4 Bang for Buck Bike Upgrades Under £100 

Don't blame your age, blame the age of your bike. 😆

Interesting, I was planning to reinstall my 44 cm handlebar on my next bike that comes with 42 cm... Might try some long rides before doing it.

My new bars arrive today . Shorter reach drop and (slightly )narrower. Here's hoping it makes things more comfortable on my old bike

Let me guess Bontrager r1 tires on your stock trek bike? I felt the same thing although I upgraded to continental ultrasports 3, which is a bit of a budget tire but still drastically better than the stock tires that came on my trek

@@bm4122Hey! I did the same. I have a question tho i want to go for 700c x28 but im not sure it fits. You have any idea by any chance?

I'm surprised you didn't notice different going from normal butyl tubes to TPU/latex inner tubes. The rolling impedance resistance is quite large and makes for a big difference in takeoffs.

@@neutronpcxt372 Takeoff? Like in accelerations, or MTB jumps?

What tyres are you using? I suppose you need soft tubeless ready tyres to see a difference...

This.

There's new ones that can take up to 43c

@@bonbonflippers4298 awesome, I'm riding Pirelli Smart Tube for wider tires, but great to know they're expanding their offer.

I'm going to use 32c and I will probably use the bigger (gravel) RideNows. The Revoloops (18-28) I'm using have not been great in the rear 28c tire (front has been fine). Tires measure almost 30mm (21 mm ID rim) so I think the TPU material is on the limit. I prefer a few grams penalty if I can get them to last longer. I don't really trust RideNow claims that their inner tubes can go from 18 to 32, that is too much.

At the moment in my gravel I have continental 4 seasons 32mm, with another AliExpress TPU inside - Cyclami. The problem with these is that the material is sticky and I got many punctures while mounting the tire back onto the rim. Otherwise the feeling is nice and smooth. RideNow and Pirelli are so far the best.

Really, that’s all they need sometimes

Decathlons bike is a bike imo

@@EstelonAgarwaen yes they are. I have one.

@@Relevant_Irrelevance my commuter is a riverside 720tr. Solid bike. Even took it on vacay last year.

@@EstelonAgarwaen Mine's one of their alu Van Rysels. Lovely thing. My only complaint is that I really like the stock saddle it comes with but it's gashed and used up sub-5k km in.

Your tyre is a contact point, the most important one, where the bike interacts with the ground. If you can run at a comfortable pressure rather than the one dictated by the minimum pressure of your tube then you will be more comfortable. I say that as someone who hasn't made the switch yet, running 28s at 75 and dreaming of cushy 65. A saddle is just a personal preference thing, something you'll probably have to change out at some point anyway, so it's factored in at point of sale. When I got my Audax bike second hand it had the most plush armchair saddle on it. I immediately swapped it for my brooks C15. Now looking at Selle Italia boost since apparently I need a cutout. All in all I will have spent a lot more on saddles trying to find the perfect fit than I ever would have if I went tubeless. I don't understand why it's an "either or" as well. Surely they're two separate aspects of the bike that you're thinking of upgrading separately. One is inevitable, the other is "when I have time/cash/equipment".

@@hendrixinfinity3992 It's not an "either or" in a real world scenario, it is just in the context of this video. If you're working with a fixed 100 bucks spending limit then a comfy saddle would be a priority upgrade over a tubeless setup for me personally. A couple of reasons why tubeless shouldn't be a priority for someone buying an entry level bike and looking to upgrade: 1.) Relative cost: Tubeless setups are expensive. Tubeless ready tires, rim tape, valves, and sealant all add up to a chunky bill. Run off the mill tubes are a fraction of that. 2.) Entry level bikes like the one in this video, rarely come with tubeless ready wheels. They are becoming more and more common, but they are still not the norm. So people buying those bikes gotta make sure their wheelsets are compatible to begin with and if they're not, they might have to invest half the bikes price in a new wheelset, which makes little sense if you're just getting into the sport. 3.) Know-how and tools are not readily available for everyone. Tubeless setups require you to learn a decently complex mechanical process and to be in the possession of specific bike tools. If you do not meet these requirements yourself, you gotta get a bike shop to do the deed for you, which means blowing out the budget limit. I don't mean to discredit the advantages of tubeless setups, but for what's being presented in this video it's a debatable "upgrade", that ignores many of the associated costs outside the acquisition of tubeless ready tires, sealant, and valves.

@@lanceflare but again, if I'm buying a bike then 90% of the time I will be changing the saddle. So it's not so much an upgrade as an inevitable. I would say the same for all contact points. As an example planet x don't supply bikes with pedals because they assume you're going to change them to the ones you like. I'm not saying it's for everyone or that everyone should go out and do it. I'm saying they're not comparable. Tubeless is always an upgrade whereas finding the right saddle, tape, bars, shoes and pedals is a process that will hopefully result in an upgrade. The bike fitter on this channel says that saddle choice is far less important than saddle position, and I tend to agree.

@@BrightLight105 That is interesting. Having never run anything other than innertubes, I would have thought that it didnt matter what tyre your are using. That said, I have only watched videos of people seating beads on gravel/mtb tyres that are much wider than your average road tyre. Thanks for the imput! :)

You can also get something like the airshot canister, which you pressurise with a floor pump. Then flip the switch to the dump all the air at once into the tyre.

You also need sealant every few months, clean, rinse and repeat...

@@DR_1_1 yeah but what you spend in sealant you'll save in inner tubes as you'll need less of them

@@ZanziBarroso Sealant is only a fraction of the extra costs of the tubeless "system", unlike tubes.

you shouldn't add sealant until you have seated your tyre otherwise things could get very messy. Besides the soap did you try removing the valve core when seating ?

Yeah, its a bit of a dark art, but once you have managed tubeless set ups, then its less of a faff, than trying to avoid snake biting tubes. I have been running tubeless on the MTB for about 10 years. key things are making sure your beads and bead seats are clean, you have a decent pump to "pop" the bead on (Milk It do a pressurized bottle, which works well and is cheap). Once you have got your valve stems in and sealed, leave them alone. Note different rims work better with different valve stems.

ive always wanted to do this.... i run latex tubes on my gravel bike, ive never punctured but if i do that added protection

@@abedfo88 I think it works particularly well with pinch punctures because the sealant adheres between the tire and the punctured tube. I have not had an actual puncture yet so I'm not sure how it will seal in that case. But I'm a big boy so pinch punctures are far more common.

... bar tape, saddle and tyres are* top-4 choices.

I didn't think this was worth it at all. 90% of the time I'm on the hoods anyways.

Back in the day, just used to add a strip of bar tape to the top of the hooks b4 wrapping. Cheap and cheerful and more aero than a full double wrap.

I like to double wrap only the drops, makes you spend more time there when it feels like a sofa.

Did you try Pirelli cinturato velo tyres? They seem to be very resistant, although you might prefer really fast tyres, else these might be a good compromise...

Did it puncture and how would it differ for sombeody new/old to road cycling? I run tubless but bought some RideNow as my backups to get my home

Sounds like a real quality control issue. Had that happen on the tubes that came with cheap bikes. Trying to find the hole and hear it coming from the valve, no hole in the tyre.

good pointer! another reason for me to stick with tubes

... hot* climate. And right, as long as you have to mess with sticky sealant, tubeless is just impractical.

I should probably point out that I already had 105 r7000 on my 20yo Raleigh Zwift bike.

... similar to*

sealant*

Gatorskins are the most puncture resistant tires there is, hence the cost. Note that's with expense with their rolling resistance which is not that good.

@@JPatteri indeed, that was my experience on the past w/ them. Living in an urban area with predictably umm "spotty" roads, solid puncture resistance on this bike is important.

@@malcontent_1 Check Pirelli cinturato velo have slighty lower rolling resistance and better puncture resistance than Gatorskins, and Vittoria Randonneur 50% more resistant, but also 50% higher rolling resistance...

I have friends who are professional triathletes and they race on Gatorskins because if they puncture on race day they don’t get paid. Yes they are slightly heavier but they are amazingly puncture resistant

@@davidtydeman1434 I've since purchased a replacement set of Gatorskins (Black Edition) - because they just _work_

Also rim brakes! I sometimes wonder if all these 30+ mm tyres on road bikes are not a way to support the industry...

I had 2 punctures in 4 months, although I also fitted them to nicer, but more fragile tyres. I don't think it had to do with the tube, but with the tyre casing. I patched them and they are still running well though. They feel nicer than butyl.

Also tubeless ready wheels are often more difficult when it comes to change tyres... About pressure I think the manufacturers give the pressure for performance, maybe longevity, but just like for your car, you should follow the numbers given for the vehicle, not those written on the tyre itself (on mine they are 2.5 - 2.9 bars on the car, and 3-4 bars on the tyres, I used 3.5 bars until the mechanic told me to read the plate in the car instead)? For the bike, your weight, the road type and riding style are important. That said I never use the pressure calculator (I might try by curiosity), I just adapt the recommended pressure to my needs, e.g. I never pump my Michelin pro 4 to 110PSI, firstly it's really hard to do with my hand pump, and they are quite uncomfortable at this point! I'm not into competition... Edit : I just used the calculator, and it gives me exactly the numbers I use usually 85-90PSI, 6 bars!

For a tyre as big as a 38mm, you'd be better off going for tubeless. Tubeless ride great and have much better puncture resistance than tubes. Once you've set them up once it's not difficut. They work particularly well on larger lower pressure tyres. I run tubeless on my 43mm gravel bike and 2.3" MTB. I took the MTB tyres off earlier in the year, as I had bought a new wheelset. Through the tyres were a total of 8 15mm long thorns, every one of which would have caused a puncture with tubes. I hadn't noticed and had no loss of pressure at all.

Is that the supple version of these tyres? Also I think you need light wheels to feel a difference, and I've read a few comments like yours, even under this video, btw, with different gear.

@@DR_1_1 I don't actually know about them being supple or not. 32mm version has an additional protection insert against punctures, 35mm doesn't. Yeah, running on original wheels. I domt know which upgrade I need to take to meet 6-spoke dosc break quick release shimano 11speed version of hub, etc

@@andras.89 I see 2 versions of these tyres, one would be softer, ie you can fold it a bit like a tube, the other less.. Anyway I don't think you will gain anything with latex or even tubeless, except extra work. It's either for high performance (Tour de France in mountains stages), or for MTB, maybe gravel bike competitions where tubeless have more adherence on bad trails, with lower pressure.