change one thing to improve road bike.

brians947

Ok what would be the first thing you would change on a bike to improve the ride.

RobFowl

Upgrade the wheelset

Lusk Doyle

The rider :pac:

Paul Kiernan

Simple. Change tyres from 23c's to 25c's and drop the pressure by about 20%. The difference in ride quality on Ireland's crappy roads is astonishing.

Lusk Doyle

Paul Kiernan wrote: »

Simple. Change tyres from 23c's to 25c's and drop the pressure by about 20%. The difference in ride quality on Ireland's crappy roads is astonishing.

I'd say the OP is looking at it from another angle. Weight / performance and not comfort. I certainly wouldn't go from 23 to 25 and drop the pressure. You would need more effort then for the same speed

Brians947?

victorcarrera

Change or adjust whatever bothers you most and keep doing that until everything is different or the bike is back to its original spec.:)
Reminds me of Trigger and the brush in Only fools and horses.

dermiek

victorcarrera wrote: »

Change or adjust whatever bothers you most and keep doing that until everything is different or the bike is back to its original spec.:)
Reminds me of Trigger and the brush in Only fools and horses.

I'm happy with the ride I get from my bike.

Paul Kiernan

Lusk Doyle wrote: »

You would need more effort then for the same speed

Have you any evidence to back that claim up?

Taking pressure first - I haven't been able to find any definite answer for what the correct pressure should be in order to make the bike most efficient. Clearly, on a super smooth surface, like a velodrome, higher is better, but on a rougher surface, lower pressures are better (how low I've no idea).

Looking at tyre size, a larger tyre is heavier with greater rolling resistance, but the added comfort will reduce fatigue, meaning less effort is wasted.

Cookie_Monster

add go faster stripes

Coronal

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

add go faster stripes

Or speed holes. Which would also make it lighter :pac:

Seriously, nicer tyres. Conti GP4000s, or Scwalbe Ultremos are both really nice tyres. The former are so smooth rolling that I kept checking for flat tyres for the first few weeks. On 23 mm. Also the best bang for your buck, that change should cost about 50-60 euro.

kumate_champ07

Upgrade tyres to best you can afford.

Ive been interested in rim and tyre technical issues for the past while, a wider tyre can offer lower rolling resistance and the weight penalty can be as low as 20g for 23vrs25. Wider contact point is a good thing. The width of the rim also influences tyre performance. 23mm tyres on 22mm rims for me gives noticable performance improvement over 23mm on 20mm, most road rims are 19mm wide tho. It feels more stable on bends, less sidewall pressure. Ill eventually run 25mm tyres on 24mm rims(29r) for road use. Theres a good few options for 23mm rims ranging from 440g to 520g, and a 30mm deep 23mm wide rim at 650g. Ive got some H+ son tb14 rims (23mm 503g)to build into race wheels, possibly with a 24mm tyre for the rear

wersal gummage

Paul Kiernan wrote: »

Have you any evidence to back that claim up?


the added comfort will reduce fatigue, meaning less effort is wasted.

you ask for evidence and then go and make a claim like that ??!!

anyway. first thing i changed was tyres, then stem, then wheels.

Paul Kiernan

wersal gummage wrote: »

you ask for evidence and then go and make a claim like that ??!!

http://jap.physiology.org/content/71/6/2332.short

wersal gummage

i dont see anything in there about 23 v 25 tyres.

honestly, if you get 'fatigued' by cycling on 23s i'd suggest you just do a bit more training.

Paul Kiernan

The point I'm making is that greater comfort will result in less fatigue and therefore greater efficiency.

If you're rolling along on a smooth surface then you're weight distribution will remain fairly constant. But, if you're on a bumpy surface then you're constantly having to make corrections, each of which involves tensing muscles and thus causing some element of fatigue.

Beasty

That article is talking about the impact of fatigue on maximal, not average power. It does not indicate anything about the impact of a rough road on fatigue, or the impact of fatigue on efficiency

Now I know I can go faster (and am therefore more "efficient") if I'm less comfortable - I prove it on my TT bike pretty much every week. My average power dips but other factors (mainly aerodynamics) more than make up for it

Cookie_Monster

if rough roads affected fatigue and you had to push harder how come we don't have all the best cyclists in the world here, all that training on rough roads?

blorg

For non racing use, 25s make more sense than 23s. More comfort, control, cornering, better ride quality. You can get the very same, good tyres in 25 for a negligible weight penalty, and there is a big difference in comfort.

The marginal speed benefit from 23s is principally due to aerodynamics as rolling resistance is lower on 25s at same pressure or the same at a certain lower pressure.

Comfort is important even racing and has a major impact on performance. Obviously this does not mean you TT on a full sus, there is a tradeoff.

Agree best bang for buck is good tyres, followed by the wheelset. For performance working on an aero position is important and will give you more than anything you can buy.