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Bike upgrade can be costly !
There is often a lot of discussion about upgrading bikes, the last one
being the detailed account of what it cost Elisa to make her Myrtille ridable. I have just made the total of what I spent over a year, slowly upgrading my 10-year old commuter bike: 1. Replacing old tyres with good ones (OK, this is partly maintenance): 2x Schwalbe Marathon: 74 Euro 2. Upgrading rack for touring: Pletscher Master: 35 Euro 3. Suspended seatpost and Brooks saddle for comfort: 90 Euro 4. Dual pedals, PD-M324: 61 Euro 5. New Mavic wheels (rims were worn out) including Schmidt dynamo: 333 Euro 6. Front/rear lights to fit the Schmidt dynamo: 50 Euro 7. Convert to dropped bars with Sora shifters, cables, front derailleur to match: 263 Euro 8. Convert from 7 to 8 speed cassette (used): 32 Euro. 9. Computer: 30 Euro Total (please have a seat before I tell you): 968 Euro To which you can add about 60 Euro for some tools and about the same for parts I finally didn't use (I didn't make it "right 1st time") brings me close to 1100 Euro. I love the result but, had I known in advance where I would end (both in terms of the final configuration and of the price to pay), I might have chosen to look for a new touring bike. Still, I may have done the right choice. I learned quite a lot in the process. And as far as touring bikes are concerned, Trek 520s and the likes are nowhere to be seen in my area. I haven't told my wife yet about the grand total. Jacques |
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#2
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
I have to agree with your statement. I am attending a local bicycle
mechanics course sponsored by Park Tools. It lasts 1 1/2 hours a week for eight weeks. For a project, I decided I wanted to build a lugged steel touring bike. It has cost me a fortune so far. 1984 Trek 630 lugged steel frame: $225 Frame Cold set to 135mm - $75 (I couldn't find any local bike shop willing to do it) Shipping: $50 Truvative Crank: $129 Shimano BB - $50 Labor to install Crank: $20 Mavic Front/Rear wheels with Hubs - $150 Ultegra Front Derr. - $35 Deore XT rear Derr - $39 Ultegra STI Brifters - $129 Deore XT Cassette - $49 Deore Ultegra Chain - $24 Brooks B17 Saddle - $69 Modolo Gran Fondo Bar - $43 Technomic Deluxe Stem - $39 Pasella Touring Tires - $28 Tubes - $9 Rim Strips - $5 Tubus Rear Rack - $100 Bar Tape - $15 Rear flasher/Reflector - $24 Total: $1307! I could have bought a Cannondale touring bike, a Bruce Gordon BLT, or other touring bike for the same or less. If I eventually opt to repaint the frame, I'm in for another $350! The only thing in this bike's defense, is that I have all high end components and a really nice frame. |
#3
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
"Jacques Moser" wrote
There is often a lot of discussion about upgrading bikes, the last one being the detailed account of what it cost Elisa to make her Myrtille ridable. I have just made the total of what I spent over a year, slowly upgrading my 10-year old commuter bike: snip Total (please have a seat before I tell you): 968 Euro. To which you can add about 60 Euro for some tools and about the same for parts I finally didn't use (I didn't make it "right 1st time") brings me close to 1100 Euro. Been there, done that! I learned a good trick to figure out how much it will cost to fix anything up, back in the days when I would fix up old cars. Calculate down to the last penny exactly how much it will all cost to do, and then double that figure! (If you really wany to be on the safe side, multiply by 2.5). That is how much it will really cost. I love the result but, had I known in advance where I would end (both in terms of the final configuration and of the price to pay), I might have chosen to look for a new touring bike. Still, I may have done the right choice. I learned quite a lot in the process. And as far as touring bikes are concerned, Trek 520s and the likes are nowhere to be seen in my area. You cant put a price on education ... and to me, fixing something up is fun. Cycling has always been about fun to me, so I don't worry too much about the cost. It still ends up being cheeper than most sports ... how much would it have cost you to go on a ski trip instead of fixing up the bike? I hate to say this, but part of the fun for me is finding parts cheep ... one of the benefits of a long winter is having time to search for bargins. I just fixed up an old MTB and turned it into a city bike ... changed just about everything. The grand total was about $130. I haven't told my wife yet about the grand total. "I feel your pain." -Bill Clinton C.Q.C. |
#4
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
"Jacques Moser" wrote in message
news There is often a lot of discussion about upgrading bikes, the last one being the detailed account of what it cost Elisa to make her Myrtille ridable. I have just made the total of what I spent over a year, slowly upgrading my 10-year old commuter bike: SNIP Total (please have a seat before I tell you): 968 Euro Building a bike up from components is very expensive, even excluding labor & tool costs, because the margin on parts is much greater than on bikes. It really only is cost effective if you have a pile of parts already from other upgrades. I have gone as far as buying a brand new bike and immediately stripping it for parts. |
#5
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
"Jacques Moser" wrote in message news There is often a lot of discussion about upgrading bikes, the last one being the detailed account of what it cost Elisa to make her Myrtille ridable. ... close to 1100 Euro. I love the result but, had I known in advance where I would end (both in terms of the final configuration and of the price to pay), I might have chosen to look for a new touring bike. Still, I may have done the right choice. I learned quite a lot in the process. And as far as touring bikes are concerned, Trek 520s and the likes are nowhere to be seen in my area. I am about $1000 into upgrading an $80 Raleigh Twenty Folder, but it is getting into the Bike Friday league, so I may still be below the cost of a comparable new bike. Anyway, the project is interesting. Suspension seatpost Serfas saddle Aluminum front rim Conti Top Touring 2000 tires Sachs 3x7 rear hub in Sun rim Shimano XT rear derailleur Sachs grip shifters Shimano 105 crank Shimano UN72 bottom bracket in Phill Wood retaining rings Bike Friday front and rear fenders Bike Friday split mountain bike bars Profile barends Shimano XT Brake levers RST Sprite TL suspension fork Shimano cantilever front brake I haven't told my wife yet about the grand total. Uhh... yeah. |
#6
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
In article ,
"Jacques Moser" writes: I haven't told my wife yet about the grand total. The trick is to count your miles & smiles instead of your Euros/dollars/pounds/ducats. I've got good news: I saved a fortune in car insurance by not having to buy any. cheers, Tom -- -- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca |
#7
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
Jacques Moser wrote: Still, I may have done the right choice. I learned quite a lot in the process. And as far as touring bikes are concerned, Trek 520s and the likes are nowhere to be seen in my area. There's the learning process which is invaluable, the fun of an ongoing project, and another advantage: that of keeping a bike you love and ride comfortably. When Myrtille started failing me, I rushed to buy a new bike, running on the assumption that an upgrade would cost more than it was worth. The new bike cost over 900 E and I have recently concluded that I will never get used to it and that it was a mistake. So either way, there are unforeseen overheads, and you can't win if you calculate in purely quantitative terms. Happy riding, EFR Ile de France |
#8
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
I am midway through my own "little project" of taking an mtb suitabl
for basic commuting and building it into a machine worthy of prope offroad cycling, but also capable of road riding. So far this ha included. *stripping off the old wrecked brake calipers and replacin them with XT * new Lx brake lever * new stx rc shifters * continental Grand Prix tyres x *continental off-road tyres x In the next fortnight or so, the rigid forks will be replaced with som Marzocchi forks. The headset will go, as will the stem After that in some point in the dim and distant future, I want t replace the front and rear mechs with lx and the chainset with lx Bike will be a beast then Will end up costing around £700 i think The only parts being fitted by shop will be the forks, headset an "maybe" the bottom bracket and cranks Its great fun - |
#9
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Bike upgrade can be costly !
Q. LostVideos-AT-hotmail.com wrote:
"Jacques Moser" wrote I haven't told my wife yet about the grand total. "I feel your pain." -Bill Clinton I have partially side-stepped this problem by the bike in question being *for* my wife. [1] Bianchi 47cm bike: $170 Downtube shifters Deore LX derailleurs 48/38/28 crankset 7 speed rear hub Clip & Strap pedals [3] LBS respace to 130mm : $0 (bought from there) 8 spd wheel : $0 (or $150 - spare wheel) 11-28 cassette : $25 8 spd Ultegra bar-ends : $40 Tektro Rx 2.0 cross levers: $20 Cateye Mity 8 cyclocomp : $20 Left Crank Arm [4] : $15 MTB style platform pedals : $20 Total: $310 ($460) So I managed to get my wife a nice little road bike, setup with cross levers and things to make it more to her taste for about $300. And I got to fiddle with bike parts and practice my wrenching. Plus I'm planning on taking the 7 speed indexed shifters she had and slapping them on my POS grocery bike and getting the rear spread on that to seven. Especially since I've got this 7 speed rear wheel kicking around... [1] Of course my real motive is only partially to provide her with a nice bike of her own. This will allow me to work on obtaining more bikes for myself without hearing the refrain of "You're not allowed to get any more bikes until we can return Christina's to her". [2] [2] We've been borrowing a friend's bike for a longish time for my wife to use. [3] My wife detested them, they *had* to go, immediately. [4] I couldn't get the left pedal off, I took it to the LBS and low and behold, they couldn't get it off either. I said hell with and bought a new crank-arm for the left side. -- Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g "Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." -Jules Renard |
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