Hey guys, I’m in the process of rebuilding my 2011 Cervelo P2 to extend it’s life and make it a little faster. I want to save up money for a Felt IA or Cervelo P5 oneday. In the meantime, I need some help finishing up the gear I would like to purchase.
I need help picking out a bottom bracket and derailleur pulleys. I’ve been looking at Hawk Racing and Enduro. I’ve read more than I ever thought I would about ceramic bearings and steel bearings. I’m turning to you guys for help because you might have used either of these brands or another.
Hey guys, I’m in the process of rebuilding my 2011 Cervelo P2 to extend it’s life and make it a little faster. I want to save up money for a Felt IA or Cervelo P5 oneday. In the meantime, I need some help finishing up the gear I would like to purchase.
I need help picking out a bottom bracket and derailleur pulleys. I’ve been looking at Hawk Racing and Enduro. I’ve read more than I ever thought I would about ceramic bearings and steel bearings. I’m turning to you guys for help because you might have used either of these brands or another.
Thank you for your time.
The best way to think about triathlon bike purchases revolve around one mantra: is this going to make me faster?
That being said here is your list:
Aerobars: Zipp Vuka Stealth probably
Shifters: Zipp Vuka Shift Integrated R2C no
Brake Levers: Profile Design Full Carbon Aero Levers probably
Cassette: Ultegra 6700 replacement for my worn out cassette no
Cabling: Jagwire Road Elite no
Bottom Bracket: ? no
Derailleur Pulleys: ? no
Chain: Shimano Dura Ace CN-7901 no Front brake (TR Omega) yes Front cabling (i.e. the way it’s routed) yes
Fit probably
That’s a lot of $$ for a bunch of "no this will not actually make me any faster at all. Don’t spend on the “no” stuff. BB doesn’t matter. Pulleys, especially thathybrid fake ceramic stuff, don’t matter. Chain matters a little bit. Do you have race wheels? What kind of tires/tubes? What kind of wheels? Do you have a wheelcover if you don’t have a disc? What about a powermeter? Race kit, could it be faster? Helmet? etc
I already have the Tri Rig Omega brakes for the front and rear. Aero helmet is Rudy Project Wingspan and I’m going to probably get a set of Zipp 404 or 808 Firecrest after my tax return. This is my 4th season racing, second year with my coach, and I’m just looking to waste money on buying speed.
I already have the Tri Rig Omega brakes for the front and rear. Aero helmet is Rudy Project Wingspan and I’m going to probably get a set of Zipp 404 or 808 Firecrest after my tax return. This is my 4th season racing, second year with my coach, and I’m just looking to waste money on buying speed.
Half those things you listed aren’t going to make your bike faster. That was my point.
2nd the powermeter. Better to invest in tracking fitness and improvement, then you can reward yourself with a faster bike in the future because you earned it
as a fellow P2 owner, i can sympathise with a lot of what your trying to do. But you would be dumping a bit of coin into it, a lot of which could go towards that P5. The zipp bats etc would all be much nicer than the aura pro, but for the price, its a waste. Only small gains. Same with the levers. Big $$ for the return. Put it towards the P5. Do what I and many others have, and be clever with cable ties with some of the cabling. Try and get them out of the wind a bit. At the end of the day the P2 is built to a price point. Its like modifying a car. Why dump 5 grand into your shitbox (although the P2 isnt a shitbox) to try and go head to head with a v8, when you can just save yourself the trouble and the buy the v8 after saving a few pennies?
as a fellow P2 owner, i can sympathise with a lot of what your trying to do. But you would be dumping a bit of coin into it, a lot of which could go towards that P5. The zipp bats etc would all be much nicer than the aura pro, but for the price, its a waste. Only small gains. Same with the levers. Big $$ for the return. Put it towards the P5. Do what I and many others have, and be clever with cable ties with some of the cabling. Try and get them out of the wind a bit. At the end of the day the P2 is built to a price point. Its like modifying a car. Why dump 5 grand into your shitbox (although the P2 isnt a shitbox) to try and go head to head with a v8, when you can just save yourself the trouble and the buy the v8 after saving a few pennies?
Aerobars: hell yeah
Brake Levers: never liked the way those feel.
Cabling: or just normal cables
Bottom Bracket: doesn’t matter
Derailleur Pulleys: The ones that come standard on dura ace and all SRAM derailleurs are as fast as anything
Chain: don’t matter
I would seriously look into the power meter. For the price of just the Zipp bars you could have a brand new Power2Max, and I would wager that would give you a significantly larger return on your investment.
define ‘hell yeh’ in time? i saw your mods to your mrs P2, and granted it looks awesome, however the HED bull horns must have cost a bit? vs the aura pro, just how bad are the latter? And could you stack spacers on the aerobars (cant remember if you used zipp stealths or not)?
Either way, the P2 can be cleaned up nicely, it just comes at a bit of a cost imo. You would still take a dead stock P5 over a heavily modified P2
edit: just saw the price of the vuka and ventus 2 bars are over 1k…thats 1/5th your P5 just on the bars!!
My P2 is 2 years old. The chain is worn, the cassette is worn, and the bottom bracket has never been replaced or serviced. Even my Speedplay zero pedals are probably going to have to be replaced. These are all upgrades I feel I definitely need and the price for bottom bracket, pulleys, chain, and cassette is reasonable.
Now, onto the aerobars. I really don’t want to buy a new bike right now. I’ve been racing better and better every season and I’d rather just extend the life of this P2 maybe another year or 2. Sure, $1000 for a Vuka Stealth may seem like a lot but $7500 for a P5-6 is more than I have right now. I understand the advice to save for the P5 but honestly, I’d rather wait for the prices to come down a bit. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. I agree though with the power meter advice. That’s on the list too eventually. I am definitely buying the Vuka Stealth and shifters. Now, what does anyone think about Hawk Racing products? As soon as all this gear is bought, money will start to be saved toward a P5 or IA. I realize that I may be wasting money, but this is the gear I have been wanting for over a year and I can finally afford it now that I have graduated college and am in the working world. I just want to build the world’s fastest P2! haha
Also, my P2 came with the alumnium Vision bars. The 2012 model was switched to the carbon bars (Aura I think?)
My P2 is 2 years old. The chain is worn, the cassette is worn, and the bottom bracket has never been replaced or serviced. Even my Speedplay zero pedals are probably going to have to be replaced. These are all upgrades I feel I definitely need and the price for bottom bracket, pulleys, chain, and cassette is reasonable.
Now, onto the aerobars. I really don’t want to buy a new bike right now. I’ve been racing better and better every season and I’d rather just extend the life of this P2 maybe another year or 2. Sure, $1000 for a Vuka Stealth may seem like a lot but $7500 for a P5-6 is more than I have right now. I understand the advice to save for the P5 but honestly, I’d rather wait for the prices to come down a bit. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. I agree though with the power meter advice. That’s on the list too eventually. I am definitely buying the Vuka Stealth and shifters. Now, what does anyone think about Hawk Racing products? As soon as all this gear is bought, money will start to be saved toward a P5 or IA. I realize that I may be wasting money, but this is the gear I have been wanting for over a year and I can finally afford it now that I have graduated college and am in the working world. I just want to build the world’s fastest P2! haha
Also, my P2 came with the alumnium Vision bars. The 2012 model was switched to the carbon bars (Aura I think?)
Those are probably as fast, aerodynamically, as the Vuka Stealth. Buy a 6800 bb, a 6700 cassette, a 6701 chain, keep the shifters, keep the bars, don’t buy Hawk Racing crap.
There, you save over 1k vs what you were going to buy and have ample purchasing room to get a PM, which will ACTUALLY help you.
For what it’s worth, you posted asking for advice. It sounds like you don’t like the advice you are getting.
Actually James far from the truth. I welcome all the advice and will consider it. I’m just so excited to buy new gear because I have been patiently waiting since college graduation for the right time. I think I’ll take my tax return and get a power meter now. Appreciate the help.
Now, I have a lot of work to do before I can ever keep up with you. I saw you coming in on the run around mile 12 at Carolina Half when I was starting the run through that neighborhood. Impressive times man.
I as his coach, told him 1st thing to get is PM or atleast that’s the best thing to get faster, beside becoming consistent with training when he graduated.
Deitz is a gear head. He looks to see what can help and researches. If getting X product gets him more excited to get on the bike, it works. Athletes have lots of ways/things that motivate. But yes I’ve mentioned an PM as the greatest tool an athlete could ever have.
Actually James far from the truth. I welcome all the advice and will consider it. I’m just so excited to buy new gear because I have been patiently waiting since college graduation for the right time. I think I’ll take my tax return and get a power meter now. Appreciate the help.
Now, I have a lot of work to do before I can ever keep up with you. I saw you coming in on the run around mile 12 at Carolina Half when I was starting the run through that neighborhood. Impressive times man.
Any recommendations on a power meter?
Deitzy. Buy the shiny new tri things because you want them, not because they’re practical!
Realistically you’d be best-off replacing the wear items and dumping the rest of the money into a PM or a trip to A2WT. Just skipping the Zipp Aerobars will get you half of the way there or better. While you’re there you could explore your options a little bit more. That wingspan is starting to get some age on it (if you still have it)–might be time to consider a different helmet.
Yeah the vision aluminum is pretty crazy aero. I would just keep that. What length stem do you use?
If you find some clip ons (The Zipp clips come to mind) that let you use the 90mm sigma stem then you can clean up the cable routing and have a sweet front end for ~$100 instead of $800
If you want a new cassette and bottom bracket go ahead, just don’t spend a lot. Ultegra cassette isn’t crazy like the Dura Ace so that is fine. Ultegra BB are actually better than Dura Ace BB if you are using a shimano crank.
powermeters - Powertap is a hell of a deal right now, new Quarqs are solid, SRM is solid.
Actually James far from the truth. I welcome all the advice and will consider it. I’m just so excited to buy new gear because I have been patiently waiting since college graduation for the right time. I think I’ll take my tax return and get a power meter now. Appreciate the help.
Now, I have a lot of work to do before I can ever keep up with you. I saw you coming in on the run around mile 12 at Carolina Half when I was starting the run through that neighborhood. Impressive times man.