Road Bike Upgrades

Upgrading a road bike is very common and relatively easy. Very few manage to resist the envy to tune-up. While it is possible to upgrade every single part, let's discuss popular upgrades such as wheels, handle bars, pedals, saddle and a few other things...


1. Wheels upgrades

Wheels are one of the most important element of your bike. They are very easy to install and it is very usefull to have a few spare set of wheels fitted for various terrain or occasion. Regardless the type of wheels coming with your bike, if you ride often, you'll certainly need to change your wheels at some point. Potholes will take a toll on their trueness. Brakepads are slowly but surely chewing the rim material. And, your spokes or hubs might eventually give up.

Wheels contribute significantly to performances since they influance your overall weight, rolling resistance and aero dynamism. Wheels will behave differently according composition material, number and type of spokes, lacing, rim profile, spoke shape, hubs and supported tire types.

The main choices in upgrading your wheelset are :
- Clincher or Tubular ( sew ups) : tubulars are said to be slightly more comfortable, however clincher technology seem to have caught up. The debate is still on.
- Aluminnium or Carbon : trade off weight / durability and cost.
- Low or High profile : aero vs weight trade-off. Higher profile has better aero dynamism, a greater inertia (and more weight) but also more susceptibility to lateral wind.
- Spokes and Lacing : Less spokes, less weight, less rigidity. Typically a front wheel needs less spoke and rear wheels have special lacing for better reactivity.
- Factory or custom builds : no frills or a la carte ... tons of choices.

2. Handle Bars

Handle bar upgrades are mainly considered for comfort reason. Before you do that, note that it's possible to tweak your existing handle bar simply by rotating it and changing up or down the hood position. If vibration is a problem you can also consider changing the bar tape for something with more padding. If you still can't be comfortable on the hoods, in the drops (important) and on the tops. It might be related to your handle bar geometry. Handle bars come in various sizes typ. 40,42 and 44 cm. It's typically recommended to match this width with your shoulders to shoulder size. Drops can be shallow, deep or compact. Compact bars offer a good trade off and will provide more comfort if you've problems staying for long in the drops. Beside the depth of the drops, the bar geometry also sets the reach between the hoods and the tops. In turn this might affect your stem choice. Handle bar material will affect the rigidity. Carbon bars might filter more vibration while aluminium bars will feel more rigit. Finally another aspect to consider is a flat (wing) tops or rounded tops depending on how you value the real estate for accessories on the tops such as aero clip-ons, type of light(s), etc ...


3. Pedal choices

Clearly, if your feet aren't happy you're not going to go very far ... Lots bike shops will push standard SPD pedals with new bikes. If that was the case but you are not really happy with how your feet or knees are feeling, then you've got to read up on Speedplay pedals. Speedplay Pedals allow for a larger angle of free rotation which might help mitigate or prevent issues with knees thanks to the adjustments that can be made on the cleats. Their double sided design makes them an easy choice for beginners since they do not require flipping them around in order to be able to secure the cleat which is especially appreciated at traffic lights. Speedplay draw back is mainly their cost and some do not like the large cleat design.

Beside pedals/cleats note that the shoe size/type and position of the cleat on the shoe does greatly impact your comfort and performance. There is also the debate between pedal alignement under the ball of the foot or not... before upgrading you might want to experiment a bit with what's tweakable on your current system.

4) Saddle

If you've tried everything in terms of saddle angle and position, then perhaps it's time to let it go... Just like your handle bar, your saddle must feel comfortable while riding on the tops, hoods or drops. There are too many kinds of saddle to make a general recommendation, however there's a lot good reviews for ergonomic / ISM saddles. Those saddles are designed to allow for a better blood flow by adopting a geometry which distribute more weight onto your sit bones. Be mindfull that when you change, it'll take some time to adjust and you might need change various parameters such as saddle height, angle, front or back position, seat post setback or handle bar position. Saddles come in models with varied padding tastes, no padding or too much padding not generally desirable.


5) Other Upgrades

Changing the frame or the groupset is perhaps a bit extreme to be called upgrade. As for changing the frame, it's really more a synonym to a new bike. Changing the group set will involve : shifter, crank, chain, cassette, front, rear derailleur and bottom braket.

Other minor upgrades such as seat post or stem are common. Carbon seat post isn't generally a good idea since they are expensive and don't last. Do not put a carbon seat post into an aluminum bike because it will lock itself into your frame.

As for stems, the main thing is to know what lenght you really need and get a stem that'll give you fitting choices in terms of height so you can adjust for flexibility improvement as you get fitter or if you need for more comfort. Avoid starting with shorter stem modification. Tweak the saddle, seat post and handle bar settings first.