I currently have [Giant Escape Disc 2](https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/escape-disc-2-2022) bike. I’ve had it for about 6 years. I probably put in about 1000-1500 miles per year on it. I primarily use my bike for urban commuting. I’m not lance Armstrong. I’m not doing intense workouts where I’m competing for time or max speed. I bike around because I just genuinely enjoy biking like most of you. It gets me places and adds a bit of cardio to it on top of that.
I’m wondering if I’m missing anything and if so how much, by getting a better bike? Again I don’t speak or understand all the nuances or how important things are like carbon vs aluminum and everything else.
I’d again be using it to bike around the city at 100-150 miles per month. How much would one of these $4000 bikes help?
by sailing_oceans
1 Comment
If your goal is speed a $4000 super racer road bike would be quite a bit faster. But they wouldn’t be a great commuter bike. They wouldn’t have any mounts for a rack and would have skinny tires (28C max) and be more prone to pinch flats from pot holes. Your head would be down and it would be harder to see.
Honestly, an endurance road bike or gravel bike would work just fine if you want something faster but still good for general commuting. Something with 32C or larger tires. Carbon is going to give you slightly more comfort over aluminum but most of that comes from tires, geometry, and frame construction. Drop bars give you more hand positions than flat bars which can increase comfort on longer rides.
Overall, unless you are worried about speed you aren’t missing a whole lot. If your escape is tubeless capable I’d start with that. You may need different tires as well. My wife’s bike came with cheap tires. We got her a better set of tires and went tubeless and they made a huge difference in comfort and a little bit of difference in speed. She rides a standard commuter (Kona Dr Dew) and can average about 15 MPH.
After tubeless/tires you might consider an alternative bar like the jones H bar, surly Maloko, or Surly Corner bar. These give you more hand positions and can be more aerodynamic.
Overall, if you aren’t worried about speed or going on MTB trails and your current bike feels comfortable you aren’t missing much. You can improve your bike with a few tweaks that cost a few hundred rather than 4k.