiculously expensive. I'm not sure I'm at the level where I'd benefit from one. With the speed/cadence sensors, on Strava Premium it gives you an estimated power chart. I know more is better but that's getting to the level of counting grams and crazy stuff and that equals more and more $$$$


2013 Felt F6
As it sits right now, it's got no-name brakes, maybe Trektro? Sram Apex (I think is a grade under 105) shifters/levers, front derailleur and whatever their entryish crankset/cassette are. It does have a Force RD which is about the Shimano Ultegra equivalent, so that's what FD I got. It's pretty trick. Thinking about doing the shifters and possibly brakes all to Force, or maybe Ultegra brakes if I can find a deal on them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY05DFQ?psc=1

Here is an upgrade. Being from Texas shouldn't we have one of these?

Too funny

Well, if you want to know frustrating, try setting up a front derailleur from scratch. I think I got it about 98% how it's supposed to be. Probably just a 1/8th screw turn or a 1mm or less cable tension adjustment or something like that would get it right. Going from the small to big ring isn't as smooth as I'd like, but it doesn't drop the chain off either so that's good, and I think it should work just fine, it did on the trainer last night...

Freaking shifters are expensive, probably going to have to hold off on those. If I can find a deal on a brakeset, that's what I'd like to do next.

The differences between the Shimano lines are not very pronounced once you go past the 105 for most components. However if the $$ is not much more for key components - I always consider the bottom bracket, gear set and rear derailer for these....it might be worth upgrading but its only for the cool factor. The weight savings is negligible also.

The average rider would have a tough time wearing out 105 components on a road bike short of a crash related issue or not cleaning anything. They are just built so well these days.

Brian, now you see why bike shops exists. Tuning them is like rocket science. Everyone I talk too locally....not a single person adjust theirs themselves, well besides one young pro.

I tried doing it with You Tube....head ache. I got it working. Guy just last week said he thought his was smooth until the bike shop tuned it then he realized how not in tune he had it.

I need to buckle down and take mine in. Shifts fine, but I wonder how much better it could be.

They're really pretty simple, it's just having it in the right position when you start, atleast with the front. You have the inner and outer limits, and cable tension. If you're off from the start it might work, but not as good as it should. And when I say fustriating, it really wasn't that bad. Might've took 30ish min total. Break chain, pull off old one, put on new one and start the process. I found a good video of how to set it up, and could probably do the whole thing in under 10 now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnG3t7TyRm0
I'm about sick of eaby, when I got this I thought there were lots of deals to be had. Seemed everything was under $20 bucks . Now it seems everything starts out less than 10 and by the time it's done it's well on its way to 100.

See here in Wichita, sure there's a bunch of people who take their bikes in, but our shops are hiiiiiigh on labor if you didn't buy your bike from them, so alot of people do it their self's.

What I spent on that old Bridgestone last year for cables, tubes, tires, bar tape, and getting it all put on and working was more than I could ever sell that bike for. Want to say it was like $80/hr just for labor.

Think if you just keep your bike clean/lubed, and anytime you see or hear something that isn't normal fix it right then, and don't let it build up you'll avoid a lot of problems. Sure things break, but knowing how to spot it before it happens is my philosophy to keep this hobby affordable.

http://www.bikeandfitness.com/services

Here is how our bike shop does it. Seems fair to me. I know I spent around a total of 4 hours working on mine, just messing with front and back adjustments (at one time chair was so loose it would fall off, other times so tight it wouldn't shift, to rubbing front to rubbing back, then adjust everything all over again). 1.5 hours on time for it not to work good as it was, 2.5 hours to get it back to functioning. I learned my lesson.

Plus without a bike local bike shop in business I'd be driving to Tyler (given they can keep a local business too) or Dallas to work on a bike. I sure don't want that to happen. That's all the locals favorite thing to say out this way.

BTW I charge $50 per man per hour to move office furniture(always a 2 or more man job). $80 is going hourly rate for any repairs now days. Plumbers can be more....they know we will pay it.

1-2mm off cage does not work on mine. Video I did this by said the same thing. Depends on chain ring if I'm not mistaken.

How big is your big chain ring?

Sounds like you need to start being a bike mechanic. I doubt you make $80 bucks an hour currently.

Far from 80 an hour. They have different levels like that, but anything outside of it, that's the rate. You'd think if you got the "performance" package they'd take care of you, but not quite. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way on that bike so I've just slowly figured how to do stuff myself. Now that I can stand my bike up in the trainer and spin the pedals, it's a whole lot easier to adjust stuff and make sure everything is working. My dad has a bike stand I need to nab next time I'm over there, it's a big heavy duty one that'd fit in nice in my shop.

I forget how big my chain ring is, I kind of eyeballed it, not too close and not too far... Another video I saw said to use the width of a penny to start with.

50 outside 34 inside, what do you have?

53 and 39. It's such a big jump that 1-2mm won't work. That was my main issue to start with adjusting. The "standard" doesn't work on mine.

39 seems like a waste to me. I'd like it to be larger. I might use it more. I like to feel the pedal, people tell me runners like to spin faster than most, but not me...I want that slow and painful gear climb.

My bike is geared for going fast!! The girl I bought it from told me that....I didn't know what she meant at first. Until I started looking at other bikes.

Yeah I'd never really paid attention to what mine was, I'd looked at it, and seen the numbers. I just knew if I wanted to go faster I had to pedal faster haha.

I knew what compact cranksets were, I just never put 2 and 2 together that, that's what I had since I'd always been told people who ride hilly areas, that's what they have, and it's not hilly here...

I haven't quite figured out how the different bottom brackets, and cranksets all work together, especially with what I have. I think I'd like to step up to a 54/39, but that means getting more than just bigger chainrings.

It's all over my head, I won't lie. Wish I had a buddy who had time to go over the bike front to back and teach me...but that one buddy who knows all this is the bike mechanic at the shop and he likes his job. LOL! He needs us coming in for this stuff. He's a straight shooter, if you want something that isn't right or needed, he says "why do you want to do that!". LOL! Cracks us up!!

I think I'm figuring it out. I've replaced crank arms on both my mountain bike, and old road bike, so I know how to do it, just a little more intimidating on this one, and more room for error it seems. Maybe when a bearing goes out on this bike, I'll look at going to an external BB and upgrading the whole thing. I'd like to have areo chainrings on it.

So this is what happens when you order a new chainring for you bike and don't pay attention to 110 vs 130 BCD. Apparently my bike is 110, and new chainring is 130. Thankfully I've got this thing here that looked like a good candidate for a 54T aero ring. It had a 53. I've started riding this thing around in the hood alot more, now that the bigger little one is wanting to ride his Strider out of the back yard. He's getting FAST, and is starting to put the miles on it, literally.!



Component wise on this thing, my plan is, as my fast bike gets new parts, what can, will trickle down to this. Really just want the wheels/tires/cassette & brakes and probably put a new chain on it. My MIL's boy friend owns a powder coating company, thinking about hitting him up to coat this, and having a bad A little fart around bike.

Well, I think I've built this thing into what I'd call a pretty solid race bike. As it sits in this picture it's weighing in at 17.65lbs on the Rapala fish scale so whatever that's worth is where we're at.

Felt F6
SRAM Force 22 brakeset with Flash Pro pads, front dr is Force 22, and the rear is an older Force. Just waiting on crimps & furrels now.
Seat - fi'zik Aliante VS
Changed the stem to a shorter 100mm Oval Concepts R900 Carbon stem. I should probably be on a 56, this bike is a 58 and going 10mm shorter made a world of difference.
Bontrager RXL carbon bottle cages
Tires - Continental Sprinter
Wheels - Dura-Ace WH-7850 Carbon Tubulars

Looks good! Now go ride it!!

I need to! I would today except I have to mow this afternoon, and most of this week is already booked up. Probably be some trainer rides this week.

I haven't "ridden" it since I put the newer brakes on it, and only once with the wheels & shorter stem. But it's wicked quick, and smooth now. The picture doesn't do it justice IMO. What's crazy is the difference those wheels make. Riding the other day with my buddy, he'd literally have to keep pedaling when I'd coast or if we both were at the same time, I'd instantly pull away. He commented about it and I said it's just that I've got 50lbs on you.


I'm done with upgrades for a while now, I'll have to replace the bar tape and tires this summer but other than that, I'm thrilled with it. I think with a steady tailwind, you could cruise in the upper 20's pretty easy. Put a bigger crankset on it, and might get into the 30's.

Upgrade to a "mountain bike"?

Just teasing...

...go ride something!

Have you watched the video on aero by the aerodynamic specialists? You might be surprised by the research they did.

You have a link?

Not the video I want to find, but a good one.

This video I am looking for went over the data from loose clothing vs tight clothing. Wheels, helmets, ect. It was tested in a wind tunnel. I will continue to look. It was a lengthy video.

Another good one, but still not the one I want. The one I was looking for gave data numbers to all these top ten points.

https://breakingmuscle.com/learn/the-accumulation-of-marginal-gains-gear-tips-for-cycling-faster

Basically they took this data (video I am looking for) and made a video out of explaining it.

That's getting up there in seriousness. Only times I find myself getting into an aero position normally is when I'm going into a headwind, or I'm riding on a road with vehicles and I want to go as fast as I can. Might do it more now with this shorter stem, it was too tough being stretched out before.

You buddies flappy shorts and t shirt were slowing him down....tell him he needs spandex.

When he got his bike I told him the first thing he needed to do was clean the dirvetrain up real good, even gave him a can of de-greaser, and to get some real cycling gear.

When we went on our ride the other day he hadn't done either, but I think his shorts were in the mail. He ordered a "new" crankset on ebay to replace what he buggered up, think we're going to try and replace it tomorrow.

Get him fixed up and tell him tuck in and hold on!

Found it!

That's pretty informative. From that one I ended up watching a wind tunnel video where they were testing different wheels. Neat stuff, learned why they're more aero than say these below.

In other news... I got this thing put together, only thing I don't like is where the rear brakepads sit on the caliper, they're as far down as they can go, they still only hit the wheel, but are just real close to the tire. Think I can file down the track they sit in and maybe get another mm or two and get it right.

I put the cassette I had on these wheels on the carbon wheels, since it was "paired" with the chain, (wear wise) said the expert. So I found the exact same cassette on ebay, picked up a new chain since the old one was for a 7 or 8 speed and wouldn't work. New chain cost more than the dang cassette . Now I'll also be able to switch wheels out between bikes since everything jives back and forth. I kind of what to see how fast this thing will go with those carbon wheels, since it's got 4 more teeth on the big chainring than my other bike. Could it be faster even though it probably has another 10lbs on it????? I've also got some same era aero bars that could go back onto this thing.



With those friction shifters on the downtube, you don't have to worry about indexing so you can run any cassette. Since you can move the derailleur anywhere you want it, till it's just right. I'd seen some real cool old bikes that'd been really upgraded, where they did away with the downtube shifters, and went to either shimano sti or sram shifters but then you run into the problems where you have to have the same cassette as whatever shifter you have, and you have to have 10 speed shifters for 10 speed cassette and so on. And this away, I also don't have a bunch of cables around the handlebars, so it looks super clean.

I found some Continental GP4000 for a steal. Got daddy two new shoes! Man it felt nice.

They do feel gripy.

Nice, those look like some pretty good tires. Fast and good puncture resistance.

I had one Gatorskin (my factory tire had been cut by a rock), it was nice too....more puncture resistance of any tire....but dang slow. Now what do I do with one Gatorskin tire that is still good condition? LOL!

It's the little things, finally got my wire crimps and cable ferrules in to complete everything. Funny the difference (in appearance) that makes. The old calipers had the ferrule kind of built in. Also got some red screws for the bottle cages. Got the bling!
Getting into this, I've realized there's really no end to it. Like the cables, cables are cables right? Nope, there's companies that specialize in high performance cables, Jagwire Elite for example.

Ahh, the extra parts are starting to accumulate, soon you'll be able to build another bike.