£80!!!!!

[alecstilleyedye]

a chap at work bought a bike for the wilmslow triathlon for £80 from decathlon. saw it today, it's a heavy steel bike (heavier, i think, than my 531 winter bike) with downtube shifters.

i was going to give him advice on how to upgrade it, but i'm not sure that it's worth doing anything more than getting clipless pedals and shoes. i would never go back to downtube shifters, but the cost of upgrading to even shimano sora would be, imo, not worth the expense when you can get an alu framed, sora equipped bike for under £300 these days.

wotcha think?

 

[Steve Austin]

Really not worth doing anything with ime.
The main overall parts will be too heavy and such poor quality that for any upgrades will be a total waste of money.

The only upgrade i would bother with is decent tyres, which will be £40...so on 2nd thoughts, just tell him to start saving for a new bike

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i might show him my commuter bike tomorrow, and say that for about £100-£150 he could get something of that quality second hand on ebay. if it had been a reasonable frame, but with crap finishing kit, i'd have recommended gradual upgrading, but as it is…

 

[Smokin Joe]

He's probably the type who sees a bike priced at £500 and says, "But you could have bought a CAR for that".

 

[joshw]

New tyres, clipless pedals, maybe saddle.

 

[John the Monkey]

FWIW, I did really like my steel framed ten speed when I got that - at the time I just wanted to see whether I'd like a road bike or not - once the bug bit, I went off and bought an SCR2.0...

At least pedals, tyres and saddle can be transferred to a new bike, if he decides he'd like to upgrade.

 

[barq]

No harm in buying clipless pedals since they can be migrated to another bike. Ditto tyres.

Someone in my office bought a bike shaped object and then wanted post-purchase advice. It was hard to know what to say!

 

[domtyler]

The bike will almost certainly allow him to complete the cycling split within the allotted time, if he wanted anything more he would have bought it. So why even discuss the upgrade of a bike that will never be upgraded?

 

[PrettyboyTim]

a chap at work bought a bike for the wilmslow triathlon for £80 from decathlon. saw it today, it's a heavy steel bike (heavier, i think, than my 531 winter bike) with downtube shifters.

i was going to give him advice on how to upgrade it, but i'm not sure that it's worth doing anything more than getting clipless pedals and shoes.

Seeing as it's for a triathlon, wouldn't it be better just to put toe clips on, if it hasn't got them already? It'll make his transition for the final leg faster and I'm guessing as long as he does them up it won't make him much slower on the cycling leg.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Seeing as it's for a triathlon, wouldn't it be better just to put toe clips on, if it hasn't got them already? It'll make his transition for the final leg faster and I'm guessing as long as he does them up it won't make him much slower on the cycling leg.

fair point. my initial thought was that sti shifters would be useful (there was a nasty little climb on the route), as he said that he had to pick a gear and stick with it. i think that would have cost him time.

 

[PrettyboyTim]

Would it really be such a problem changing gears with the downtube shifters? Granted, it's been a while since I had them myself but I would have thought that the occasional change while he climbed wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Disclaimer: It's been 16 years since I had downtube shifters...

 

[4F]

Would it really be such a problem changing gears with the downtube shifters? Granted, it's been a while since I had them myself but I would have thought that the occasional change while he climbed wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Disclaimer: It's been 16 years since I had downtube shifters...

No it is not a problem at all. I do approx 5000 miles a year on mine and they are as easy to use today as they were on my first road bike in the 70's

 

[giant man]

There is a reason its 80 quid.

 

[palinurus]

The only problem I have with downtube shifters is that I'm always reaching down for them on my bikes that don't have downtube shifters.

 

[fossyant]

With down tube shifters, you don't have to pick a gear and stick with it - OK you can't change standing up but I still have down tube shifters and can change front and rear gears very quickly with one hand at the same time.

Admitedly, for the price the shifters may not be indexed ?

For the price of the bike - not really worth upgrading anything really - just use it as it is, and if he 'get's into it' then get a better bike.