Howdy,
I’m a novice road cyclist and a beginner gravel cyclist. I have a 2018 Specialized E5 Elite for gravel that I’ve also used for winter rides. Minus a good set of tire, pedals, and occasional new chain, the bike is all stock components. Lately I’ve been going on longer more serious rides with the bros and not feeling super confident on the climbs or decent.
Is it time to upgrade into a mid-tier bike with nicer components, or can I improve the quality of this level entry bike with a few new components?
by Thin_Hamster
7 Comments
Feel free to correct me if I’m off base but do you think it’s a gear issue or just that you need more experience with rides?
Ride it as it is till parts need replacing, then upgrade as you want
Probably time to upgrade?
That bike has a tire clearance of 38mm. Thats really narrow, as better/faster gravel setups push toward tires 50mm+.
You can certainly experiment with some 38s on there and get a feel for more gravel riding. But it might leave you yearning for thicker, faster, and knobbier.
Sell it! Get a BlackHeart Allroad AL or Gravel AL!
How much
Sell it. Larger tires and a slacker head tube angle will help on the descents. Now that you have a basis for what gearing was not ideal, you should be able to estimate what range would work better for you.
This is what I would do (I also DID do it).
1. You have tiagra shifters, this means that you can actually use grx 12s rear derailleur since tiagra uses the same pull ratio (1.4). Keep your eyes out for a cheap grx 820 rd, it’ll still only be 10 speed, but you’ll have that when you are ready to upgrade.
2. Get a bigger 10sp cassette Shimano has 11-36 and others have 11-38, better range. This is cheap, 10 speed parts are great because they are durable and cheap.
3. If you want to go 1x, find a crank (grx 600) and put it on. Or if you want to stay 2x (great if you plan on staying on the road too) grx 600 crank 46-30 thus improving your range more.
4. Keep an eye out for a decent set of wheels preferably with swapable end caps (DT Swiss 350). This way you can run nice new wheels but run them with quick release. Two good choices are DT Swiss gr1600 (can often find them really cheap 300-500 usd on eBay or other places as they are sometimes oem) or the reserve 30gr (also run DT Swiss 350 hubs). Both wheelsets are great pretty light for alloy wheels and 24mm internal width for eventually fitting wider tires.
5. Look at new handlebars that may be better suited for gravel, I am a very broad person so I like a wider bar. 44 is the sweet spot for me, I also like a shallow drop (105) and 20 degree flare. This will definitely give you more leverage and confidence on descents.
6. Keep an eye out for frames. You’d be amazed at how cheap a good frame can be as long as you keep your eyes peeled for sales and Get new 12 speed shifter.
7. Eventually you will have a bike of Theseus.
Obviously, this is a very slow process designed to a. Save money
b. Build your skills as a bike mechanic
c. Have a better idea of the style of riding that suits you and how to have great skills on a narrower tire and less progressive geometry.
This is definitely not for everyone, but I did this on a 2014 cyclocross bike and gained a ton of knowledge, experience, saved a bunch of money and realized that I much prefer more classic geometry on a bike and don’t really like progressive, crazy slack head angles etc.