Restyling my winter bike

[Chicken Chaser]

Fancy a change in look for my winter steed. Unfortunately it's suffered a couple of crashes but fortunately the frame or forks havent been compromised. The brunt of the damage was on the skewers and the Tiagra 10spd shifters. As a result, I'm going to upgrade to 105 as it'll match my summer bike setup with identical bars. I've had to flip the Deda stem as the Kinesis is quite a long top tube and is about 2 cm longer than my summer steed.

Planning to either go for something like a Charge Scoop black saddle with red accents and some black microtex bar tape, or brown Charge saddle with brown bar tape. I'm thinking of swapping the silver guards for black too. Yes none of this is absolutely necessary, but I just fancy changing it.

I've already binned the Gators for some Pro4 endurance tyres which are night and day more confidence inspiring.

Opinions? I'm struggling with imagining what it might look like.

Edited by Chicken Chaser on Sunday 10th August 23:48

[JEA1K]

In true PH style, 'that poor chain'.

Nice bike, I considered one of these as a few guys I ride with have these as winter bikes. I may still get rid of my Trek 1.5 frame which is slightly too small for one and transfer the parts over for winter duties.

[Chicken Chaser]

Laziness on my part that, as when I come up to the drive, I shift it into top gear so I can get through a small gap without falling off!

[Matt_N]

Don't think brown saddle and tape would work with that, fine with white or black on their own but not mixed.

White tape to match the saddle could give it a lift but it gets dirty so quickly, especially if it's a winter bike.

I can't make out if there is any colour in the decals? Perhaps match to that if there is?

[Disco You]

£109 for 5700 shifters, or £300 for a 5800 group set?

[Matt_N]

I'd stick with Tiagra shifters off the bay for around £50ish.

[JEA1K]

Matt_N said:

I'd stick with Tiagra shifters off the bay for around £50ish.

I have Tiagra on my winter bike ... I hate the cable routing on the shifters as I've caught my hand in it before almost causing a huge crash when I was changing position. Apart from that, they seem to work fine and wouldn't be too expensive if they brake when I (next) crash.

[Chicken Chaser]

I admit, the picture is st, it was simply taken as a ref in case the bike got nicked (i took the serial numbers down too) so the white balance is all over the place, the cranks arent in the right place and the chain is off at a bad angle.

The bike is predominantly black & white, with a bit of red on the spoke nipples, and also the odd red decal. I'm thinking black with red accents rather than brown to be honest. I think it'll probably work better.

With regards to Tiagra, i've found the latest 10spd ones ok, but they dont seem to work well with the R450 brakes (long drop) for some reason. Thats despite being kool stop pads for them to see if it would improve.

[TwistingMyMelon]

I find Tiagra great on Winter bikes, works lovely and is cheap to replace if there are any issues and (as said!) when you crash!

I guess you could argue the cables aren't hidden, and on the 6 miles of unlit lanes they get in the way of my lights, but not enough for me to care.