New gearing or new bike?

[lengthcroft]

I have a Felt F4 road bike, about 12 years old. Full carbon, Ultegra etc. Cost about £2.5k. At the time I was into triathlons and quite serious about training. I am now more of an occasional cyclist (once a week) and the gearing on the Felt (39x25 in easiest gear) makes it too hard for me to get up hills. I'm starting to hate climbing.

I'm not sure whether to have the gearing changed or just buy a new bike. Is it worth changing the gearing on a 12 year old bike?

If I get a 'new' bike, I dont need a better bike and I'd be happy buying second hand. A second hand bike for, say, £1k, would probably do the trick. So long as it carbon and has at least 105 components.

If I got the gearing changed on existing bike, I think cost would be a few hundred £ as I dont know how to do it myself. I know the bike shops are also struggling to source bike parts

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[vickster]

10 speed?
Can’t you just change the chin rings, cassette and possibly the rear mech? Shouldn’t cost hundreds

 

[cougie uk]

Compact chainset and maybe a bigger cassette.
It's not rocket science. Local bike shop can easily do this for you.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Just change the gearing and it’ll come well under £100

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

Wot 'e sed^^^^^

 

[simongt]

If the frame is good, anything else on a bike can be changed / upgraded / downgraded depending on one's whim and budget.

 

[simongt]

Agree. My GT Outpost is 22 years old, and when I retire in two and a half years, I was going to treat myself to something a bit special. But as I have a 40 years old Dawes Fox which will do pretty much what my 'dream bike' would do, I've decided instead to have my Outpost stripped, frame blasted, powder coated and rebuilt with new rims and a return to a derailleur drive train as it originally had. In all the time I've had said bike, it's never let me down and done rain, hail & shine commuting, so it will still fill a worthwhile function as a valued bike.
Oh and it'll be a lot cheaper to achieve - !

 

[fossyant]

39 x 24 on my best bike. My other is 39 x 26, and only just managed to get away with a 26T - small mechs from 30 years ago. Will be seeing if I can get a 26T on the best bike.

 

[Tigerbiten]

What gear range where you thinking of ??
And how big a step between gears are you happy with ??
At a guess you have a 53/39 road double matched up with an 11-25 block for a close spaced 130"-42" range.
If it's only changing the gears then your options are ............

The easiest fix would be a 50/34 compact double and an 11-28 block. That will drop one gear from the top end and add two gears to the bottom end while keep most of the top end close space gears. Range 122"-32". With luck you won't even need to change your BB or derailleurs.

To go lower you could go 50/34 double and even as far as a 11-42 block. But you will need to change your rear derailleur for it to work and as the big sprocket gets bigger the steps between the gears get bigger as well. If you're used to close spaced gears then you may well not like some of the wider steps around the middle of the cassette.

To go below a 32" first gear while keeping the close spaced gears you could fit something like a 44/28 sub-compact double and match it to the 11-28 block for a 108"-27" range. You will need to change the front derailleur to match the new chainring size and probably the BB/axle to get the right chain line. The tricky part maybe making sure the cable pull on the MTB front derailleur match's the cable pull on your front shifter.

Luck ...........

 

[Pale Rider]

As a general point, Shimano derailers are more tolerant of larger range cassettes than their specs suggest, so you might get away with just a cassette change.

On t'other hand, all bits are a lot dearer than they once were, and brifters have always been expensive.

This is the type of job where expense could rise significantly as you get further into it, but worse way shouldn't far exceed a couple of hundred.

My view is it's worth doing in preference to a replacement bike.

 

[byegad]

It's a no brainer. Do both.