[semi-relevant intro]
Six months ago, I decided to stop driving and start bicycling everywhere. I splurged a ridiculous amount (to me) on a semi-road bike (a Specialized Tricross), telling myself it’d pay itself back very soon if I simply canceled my car insurance and stopped buying gas (it has!).
Well, half a year later, I’m really, really glad I made the change But I wonder if there’s anything I can do to make the ride nicer and smoother. I went with a “cyclocross” bike instead of a regular road bike because the roads around here are in terrible condition and I figured some trail riding once in a while would be fun too. It was the first time I ever contemplated riding more than 10 miles, so I didn’t want to get something too specialized for fear of being unable to navigate the roads around here.
[/intro]
Since then, however, I’ve noticed that I’m mainly using the bike for day-to-day commuting and a few longer road rides (up to 50 miles so far) and not really going on dirt much at all.
Is there anything I can do to the bike to make it noticeably faster and/or smoother on roads for no more than a couple hundred bucks or so?
I’ve considered swapping out the current fat 32c tires for smooth 23c ones.
I’ve also considered getting cycling shoes and a clipless pedal to replace the sandal-in-basket pedal that I currently use.
Would either of those two make a meaningful difference or should I just save the money, keep training, and eventually save up for a true road bike? Is there anything else that would make better sense?
I recently added them to my hybrid, and the difference is noticeable - I expect to get a 10% improvement on wednesday (sprint tri, 20km flat track on the bike). It has taken me about a month to get used to the different loading on my legs, but it has made a real change.
No. The tires will make a little difference but I doubt it would be very noticeable. There is a noticeable difference going from MTB knobbies to slicks but not from the near-slicks you have.
Clipless are nice and once you use them you won’t settle for anything less. If you use the bike mainly for commuting get one of the small cleat types where you can buy shoes that have a totally recessed cleat so you can walk in them: I use Shimano SPD’s for this reason. They won’t make you go noticeably faster though.
Basically it’s a really nice bike and there are only incremental steps to take from here.
Bear in mind that if you spend your money on buying nice clipless pedals and shoes, that won’t detract from saving up for a nicer bike because you may well need to buy them for the nicer bike anyway and you can just swap them onto that bike when you get it.
For commuting, boring and untrendy as it may be, guards are nice. I find that you get as or more wet from road spray when it’s raining than from rain, if you don’t have guards on.
I was cycle commuting a few years ago, and I was considerably heavier than I am now. It was taking a toll on my spokes, so I had my wheels relaced with heavier spokes made for tandems. Between that and losing 100 lbs, haven’t snapped one since. it cost me about $40, as I recall.
I have that bike myself - I like it a lot. I use it for commuting and taking on the mountain bike trails, so haven’t done much if any serious road riding with it. I think you’ve summed it up well in your OP - tyres and clipless pedals / shoes is the best bet to improve the ride for under $200.
The only real weakness of the bike is the wheelset, which is entry level. But you’re unlikely to properly upgrade that for $200, and it sounds like you’ll ultimately be moving on to a better road bike which will have better wheels.
Good to know. The width won’t make much of a difference either, then? The guys at the cycling shop say it’ll decrease surface contact with the road (and hence friction, I assume?) but I don’t know how to do the math to figure out the actual numbers.
Is it more of a comfort / fatigue thing, then? And does SPD necessarily imply “totally recessed cleat” or do I have to find SPD shoes that are specifically recessed?
What’s better about the “nicer” pedals and shoes? Do pedals and shoes differ that much, and if so, what should I look for?
First thing I added Indispensable where I live.
Excuse my ignorance, but wow, even wheels make a difference? How so? Is it a matter of durability, as VunderBob hinted at?
It would make some difference but “noticeable” I doubt. I have a commuter with 28c and I really notice no difference going from that to my road bike (at least, no difference which isn’t explicable in terms of the latter being a different bike in a dozen other ways.
It’s a zen thing: it’s, like, total oneness with the bike, dude
But seriously, you can pull all the way around the stroke which is smoother. Yes, you can do that with toeclips to some extent but they aren’t that comfortable on your foot because when you lift hard the toeclip presses on the top of your shoe unevenly. You feel more secure on the bike because your feet can’t slip off and the fact that you just don’t even have to think about keeping your foot on the pedal seems more relaxing. And yes, toeclips give you that to some extent but there is a huge difference. With toeclips, you feel like you are wearing shoes that are in toeclips that are attached to the pedal of your bike. With clipless shoes, you just feel like your foot is in a nicely made shoe, which is somehow at one with the drive train of the bike.
I’m pretty sure you can get SPD shoes that don’t have fully recessed cleats, but recessed ones aren’t hard to find.
It’s not a subject I know about, because I standardised everything to SPD even though it’s basically an MTB standard. I even have SPD’s on my road bike (I can hear the boos and jeers of the road purists from here!). Pure road clipless pedals have a much bigger platform on the pedal which I guess would be more supportive. The shoes have a bigass cleat underneath and no flex whatever. They are hell to walk in, even for a few yards.
I would counsel against changing wheels in your application. Wheels do make a difference if you are racing: a lighter wheel has less angular momentum and so you can accelerate faster. They make little difference once you are going (maybe a tiny bit less wind resistance with less spokes).
If you are commuting you want reliability and strength. Your wheels may be entry level but they look strong to me which is what you want. You want to be able to whack the occasional pothole or curb without worrying about your pwecious featherweight wheels. And that’s the other thing: as Busy Scissors says, light wheels are very expensive. Forget $200. You’d be spending much more than that to get wheels that are going to be noticeably faster
How much hill climbing do you do? The advantage of lighter wheels and tires is mostly felt during acceleration (sprinting or stop and go) and during hill climbing. Personally, I think a change from 32 to 23 tires will make a noticable difference, although I probably wouldn’t go lower than a 25c tire if the roads are rough. In addition to the reduced contact patch, and smoother tread, they are usually set with higher air pressure, this will make them faster, at the trade off of harsher, you decide how much is right for you.
I also notice that you have a boat anchor for a stock cassette. New rubber, and a good deal on last years cass will drop a nice amount of rotating mass off your bike at a 200$ price point. You’ll also get some instant gratification. Something that SPD shoes and pedals won’t provide. You’ll need to get used to them, you’ll be engaging new muscule and pedalling technique.* http://www.cambriabike.com/shopexd.asp?id=91450&page=Shimano+Ultegra+9+Speed+Cs-6500+Road+Cassette
I definitely recommend ‘clipless’ pedals at some point, but they also have disadvantages for a commuter bike. I also recommend setting aside some training time on a quiet road or parking lot. Lots of people have trouble when they first go clipless, falling over at a stop sign is best avoided.
If speed is what you’re after, maybe a set of clip-on aerobars? I’m not familiar with cyclocross bikes so I don’t know what models would be compatible with your handlebars, but they go for under $200 and will immediately boost your average speed by a couple of mph. That’s assuming you could comfortably ride in the tucked position for extended periods of time.
If you go to narrower wheels or not, I’d strongly suggest kevlar tires, or at least liners. I have liners, BTW. I also ride a hybrid, FWIW.
My upgrades are aimed at reliability, not performance. Go for what you want, but consider the reliability angle of you have a one-way trip longer than about 2 miles. Maybe you can get performance and reliability. Before I quit (moved to the middle-of nowhere countryside), I had 8 miles one way. It was a pain when I had a breakdown that made my bike unrideable.
All my cycling friends are waiting for me to have “that moment”, where you stop and then realise that you cannot get your foot out of the clip fast enough to prevent a topple. I started out on grass for a bit, practicing stopping and unclipping. It must have worked - last week I took a corner too fast and realised I would hit the (fortunately low) curb. I pulled the front wheel up and onto the pavement (sidewalk) but expected the rear wheel to catch and drop me. Next thing I know I am on the pavement under control with one foot out of the clips and wide out to balance the bike, and I was away (sweating somewhat, though). I had wrenched the clip out automatically, which made a difference.
You’re nuts. Going from the cheap heavy stock 32c “cross” tires on his bike to something nice like a pair of Michelin pro 3 race 23c will be similar to the difference between bicycling and crawling to your destination. There is no single change you can make to a bike that will affect its feel the way a tire swap will.
I’ll echo the comments about shoes and pedals, too. By far the biggest and most effective change you can make in your efficiency on the bike.
First, you can’t go wrong with the shoes and pedals.
Second, you can’t go wrong with the tires either, especially if you can find another road rider who will let you borrow some old tires and tubes for the weekend. Every racer has several old tires in the garage which have just a few more miles left in them. You should be able to try the tires out very easily and cheaply.
Third, you should still get the next bike, something like the Roubaix. The first two items do not really get in the way of this.
So I went ahead and got some pedals (Crank Brothers Candy C) on my bike shop’s advice, along with a pair of shoes. One hell of a ride and two crashes later, I’m both excited and terrified I’m not vocabulated enough to describe the ride in cyclistspeak, but I can say it felt smooth! Even that stop sign incident was mildly amusing… oh, oh… wait… here it comes… I can feel it… oh shit… nope, nope, I guess I can’t just kick out sideways… oh, sorry, bike… ack… splat. And back up. Bandaid and repeat five minutes later when I successfully disengage… just too bad it’s the wrong foot. Heh.
Can’t wait to ride longer distances with this setup. And if I don’t make it back alive, well, 'least it was fun while it lasted
Any suggestions on a tire? Something with a good combination of grip (I could live with less than what I have now), durability, and low rolling resistance?
Well, if my experience is anything to go by, you’ve only got one fall left before you get the hang of it. And one of mine was just like you describe; was rolling to a stop, popped my left foot out of the pedal, and came to a stop leaning to the right.
The best one was probably when I came to a stop leaning to the right, and I managed to get my left foot between the front wheel and the down tube to keep myself from falling over. But then I didn’t have any way of standing back up, or enough range of motion to get my right foot out of the pedal.
I put those same pedals on my MTB last week. I had Egg Beaters on it, but moved them to my road bike and decided I wanted a little bit of a platform for when I’m off-road. They worked just fine.
But I wonder if there’s anything I can do to make the ride nicer and smoother. I went with a “cyclocross” bike instead of a regular road bike because the roads around here are in terrible condition and I figured some trail riding once in a while would be fun too. It was the first time I ever contemplated riding more than 10 miles, so I didn’t want to get something too specialized for fear of being unable to navigate the roads around here.
Indispensable where I live.
Is it a matter of durability, as VunderBob hinted at?
I’m not vocabulated enough to describe the ride in cyclistspeak, but I can say it felt smooth! Even that stop sign incident was mildly amusing… oh, oh… wait… here it comes… I can feel it… oh shit… nope, nope, I guess I can’t just kick out sideways… oh, sorry, bike… ack… splat. And back up. Bandaid and repeat five minutes later when I successfully disengage… just too bad it’s the wrong foot. Heh.