Bike upgrade can be costly !

[Jacques Moser]

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

[Jonathan Kaplan]

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.

[Q.]

"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.

[Peter Cole]

"Jacques Moser" > wrote in message
...
> 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.

[cheg]

"Jacques Moser" > wrote in
message ...
> 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.

[Tom Keats]

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


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[Elisa Francesca Roselli]

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

[davebee]

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


-

[Dane Jackson]

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