Beginner Bike Questions

[Former_User]

Hi All,

First post – been lurking for a while, thank you for the great content.

About a year ago I bought my first bike in more than 12 years and my first ever bike to do anything but commute back and forth from school.

Since I was starting I bought used – a 2017 Cervelo P3 with 11 speed Di2.
I have been very happy with the bike so far and have raced 2x70.3’s and a few local races on it since buying it.

I have been very happy with it so far, but there are a few things I was considering upgrading for next season, and that made me wonder if upgrading an older (rim brake) bike like this makes sense or if I should just ride as is until I can get myself to buy a new one - I am not a great bike handler and I don’t foresee myself doing any super technical descents anytime soon, so not that intrigued by the disc breaks by themselves.

Things I was considering changing/upgrading

Front End:

I am currently on a 3T Vola base bar with 15 deg risers.
I would like to get a bit more angle and could just buy a 20 -25 deg riser and potentially a bar with a bit more angle where I grip the bars (handles?) My current ones are basically straight (see picture below). Any bars this forum could recommend? Could I add something like the Wattshop Anemoi Extensions or the tririg ultimate to my base bar? And would it even be worth the hassle and cost compared to just getting a new angled riser?

Crank length:

My current bike has 175mm crank arms – given what I have read on this forum, that seems long (I am 183cm), and shorter would potentially help me in getting into a better position as I could raise my seatpost a bit. I did have a bike fit when I bought my bike, but we never discussed crank length.

Any suggestions for a starting point? 170mm?

Front Wheel:

I currently race on a Disc / Zipp 808 combination and it has been great, but both 70.3’s were relatively windy for a biker with my lack of handling skills, so was wondering if it would make sense to have a 30/40/60mm front wheel to use in windy races? – If so what wheel depth would you think would make most sense to combine with the Disc/808 combo?

Really appreciate the help and wealth of knowledge on this forum.
A few pictures for reference.

Thanks!

[jimatbeyond]

I would test 155mm cranks.

[csb146]

I would think you’d be able to find some wedges to angle your extension rather easy or you could also just rotate them back on the base bar, but you’d also need to account for that bringing everything closer as well. As far as the cranks I’d suggest 170, but a lot of other people would say shorter. All depends on you and your fit. both of those could be done for relatively low cost. Wheels, unless you can find a great deal on something seconds hand what you have looks fine. I don’t know your financial situation, but the real world difference between what you’re on now and a new bike is honestly probably not much. New bikes are always awesome, but they’re not cheap so that’s up to you.