I would upgrade to add a support car. For easy bike swaps, food, and the occasional draft. Can even jump in for a bit on a tough climb if your legs are feeling knackered. The ultimate upgrade.
The best upgrade is anything that makes you ride more. Only way you'll take several kilos off your system weight, and probably gain tens or even hundreds of watts.
Some may say laxatives are both cheapest and most effective weight reducers. However diuretics are even better, since we - at least most of us - are rather water than, you know
I have to say, the comedy in this video was top tier. I would watch this almost as much just for the laugh as for the cycling content. Thank you, GCN for this video.
You shouldn’t use latex tubes for training because they aren’t as durable or puncture resistant I believe, best to got tubeless or regular inner tubes for training imo
@@itsyourboiiemil5450 I have had the opposite experience. Latex inner tubes have been less puncture prone as they are more supple and tend to conform around foreign objects. Butyl tubes on the other hand are less compliant and can more easily allow foreign objects to puncture it. Another consideration for latex tubes that I don’t think gets talk about often, if at all, is the superior comfort they provide. Again, because they are more supple and compliant, they roll over bumps and road imperfections better, leading to a smoother, comfier ride.
Going on a diet is the best Cost saving one. In the uk i'd rather have a slightly heavier machine to give me the inertia into head winds, having ridden TT bikes that weigh less than bin lid, a little bit of weight makes riding big distances easier for me.
#GCNTECH I’m sitting here, drinking a coffee, calmly reporting all the spam comments from the same fake GCN tech account that’s all. I’ll take a GCN water bottle you guys 😉.
Hi Ollie, Alex & Dreamteam, I have heard that Latex and TPU inner tubes are more subject to punctures, is that right? Can they be patch repaired like regular butyl tubes? Thanks #AskGCNTech
Tubolito claims their tubes are more puncture resistant (which I agree with from experience) they offer a puncture guarantee too! They have their own specific patch kit for only a few dollars.
I have ridden all three types of tubes and have found latex is no more puncture prone. If anything, latex may be more puncture resistant as the tube and tire become more supple and compliant and roll over and deform around road debris and hazards better. Both TPU and latex can be patched. TPU requires special patches which I found were not easy to use and didn’t work great. Latex can be patched as well, either using patches like Rema or using an old doner latex tube to cut patches from and some rubber cement.
Tubular tyres which have been the choice of pro cyclists the world over for many years have latex tube sown into them. If there was any evidence that they punctured easier they would have used clinchers for the spring classics which historically the never did
@@kidkarbon4775 fair point. I just assumed that Latex are thinner since they are lighter. Tubular can be repaired? What do you do when you have a puncture in the wild?
I know wheels are often a really expensive upgrade, but getting new wheels can often be the most dramatic upgrade you can do. It can make your bike feel like a completely different machine. It's not just weight; you also get better hubs, better aerodynamics if you're into that kind of thing, and a more comfortable ride. Also, if you're riding on GP 5000s, switching to wheels that make it possible to actually mount those damn tyres are worth every penny, I don't care how much they cost.
I rode the GP5000s on my single speed, not sure if the wheels make that much difference being track wheels, but they weren’t hard to mount at all 💁♂️ even on the easy side
I've tried 5 different brands of carbon wheels, each changed the handling characteristics of the bike. Not noticed any difference in tire brands, but tires sizes make a difference, wider has always been better for me.
@@Ober1kenobi rims make a huge difference in mounting. Cost doesn't really effect that. My 28mm Schwalbe One tubeless tires are very hard to mount on my $3000 carbon DT wheels but those same tires are a breeze to mount on the $900 wheels I built with Pacenti rims. The diameter of the center channel above the spoke holes is the main factor.
@@happydays8171 there's a huge difference in tires of the same size. Everyone's fastest tires are fairly similar. But try a GP5000 and specialized Armadillos in the same size and you'll notice a sizeable difference in comfort and speed. A good 0.2mph with the same power at a cruising effort
@@veganpotterthevegan Does one offer comfort and the other speed? I have Pirelli Race on right now, they don't grip in corners like the Michelins or S-works tires I was running, they may be fast, but prone to puncture. What do you suggest? Wheels are Lun Hyper 50mm.
Avoid taking too much stuff with you. Avoid buying too much stuff for cycling. -Shorter ride today? : only one bottle of water. I’m sure you can refill it somewhere when you make a pit stop. -Food : how many of these snacks do I really need? I always came back with one bar untouched. -Do I really need to know my heart rate? There’s a few more grams! -Maybe buy a smaller and cheaper cellphone, it’s lighter to take on the ride, since you need it for emergency and pairing with your bike cpu. -Have a code on your door lock and save yourself from bringing keys. -A few bill, a credit card, and an ID fit well into a super light and super cheap ZIPLOCK bag. No need for those fancy pouches. -Don’t overdress, and practice your resistance to the elements ; there’s a few more grams and dollars saved! -As for tubes, if you buy the light but fragile ones, do you need to bring two or three extras to feel safe? Well, there goes your weight saving! So get the standard ones, bring a single spare, and you save money for the same weight! -With all the space saved, put your second water bottle in your middle back pocket and save yet another few grams and bucks by having only one cage. -Do you need a saddle bag or can you fit these spares and other things in your back pocket? -Go to the johns BEFORE the ride! You’ll save a ton of weight! And comfort. And it’s a good excuse to have a coffee. -Bike lights? Plan your ride and bring them only if necessary. There’s tons of ways to save by simply thinking instead of spending :)
there are other cheaper alternatives : Repente saddle 125g , 120€. Prime carbon bar 170g, 12O€ . 270g reduction total. Hunt wheels 1500g cost apprx 1000€, granted only saved 350g, but other benefits. TPU tubes expensive, but considering you have 2 in tires and one in kit, it's 300g savings total. I also reduced body weight 3500g, and not only was that free, i saved money by not buying beer.
Here's a budget version: Elitaone saddle 115g, 15 dollars. Og Evkin HB011 185g, 48 dollars. Uno Kalloy Stem 99g (90mm), 20 dollars. Avian CR3 R325 (38mm) 1490g, 428 dollars. Just go rimbrakes. Also yeah, make a diet plan and stop eating too much.
alloy wheel can be light too. Mavic Ksyrium weight 1500g for less than 500€. The upgrade will be aero with carbon wheels. For the same weight, you will have 40/50mm wheels (25/30mm for the alloy ones)
I use durable stuff and lose weight instead, went from 85kg during the summer to 81 now. I didn't have to spend a penny on the bikr 🤷 most if us aren't professional riders so it's quite unnecessary tbh, just ride and enjoy the weather and your surroundings
I agree. I tried tubeless for a while, but the gooey mess isn't worth it, especially for a roadside repair. (And there will be a roadside repair, even with tubeless.) Butyl tubes are inexpensive, the racy ones are light, if that's what you need, they're durable, they're easy to repair, and they stay inflated. For anyone riding on roads or easy gravel and not racing, they're probably the best choice.
I agree, my fat ass is always going up be the thing slowing me down, my 245lb 100 kilo ass is always going up be the issue, not some 50 gram weight savings... But I did go with carbon water bottles because I like how they look more than my cheap ass ones from Dick's sporting goods that I got with my cheap ass hybrid bike like 12 years ago 😂
Latex tubes are great for rolling resistance. 50g of weight is utterly negligible (that's like 0.3W on a climb, or 0.02W on the flats). On the other hand they cut 5W of rolling resistance. 5W for £20! Yes they're consumable items but I've never ever punctured one outside, only when failing at installing them. Carbon bottle cages on the other hand, might as well go to the toilet more.
Yes but your average recreational rider might be getting a used bike that needs tubes anyway. Same with the bottle rack I suppose, and also the saddle. You could say the same about everything else in the video and it applies more so than the bottle cage or tubes since one could reasonably expect a used bike to already have wheels
I DID get rid of my old cages, and bought cheap carbon ones, and they are, as you state, about half the weight. As the new cages were only $10/each (they are cheap, um, overseas made) they were a good value, as the cage is not a critical component, which, if it breaks, is going to kill you.
Unless they break, and the bottle falls and hits your spokes / wheels and you crash. I am such a pessimist hahaha. Supacaz flycage ano are very light alloy vages
Although bottle cage weight savings aren't significant, one way that's more cost effective would be to change/use a plastic one instead of carbon. They are generally quite light and cost a lot less than carbon. Durability is decent and gets the job done of keeping the bottle in place.
@@baddan314 I was stupid enough to buy carbon cages a while back. All broke where a right angel bend holding the bottle in place. I now use elite plastic cages on all my bikes and have had no problems whatsoever….
What about looking at all the other stuff that you carry in your pockets / in a seat pack when you ride a “normal” ride? E.g. multi-tool, tyre levers, chain tool, cape, gels / bars / rice cakes, inner tube patches vs spare inner tube, co2 vs regular pump, cash vs card, whole wallet vs 1 card, phone + or - case, etc.
just leave everything at home, ollie also advises to take off your bottle cages all together. You surely have a supply car following you around everywhere, no?
If you like the way your bike rides and your saddle doesn't bust your bum then just go on a diet. I have a sub 20lb bike but then I add all the stuff I feel I need for training and the "what if" and it becomes a 23 lb bike. Lost 20 lbs on my diet. Guess I just upgraded!
You forgot that when calculating weight on pedals, it's important to consider TOTAL system weight of the pedals AND cleats. Wahoo/Speedplay always seem super light until you add in the required cleats. For reference: Look Keo Blade Carbon Ceramic Ti are 190grams for the pedals and 42grams per cleat = 274 grams total system weight.......Wahoo Speedplay Nano are 170grams for the pedals and 82grams per cleat = 334 grams total system weight......Shimano 9100 Dura Ace are 234grams for the pedals and 32grams per cleat = 348 grams total system weight. I find it silly that people focus on the pedal weight without considering the weight of the required cleats and then considering the cost of the cleats and how frequently they require replacing and how much that costs as well.
@@feltrixx4273 Maybe, but they're also more fragile and easier to damage when installing, and they drop 15-20psi overnight, meaning that you need to inflate your tyres before every ride. That's no good to me; I struggle to get to work on time as it is!
@@ragwort3369 Definitely not the case! Yes, they do lose some pressure. A lot faster than butyle tubes, too. But certainly not 15-20psi overnight (at least when we're talking standard road tyre pressures). I do get your concerns tho, on a commuting bike, they are certainly not essential. On the bike I use for other rides, I wouldn't wanna miss them! Haven't damaged any of them yet, and got roughly 3k km done on the ones I'm currently using.
Quick release skewers, the standard ones weigh about 100g, you can buy titanium ones that weigh ~42g for around $20. Also stripping the reflectors saves 125g or so, if you haven’t.
It's a significant spend but I think, it is a new set of wheels, at least on cheaper bikes. I had an entry-level carbon model which indeed had cheap and heavy alloy wheels on it and then spend about 50% of the bike's price on a nice set of alloy Fulcrum RZs. Together with some nice tan sidewall tires I actually managed to grab a 50+ percent result in the bike vault (😁) and it looks so much better which was worth the investment, already. On the first few rides I had the odd feeling that the bike was "pushing forward" on decents because I was calibrated to my old wheels, but the ceramic bearing just respond better. Anyway, what I'm probably trying to say is that upgrades usually don't make you significantly faster, so better spend money on parts that make your rides (feel) more enjoyable rather than going for marginal gains. My 8,5 kilogram bikes was about 200 grams lighter and maybe it takes up momentum when going out of the saddle better but that's not what it was about.
Entry level carbon wheels can perform almost or equivalent to expensive wheels. Just change the bearings to low friction bearings (ntn llb, nsk vv, etc) and wrap it with hi-performance tyres.
for people watching in the future, all of the parts listed in this video can be bought on aliexpress for an 80% discount and be higher quality than the original's manufactured in the west
It might be good to look at drive train replacement parts and bang for your buck. Since you'll eventually have to replace those parts it would be nice to understand where to spend and save. I generally know that you can save the most weight in the cassette typically for instance.
Hunts or Yeoleo or Winspace wheels are around 900$ and can get you solid weight savings for half the cost you said. Think you should do more with smaller brand budget carbon wheels. Your viewers would gain a lot from that info. I always thought fancy carbon wheels were the only option.
Rolling resistance, fair enough. Weight however is only relevant in acceleration (Newtonian theory) or if you are unfortunate enough to hit something where you will go from a certain speed down to zero in a seriously short space of time. In other words, you will become intimately experienced and have first-hand knowledge of Einstein’s E=MC(squared). As far as wheels …. I’m on a budget, so I went for those flat spokes. They do make a difference. But for us mere mortals, I think we are better off buying a body composition bathroom scale and get down to 10% body fat. Also prepare yourself to have a girl’s upper body shape (without the boobs), small shoulders and arms as for cycling you don’t need muscles up top. So keep those small. My wife would prefer me to rather not. So hey, I have to keep my management and higher authority happy :-)
I don't know where they were getting their prices here. A 25g carbon bottle cage on amazon is $13 . That's 2.77 g per dollar of savings, compared to a 61g alloy cage
Best choice would be light weighted bottle/bidons. I had standard ones, close to 100 grams for the bigger 750ml ones. A lightweight one can save you over 40 grams each, so over 80 grams total. The light ones costed me about 7 euro/6pounds each. Think they were even cheaper than the heavy ones.
Those butyl tubes at 120 grams must be heavy duty ones. Thin tubes only weight 90 grams. It's not really worth 3 times the cost for 5 grams. Save 25 grams on Water bottle cage only to put a full bottle of water into it that weights 650 grams. It doesn't make sense!
Get rid of your water bottles and cages. Switch to a Camelback. Water sits on your back which adds to your weight, not the bikes. No reaching down for water, just put the tube sitting over your shoulder in your mouth and suck. Spit out tube when you get enough water. Camelback also offers places to store your house keys, cell phone, spare tube and tools etc. Room for snacks as well. Like wearing a thin backpack. Originated in mountain biking, which I used to do. Camelback sure works well with my road riding. Cheers!
Gcn keeps remaking the same videos. As an avid cyclist. The upgrades should go in this order assuming your bike is decent already: tires, saddle, bar tape, wheels, group set… but if you’re at the point to upgrade the group set it’s time to buy a new bike (3-5 years). If you have to upgrade things like your handle bars then you bought the wrong bike from the start
I refuse to believe that rotating weight ' isnt't a thing '. IT IS. Everytime you accelerate it matters, everytime your brake it matters (flywheel effect). When changing direction it matters (because of gyroscope effect). Come on ollie, I thought you were smart
The list of upgrades is countless; however, for the average rider some upgrades are financially prohibited. The best upgrade is/are the one(s) you can afford. Cheers mates.
The carbon cages don’t fatigue like metal cages and will last the lifetime of the bike which helps to offset the cost. I think wheels and tires are the biggest performance gain overall, regardless of cost. I wonder if it would be more cost effective to build the bike from scratch as opposed to buying a bike and replacing stuff you already paid for. Okay! Video content idea! You can have it for free!😂
A. Your price for carbon bottle cage is full on carzy biz, at least in 2023. B. The man saying not to buy carbon bottle cages, has 2 attached to his frame. 🤔
Plot twist- aero matters more than weight for most riders, and the rider is the biggest aero load, so dropping some lbs and getting a skin suit is the best place to start. I say this as a recovering weight weenie currently in Z2 on my cheap 5.99999....kg build
Speedplay pedals may be lighter but the cleats are heavier. Should do a combined weight comparison as the SPD-SL pedals may be heavier but the cleats are lighter than the Speedplay.
so ollie resist to savings in rolling resistance and rotating mass, aero advantage, all that in climbs. I would like to see a vs match up, Weight vs The Rest, put up a max budget, do each bike upgrades and climb on both upgraded bikes, lets see ollie suffer again.
Or you could keep your heavy petals and skip that cake and coffee break wala you've saved the same weight as those fancy pants pedals pluss a little time. Well of course keepemcoming.
Before spending money to save a few grams or more, might be best to try and lose some weight. Not necessarily easy but it's free and better for your health and overall performance although not as easy a opening your wallet if you can afford it!
sometime for the amount of money i have to spend to save a bit of weight, i am better of just losing a Kilo body weight, saves money and i and a bit lighter and a slight improvement on watts per kilo
#AskGCNTech Should I buy a new bike with lower cost carbon frame from nice brand or upgrade to carbon wheels to my high end aluminum bike. My current bike has sora and weights 10.8 kg
Just get entry level carbon wheels and change the bearing with high performance bearing like ntn llb, nsk vv, skf or equivalent. Hi-perf bearing just cost u only 20usd/pc. Carbon wheels for weight reduction/aero. Hi-perf bearing reduce friction. Hi-perf tyres for less rolling resistance. Change everything that involves in rolling such as wheels, bearings, tyres.
Thats a heavy bike. I think you would notice a significant difference if you get a bike that is sub 9kg with an groupset that is 11 speed. I doubt you could even find a decent new set of wheels that are 8 speed.
