Dream Bike Upgrade
The Road Bike
One of the very important thing to have in Netherlands is a bicycle. When I first moved here around July 2022, I was on a tight budget. So the bike that I bought was never far from the cheapest one from Decathlon. It was road bike for woman with drop handle bar, 8 speed microshift shifter, quick release wheel, changable stem, attach points for rear rack, 700c tires, standard components. I felt almost like my dream bike - a drop bar bike with ability to attach rear carried. Plus, it had a good potential if I wanted to upgrade it in the future. It costed me around 319 EUR.
A year has passed. I added nothing to the bike aside from 2 Ortlieb panniers. It’s now time to upgrade. I started to think about my previous bike - Giant TCR SL1 - what I like and what I don’t. It has a very large crank 55/43T?. I found the fast gearing useless because I am not strong to ride such high speed. I thought I am pretty happy with anything that can bring me up to 30kph. Another issue was when I carried 2 panniers, 1 handle bar bag and climbing hills (~15kg payload), 43T on the front and probably 32T cassette were not low enough to climb comfortably.
Back to the Decathlon road bike, it has 40T crank and 11-32T cassette. I find that the top speed is good enough for me but I would prefer it to have a lower gearing, if I ever go touring with 15kg luggage load. I learnt that lately there has been something called 1x drive train on gravel bike. That’s probably what I have been searching for. If we could get the same gear range as with front derailleur why not?
There aren’t so many budget options for 1x drop bar shifter. Initially, I planed on using trigger shifter from Deore 1x on drop bar but it doesn’t feel like road bike. I landed on LTwoo GR7 - Chinese made 1x10 speed group set. For 118 EUR, I got
- A pair of drop bar brake and shifter for 1x10 speed
- 10 speed derailleur (1x pull ratio matched with the shifter)
- 11-42T 10 speed cassette
- Chain
What else I’ve ever dream of upgrading the bike? Of course, carbon fork, hollow bottom bracket … See the part list below:
| Part | Price |
|---|---|
| LTwoo GR7 10 speed groupset (Aliexpress) | 118 EUR |
| Carbon fork (Aliexpress) | 43 EUR |
| Handlebar Tape (Aliexpress) | 7 EUR |
| Hollow crank 40T with Bottom Bracket (Aliexpress) | 48 EUR |
| Short stem 50mm (Aliexpress) | 11 EUR |
| Shimano Brake Cable (Bike-components) | 4 EUR |
| Shimano Shifter Cable (Bike-components) | 4 EUR |
| Tires Continental Ultrasport 3 700x28c folding (Bike-components) | 17 EUR x 2 |
| Total | 269 EUR |
Weight comparison
| Old Part | Weight | New Part | Weight | Wight Diff (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A pair of Microshift shifter 1x8 speed | 418g | A pair of LTwoo shifter 1x10 speed | 428g | +10g |
| Microshift cassette 11-32T 8 speed | 358g | Deore cassette 11-42T 10 speed | 496g | +138g |
| Microshift rear derailleur | 298g | LTwoo rear derailleur | 261g | -37g |
| Chain 8 speed | 306g | Shimano chain 10 speed | 278g | -28g |
| Steel fork | 1279g | Carbon fork | 377g | -902g |
| Decathlon tire 700x28c wire bead | 414g | Tires Continental Ultrasport 3 folding | 292g | -122g x2 |
| Original crank set 40T with taper bottom bracket | 1102g | Hollow crank 40T with Bottom Bracket | 813g | -289g |
| Front brake caliper | 167g | - | Unchanged | - |
| Front wheel with quick release | 1069g | - | Unchanged | - |
| - | - | - | - | -1352g |
Weight saving from upgrade -1352g
Weight after upgrade 10.4kg (with rear carrier)
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The Mountain Bike
Mountain biking has always been something I wanted to learn. I was lucky that a friend is into it. We went mountain biking around Dortmund, Germany with his friend. I didn’t have the bike, so my Dutch friend lent one to me. It was another Decathlon bike (how could I not love it?) of this brother’s son. By now, the son has gone too big to fit the frame but it was just right for my size.
It was my first experience that I felt like I actually ride mtb the way it has designed for - super low rang gearing (yet not low enough), some suspension to do downhill, disc brake, and all.
Since I would be upgrading my road bike, why not piggyback this opportunity and for once make a dream one. I have never ridden an air suspension fork. Heard so much about it. Of course, 1x drivetrain, hollow crank. For last moment, I decided to order hydraulic brake caliper set when I recalled how painful my finger was when we went on a long downhill.
| Part | Price |
|---|---|
| Bolany Air Suspension Fork 27.5 inch (Aliexpress) | 102 EUR |
| SPD combination pedal (Aliexpress) | 22 EUR |
| Hollow crank 30T with Bottom Bracket (Aliexpress) | 42 EUR |
| Head bearing set, crown bearing (Decathlon) | 10 EUR |
| Shimano Deore 1x10 speed 11-46T groupset (Bike-components) | 92 EUR |
| Shimano Deore BR-M6100 Hydraulic disc brake front + rear (Bike-components) | 107 EUR |
| Tires Continental Race King 2 27.5x2.2in folding (Bike-components) | 22 EUR x 2 |
| Inner Tube Continental Race King 2 27.5in (Bike-components) | 4 EUR x 2 |
| Total | 427 EUR |
Weight comparison
| Old Part | Weight | New Part | Weight | Wight Diff (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original suspension fork | 2718g | Bolany Air Suspension Fork 27.5 inch | 1818g | -900g |
| Original Sram crank set 3 speed with pedal | 1537g | Hollow crank 30T with Bottom Bracket + SPD combination pedal | 765g + 408g | -364g |
| Decathlon tire 27.5x2.0in wire bead | 976g | Tires Continental Race King 2 27.5x2.2in folding | 689g | -187g x2 |
| Microshift cassette 11-32T 8 speed | 292g | LTwoo cassette 11-46T 10 speed | 558g | +266g |
| Sram X4 front derailleur + shifter | 284g | None | - | -284g |
| Original wire disk brake set | 654g | Shimano Deore BR-M6100 Hydraulic disc brake | 287g + 312g | -55g |
| - | - | - | - | -1711g |
Original weight 14.9kg