Naughty thoughts about upgrades

[d8mok]

Having owned my cannondale supersix 105 for about 6 weeks now im already thinking of upgrading a few parts over winter.

The seatpost , stem and bars are all own brand cannondale c3. Im thinking of changing these for Zipp service course sl items from merlin which although alloy they seem very light. Anything i should be aware of? Is carbon a better prospect?

Next i will probably change the wheels from the aksium but no idea what to. Ive been thinking either RS80 (£320) or maybe some mavic cosmic sl carbon (£680) if my pockets will take the hit. Would i notice a masive difference moving to either of these? It wouldnt be until early next year i guess, and id probably upgrade tyres to GP4000s and keep them as summer wheels.

Also my fsa grossmair crank seems quite heavy and for £200 from chain reactioni can get a fsa k force which is loads lighter. Only problem would be it wouldnt be a compact ? Any more options of a light, nice looking bb30 crankset for around £200?

Everything else on the bike is 105 shimino so i will leave it as it works well and no point changing them until they wear out.

Cheers

[anonymous-user]

d8mok said:

Having owned my cannondale supersix 105 for about 6 weeks now im already thinking of upgrading a few parts over winter.

The seatpost , stem and bars are all own brand cannondale c3. Im thinking of changing these for Zipp service course sl items from merlin which although alloy they seem very light. Anything i should be aware of? Is carbon a better prospect?

Next i will probably change the wheels from the aksium but no idea what to. Ive been thinking either RS80 (£320) or maybe some mavic cosmic sl carbon (£680) if my pockets will take the hit. Would i notice a masive difference moving to either of these? It wouldnt be until early next year i guess, and id probably upgrade tyres to GP4000s and keep them as summer wheels.

Also my fsa grossmair crank seems quite heavy and for £200 from chain reactioni can get a fsa k force which is loads lighter. Only problem would be it wouldnt be a compact ? Any more options of a light, nice looking bb30 crankset for around £200?

Everything else on the bike is 105 shimino so i will leave it as it works well and no point changing them until they wear out.

Cheers

Zipp service course stuff is nice, never heard any problems with it, have a look at the 3T stuff too. i like alloy bars and stem for the durability factor, you can save a bit of weight going for carbon parts but its not really worth it imho. I have carbon 3T seat post however which is very comfy and worth spending the extra on.

wouldnt bother touching the chainset to be honest, its an expensive upgrade for not a lot of benefit. you would be better waiting to get a complete upgraded groupset at a reduced price in the sales. I paid less than £600 for a full Sram Force groupset from shiny bikes...

as for wheels, RS80s are nice and light, same as Campag Zondas or Fulcrum 3s really. Mavic cosmics will be about 1lb heavier but have the aero advantage... what do you want? unless you are regularly riding around 20mph average, i'd go for the RS80/Zondas.

personally i'm beginning to think this summer wheels and winter wheels thing is nonsense, once you have nice wheels on the bike, it transforms the bike and you wont want to downgrade them when the weather is rotten, if you wash and maintain them properly, its not an issue. its not like we revert to crap steel wheels on a car in the winter and leave the alloys for summer is it?

[NitroNick]

If the upgrading bug has hit you there is no point upgrading to alu stem and handlebars, you'll only have them a few weeks and you'll be itching to upgrade to carbon.
I think you are better holding off for a bit and buying the better stuff.
I'd go with the Cosmics also, or similar (there is some great value out there at the moment in carbon deep rims)
I wouldn't change the cranks, you'll never notice the differance. Although you can't go far wrong with this. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?Mod...
All imho.

[d8mok]

Since im in the peak district i only average 16mph as whichever i turn there is hills, hills and more hills. So maybe the lighter wheels would be better? From a bling factor my bike would look lovely with deep rims though.

Im a big fan of carbon, so my preference would be carbon everything, but from looking online at wrights the alloy zipp stuff is actually lighter?

Never heard of 3T so ill google later as im firewalledfrom most shops online at work.

[Rolls]

I went for Ritchey WCS kit on mine - in white ali - cheaper than carbon, and it suited the look I was going for (got an ultegra in white / red), along with some Ksryium SL's - Wanted the bike to look like it had come out of the factory with my upgrades on!
I need to get a new saddle as I'm not overly keen on the stock one, but then I think the bike is done... (unless I buy a power-tap.. laced to some carbon wheels? - maybe?)

Edited by Rolls on Tuesday 30th October 11:25

[itsnotarace]

NitroNick said:

If the upgrading bug has hit you there is no point upgrading to alu stem and handlebars, you'll only have them a few weeks and you'll be itching to upgrade to carbon.

Sorry, disagree. There's plenty of reasons not to run a carbon cockpit (cost, fragility - would you trust carbon bars after your bike falls over etc) and you can get aftermarket alu parts that weigh the same as carbon, if not less - especially the cheaper carbon bars and stems, and alu will generally be less flexy to boot. The Cannondale C3 components with his bike are pretty heavy - the bars are over 350g so there is an easy 100g weight saving there

Back to OP

d8mok said:

The seatpost , stem and bars are all own brand cannondale c3. Im thinking of changing these for Zipp service course sl items from merlin which although alloy they seem very light. Anything i should be aware of? Is carbon a better prospect?

I run Zipp Service Course SL bars and stem, very happy with them. Weight is slightly higher than my 3T cockpit (ARX Pro stem with ti bolt kit and Rotundo Pro bars) on my other bike but I like the cable routing and precision engineering gone into the Zipps more. The bar shape is also really nice on the Zipps and they are plenty stiff in sprints

d8mok said:

Next i will probably change the wheels from the aksium but no idea what to. Ive been thinking either RS80 (£320) or maybe some mavic cosmic sl carbon (£680) if my pockets will take the hit. Would i notice a masive difference moving to either of these? It wouldnt be until early next year i guess, and id probably upgrade tyres to GP4000s and keep them as summer wheels.

RS80's are a good all round wheelset, especially for the money

d8mok said:

Also my fsa grossmair crank seems quite heavy and for £200 from chain reactioni can get a fsa k force which is loads lighter. Only problem would be it wouldnt be a compact ? Any more options of a light, nice looking bb30 crankset for around £200?

Keep an eye on ebay/bikeradar forums for second hand FSA K-Force light or Rotor 3D+

[Rouleur]

Living in the Peaks you'll definitely be best sticking to something like the RS80s, you'd be best keeping the weight down. Also I've read here and there that FSA cranks aren't the most reliable...

[BadgerBenji]

The cannondale cyclocross team spec the Zipp Course SL componentry because it is more resilient and does not fail in a critical manner if it does have a crash. It's on my shopping list as well for my SuperX

[okgo]

If you're going to chuck money at it, start with the important bits. Bars/stem/seatpost are not important bits, and apart from shape etc make almost no difference to anything 100g saved by switching bars may sound like a lot, you'd NEVER tell the difference. Wheels and tyres will be your best bet I reckon.

[Clio200pat]

I've upgraded my bike to have some Carbon bits. The bars I now have are FSA K-Wings which are great. I was going to get a carbon stem but was advised not to get both as it would make the bike feel too fidgety on all but the smoothest roads.

With regards to FSA Carbon cranks I'd be a little wary, on my previous bike I had one of these fail on me as the metal insert came apart from the carbon. Not good when your 20 miles away from home in rush hour on a Friday.

Like others have said I think you'll see the biggest difference from a really decent set of wheels.

[Jimbo.]

Meh. More riding kit (therefore more riding opportunities) and some training aids (so you can carry on when the weather's utterly foul) over bike bling. That way you can be ready to smash it come the start of the season, rather than having to offset any winter weight gain with lightweight bits...

[JaseB]

I went with Ksyrium Elites and GP4000S tyres on my Supersix, big difference, do get caught by crosswinds a bit though with the flat spokes.

[NitroNick]

itsnotarace said:

NitroNick said:

If the upgrading bug has hit you there is no point upgrading to alu stem and handlebars, you'll only have them a few weeks and you'll be itching to upgrade to carbon.

Sorry, disagree. There's plenty of reasons not to run a carbon cockpit (cost, fragility - would you trust carbon bars after your bike falls over etc) and you can get aftermarket alu parts that weigh the same as carbon, if not less - especially the cheaper carbon bars and stems, and alu will generally be less flexy to boot. The Cannondale C3 components with his bike are pretty heavy - the bars are over 350g so there is an easy 100g weight saving there

Sorry, I wasn't saying that I feel carbon is better than Alu.

I know lots of people who have replaced bike parts with stuff marginally better and then within a few weeks go out again and replace all the new stuff with carbon parts. Which ends up costing a fortune.

Also, as stem and bars are the parts you see the most when cycling its nice to have a good setup to look at. I always spend a little extra on bars (usually aero bars because they feel nicer to hold onto)

From a stiffness point of view, any recent good carbon stem and bar will be far stiffer than what most people need, I always to a flex test of bars before they are mounted and recent bars have little to no flex.
With regard to would I use a set of bars after a fall? Yes, it would want to be a serious crash before i'd stop using them and in that case: the least of my worries would be the bars.

That said there are some amazing alu bars and stems out there for little or no money, light weight and stiff. Depends on your budget really and what you use your bike for.

[Raven Flyer]

JaseB said:

I went with Ksyrium Elites and GP4000S tyres on my Supersix, big difference, do get caught by crosswinds a bit though with the flat spokes.

I have the same wheel and tyre set up. They are just superb.

[d8mok]

Thanks for comments guys.

The rs80 doesn't look or suit my bike from the pics I've seen. But the krysium will look nearly same as my originals so that might be a way to go.

I can't get over how nice the cosmic carbon wheels look on my bike though

[d8mok]

This bike has slightly different paint , as its a year older model. But you get the idea.

[anonymous-user]

MTFU and buy the cosmic carbons....

[Chicken Chaser]

OP you using it through the winter?

Since the weather turned foul, mines been sat on the trainer. Not ideal but I went out the other week, did 3 hours and I came back covered in filth. I'm beginning to wish i'd kept the Boardman as I didnt mind getting that dirty!

Need to get some winter guards, or buy another winter bike

[d8mok]

Yeh I planned on using it on nice days and also when it's not too wet or salty out.

When the weather is bad ill use my mtb

[anonymous-user]

d8mok said:

Yeh I planned on using it on nice days and also when it's not too wet or salty out.

When the weather is bad ill use my mtb

£100 says once those new wheels are fitted, you'll be out all winter on it. seriously, those cold but sunny mornings are just heaven on a bike, it helps if you have some nice quiet country roads around you but as i said, stick the new wheels on and you wont look at the mtb unless its properly crap weather. just wash the bike/wheels down after each ride with hot water