Cheap Vs Expensive

[Lee_M]

Which also means I havnt had it long enough to class the maintenace as "Lack of maintenance" .

Hey I'm not arguing with you, just repeating what you said:

I sort of just grind off the rust and spray a blob of paint over the area, (the paint gets on other stuff like the gears or what ever) makes it look worst. And theres dirty oil all over it etc, ow and the rear cog think move about abit, ow and the brakes sqweek. It all works tho, so why upgrade

dirty all, moving rear cassette and squeaking brakes, paint on your gears - all sounds a bit like lack of maintenance to me

it's your bike you can do what you like, but that doesnt mean that people who buy expensive bikes are wrong

 

[Lee_M]

In terms of speed then, I supose my only Issue is weight and gears? The lighter the bike the faster and the lighter the bike the more expensive it will be
Therefore Fast = Expensive ?

also the cleaner and more efficient the drive train the more of your power will be converted to power at the rear wheel and not converted into wearing out your drive train

For the same rider a more efficient bike will be faster, but efficient covers many things, not just lightness, if you really want to go faster, lose weight - it'll be cheaper than shaving weight off your bike

 

[black'n'yellow]

In terms of speed then, I supose my only Issue is weight and gears? The lighter the bike the faster and the lighter the bike the more expensive it will be
Therefore Fast = Expensive ?

Fast depends on you - not the bike.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

I got the little baby new tires and wheels and a cable, I clean the chain and gears with WD40 every week, The other stuff is just visual. I try to look after her.

 

[GrasB]

In terms of speed then, I supose my only Issue is weight and gears? The lighter the bike the faster and the lighter the bike the more expensive it will be
Therefore Fast = Expensive ?

Yes but it's all diminishing returns. One I've found is when you start doing 'naughty stuff' like swapping chainrings & sprockets at full power when climbing you notice the difference between SRAM Rival, Force & Red cassettes & chains. Rival just doesn't want to play ball, Force is sloppy but will shift but Red just gets on with it. When behaving your self there's no perceivable difference between the 3, so yeah the best bike gets SRAM Red because it does the job better. Training, commuting bikes etc get Rival because I'm not going to worry about 2 or 3s lost by easing off for the gear change.

Fast depends on you - not the bike.

Up to a point, you take the full-sys mountain bike with knobbly tyres & I'll take my M5 Carbon Low Racer.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Fast depends on you - not the bike.

So why dont the pro's have cheap crap steel bikes like me?

 

[Peter Armstrong]

also the cleaner and more efficient the drive train the more of your power will be converted to power at the rear wheel and not converted into wearing out your drive train

For the same rider a more efficient bike will be faster, but efficient covers many things, not just lightness, if you really want to go faster, lose weight - it'll be cheaper than shaving weight off your bike

I can’t lose weight, I’m lean as.

 

[Lee_M]

So why dont the pro's have cheap crap steel bikes like me?

law of diminishing returns
at elite level sport is measured in miniscule differences, so while you might not notice much difference between a steel bike and a carbon one they will and that might make the difference between being TdF winner and 10th place

all sport at that level is a weapons race

 

[GrasB]

So why dont the pro's have cheap crap steel bikes like me?

Cause those extra 5w after a 150km DOES make a difference.

 

[Lee_M]

I can’t lose weight, I’m lean as.

That's still the best way to go faster, look how thin wiggo is, compared to how thin he used to be as a track rider

not sayig you should do it - hey I'm 15 stone! but thats the way to do it

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Wiggins thin, no thankx thats horrible. I know what you mean tho

 

[HovR]

Advantages modern (more expensive) bikes give over older steel racers tend to be in the weight department, and also the gears.

Modern indexed STI gears will give a much more responsive and snappy gear shift with the shift levers in a more convenient place (not to mention often 10+ speeds on the rear), and the lighter frames will assist riders in climbing hills and accelerating - It's up to the individual whether these advantages are worth the extra money, and to many they are.

Saying that a more expensive bike is faster isn't always true, as that completely depends on the rider.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

So the definitive answer is a well maintained cheap steel bike vs. a new expensive bike is the expensive bike only has slight advantages in speed as an amateur?

 

[Lee_M]

if you put all the same groupset on both bikes then the difference would be minimal at amateur level - assuming you havent put it all on a 1950s heavy steel bike

of course it then comes down to whether you "want" a steel or carbon bike

 

[Peter Armstrong]

So I can keep my old beauty, i dream of giving her a respray but always wondered if it was worth it or to just save up for a new one.