Upgrades on my Mind

[Jay]

I've had my Roadini for a little over 18 months.  Other than the stem, it's got the original parts I had 'initially' planned for the build.  I have some upgrades (many, aesthetic) planned and I'm going to slowly be adding these.

Any upgrades on your mind?

When I bought this bike it was to be my 'fast' road bike, plus my all-road bike; with separate wheels.  I wasn't sure if I would be a lot slower than my previous road bike, so I didn't splurge on new parts or investigate that too much, instead, I took a whole bunch of things I had and brought them to C&L Cycle with me for the build.  It instantly replaced my light, skinny-tire road bike (it's home is now the indoor trainer).  It is a bit slower uphill and on the flats, faster down, and I can keep up with my faster friend on weekly road rides.

I'm now thinking of what I eventually want to replace, and when.  I don't want to simply replace something that is working perfectly purely for aesthetic reasons, but some of these parts would be on there for a really long time if I didn't upgrade them.  I can keep/sell anything that is in good shape though, so not all bad.

Here are the upgrades on my mind (no particular order):

-  Saddle bag: would like one in olive green, though I have a Garmin Varia light and it needs a home on the bag so it would have to have the right size loop to attach this light (I've tried a custom bag builder close to home, they don't make them)

- Crankset: silver in colour, 165mm from 172.5mm for some functional issues I have with my body, but not sure this would improve things; either way, silver would look nice)

- Bottom bracket (taking this together with the crankset, I can go to square taper and use the BB that came with the bike, then get a Riv Silver crankset or something else; or keep my Ultegra one I have on there, and get a crank that fits, like a Sugino one in 46/30 that I found from their site and Alex cycles).  This is the expensive upgrade so I continue to sit on this decision

- Brake pads: I have a lot of good recs from another post on here (something with a bit more stopping power in wet/cold)

- Housing: I want some coloured ones, maybe clear/silver, maybe green or red, perhaps gold?  Just for the brakes though as there isn't a lot of housing with DT shifters 

- Bar tape: might try merlot red or something that looks nice and doesn't blend in to much with the brake levers

[Ben Miller]

• Housing: I think housing is so under-rated! It's probably the least expensive way to upgrade your bike whilst making a dramatic aesthetic improvement. I'm a big fan of the Nissen SS housing, it comes in so many colors and Blue Lug sells it by the meter, so you can justify even those short shifter runs from the chainstay to the derailleur :) I yesterday I met a guy with a Pelican that he'd clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the build. One of the highlights too me was the use of Nissen clear brown SS housing that he used on it. The color is more of a deep reddish-orange in actuality, and it contrasted perfectly with the standard blue paint of the Pelican... Man, I wish I'd taken a photo of that bike now!
• Crankset: I think most of use bike nerds would agree that the after the frame, the crankset is soul of a build. And to me, usually a silver crankset is an upgrade (though not always!) Personally, I love vintage triples in silver and they are a great way to keep costs down (most of the time, as long as you aren't looking for TA Vis 5's....) Either leaving it as a triple or converting it to a wide-low double depending on your needs/aesthetics. 

Regarding "Any upgrades on your mind?" My issue is I already have too many bikes and they're almost all dialed into exactly what I want. I know, terrible spot to be in! But they're a few ideas tumbling around:

1. I really want a wheelset based around Simsworks Standalone rims and Peregrine Spokes butted spokes. Especially now that they have the Standalones in Bronze! But the Olive and Grey rims look real nice too... Anyways, I have zero need for a new wheelset at the moment and it'd be a luxury wheel build for sure, but I've been thinking about it for years at this point.
2. I recently saw a photo of the Blue Lug Losco bars, and oh man, they so look so good! I'm normally a dropbar fanatic, but something about the Losco look so perfect to me. And they come in a nice wide 610 mm size. But... like I said I have too many bikes and they're all currently dialed to perfection in terms of cockpit. My only currently alt-bar bikes have Nitto fillet-brazed Bullmoose and Oddmone riser bars, both absolutely perfect to the build's they are on. So to make a Losco build work would involve some big changes somewhere. Very unlikely gonna happen any time soon.

Thankfully, to mitigate all my upgrade ideas, I have my wive's new Platypus build to distract me :) Nothing like living vicariously through others!