To upgrade or to buy something else? I’m stepping up to my first HIM this season (4 years of sprints and oly’s), and it finally has me caring more about my bike.
I’m riding a completely stock 2012 Felt B16 (10-spd ultegra, stock wheels). Here’s my question. If I have in the neighborhood of $3k new money to spend, would that money be best spent on:
Option #1: New Bike like a stock Felt IA14 - (assuming I could sell the B16 for about $1k so the new bike budget could probably be $4k)
Option #2: Upgrade the B16 - For a little under $3k I could get: 11-speed Ultegra mech, Felt Bayonet 3 Aerobar, Flo 60s + rear cover, and a power2max power meter to just have power on both bikes all the time. I could probably even get a better aero helmet (currently using Giro Air Attack).
Option #3: Tell me how I should really be spending my money. (or… even if I shouldn’t be!)
Thoughts? Would I outgrow the B16 setup? The main “sunk” costs would be the 11-speed upgrade and the aerobar (~$1k). If I went with the IA14, I probably would be racing the stock wheels, but at least I could leave the same cassette on the PowerTap wheel for easy swapping.
For about $3K you could get a crank based power meter, ultegra di2 TT group, and a full Tri Rig front end plus omega brake. That is one super bike beats the hell out of the ia14 in terms of ease of ownership, etc. The resale value will blow, of course, because it’s a B16. But you can rob it of all the components when you’re ready to upgrade the frameset itself
I thought about this as well. Would the Di2 TT groupset be a better use of money than a set of race wheels though? I’d certainly love to have Di2 and 11-spd, but I’m not sure the return on investment is there for me on that one. Thanks for the input!
James - His B16 looks pretty clean and fast for sure. That’s making me lean towards a very similar setup to what he is running and just stick with the 10-speed since I wouldn’t ever need to move the Flo 60’s onto my road bike (so swapping around cassettes isn’t an issue at all).
I’d just by a Flo 90 set, throw on a Quarq or P1 pedals, and buy the Felt alloy bayonet basebar for $2k and call it a day. First two could move to a new bike down the road.
If you have money you won’t regret spending, I would go for a new bike. Don’t be afraid to consider used. But, I would also go with flo wheels (someone else mentioned that too), and enjoy your new bike.
Another possibility is something like that for $2k + a power2max? Then flip my B16 for most of a Flo 60/90 combo? Is there anything I’d immediately regret on that Diamondback?
That Diamondback would be a downgrade to your B16, IMO. Seriously, James has some good advice above, and you can make this frame super aero just by focusing on the details.