new vs old group on a budget race bike

[pakora]

I manage to stave off this sickness many of you have so I'm posting because I feel like I'm about to cave. I already have a non-race road bike, and except in the colder fall, winter and spring days, I'll almost always take dirt over road riding. Besides bling and ooh new gear ooh am I crazy to want to a fancy (to me anyway) race bike when this year I did <10 road races?

I got a CAAD 9 frame for super cheap, and since I'm riding an old steel bike with 9sp for racing, I thought I'd retire the old Jamis and make my bike more raceworthy (in addition to being able to borrow wheels and/or avail myself of neutral support when available).

Thought 1: I'm a Cat 4 and even if I managed to get points to upgrade next year, road racing will only ever be a training/fun thing for me, so go budget as possible. I have a set of 10sp 105 shifters in the parts box, I can reuse my 9sp Ultegra ders and 1st gen Ksyriums. 10sp cass + chain is my only cost besides the frameset and a 31.6 post.

Thought 2: Go budget light, $1000 limit on the complete bike. With a coupon I came up with a Chorus/Record 11 build for $600-something. My 24mm wide 30mm deep cross wheels have an 11s freehub. Add post, 11s cass/chain, and reuse controls and Mavic brakes from my old bike. $1000 for a bike that will probably be < 18lbs with nearly all new stuff.

I got through this year using the bike I already had, and 3-5 lbs off the bike aren't going to make me something other than a 40 year old 210lb cat 4.

[carpediemracing]

A teammate of mine went from 5->3 on a CAAD something (6? 8?) with, hm, maybe it was Centaur?

Anyway, for you I'd do the 10s thing.

If you already have a 27.2 post then get a 27.2 shim. I used one in my SystemSix and it allowed me to use my favored Thomson post (vs the carbon thing that came with the bike). This way you don't have to get a 31.6 post.

Use some money to buy some (used?) race wheels. A different teammate used PlanetX carbon tubulars. He loved them and considered them a much better upgrade than his alum/105 -> carbon/Ult move that cost him a few thousand $. They're more fun than a component upgrade because you can feel it when you jump. If they're race only wheels they'll last forever.

Diet a bit if you can. I used to be 180-190 in season, 190-210 off season. 5'7" so I was fat, not "muscular". I dieted for a few months in 2009 and ended up at 155 lbs (from 183 lbs). I'm back to about 175 lbs now but that's still better than 190-210, and I hope to trim the weight back in the next month or three.

[gavingould]

re-use until it falls apart.

[Ralph]

You can build a fine race bike around a CAAD 9. With decent inexpensive parts, fast wheels, etc. And if you get caught up in a crash.....well you said it yourself....CAADS are cheap as race frames go. And I'm not convinced many race frames are any better.

[pakora]

I like this. I'm sure I really came here for enablement heh and I didn't expect sense-talking like you're doing :p Thanks!

Didn't know you could shim that much, and I already have a Thomson. Sweet!

I'm 6'5" so to me I'm actually pretty thin in the real world, but I know in the cycling world there's a, uh, different consensus (Ryan Trebon is my height and weighs more than 40 lbs less at his higher weights; a local mtb pro here is 5'11" and 125).

I never really thought about race wheels, but I'd say 1/2 of most of the fields I was in were on them. Hmm.

[beeatnik]

CAADs with Chorus/Record are the jam.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5594/14409110195_128a5506c9_h.jpg

[mhespenheide]

Having recently gone from 9-speed to 10-speed, I'd say to stick with the 9-speed. At least by my own short-lived experience, my older 9-speed Ultegra was less finicky than my current (used but new-to-me) 10-speed Dura Ace.

Either way I'd stick with 9-speed or 10-speed; you can find great deals on race wheels from the last generation.

[kramnnim]

...how do you get Chorus/Record for $600?

[R3awak3n]

...how do you get Chorus/Record for $600?

lol that is exactly what I was thinking. $600 you might be able to get Athena 11, used.

[pakora]

ah, I didn't mention I'd reuse my brakes and cranks, so that was just the levers + derailleurs plus a the cheapest campy 11 cassette and kmc chain - one of the chorus parts was out of stock and I subbed record. From one of the English discount sites.

[cmg]

get a light at the rim wheelset. 1st gen Ksyriums are not light at the rim, none of the Ksyriums are. they trimmed weight at the hubs and reduced the number of spokes. there's plenty of carbon wheels on eBay.

[BLD 25]

I have to agree that the more , the harder to adjust. 11 speed is appealing in some ways, but I bet the tolerances are even tighter. I do fine with most of my 10 speed stuff, but adjusting my wife's 9 speed tiagra is even easier. That said, I love to upgrade so do what you want!

[ultraman6970]

I see this in another way... looks like you assumed that go pro did not happen already so you are racing just for fun. I would just continue using the old faithful steel bike till its end of days in an accident. Maybe do a couple of upgrades? We used to race with 5 speeds back in the day in steel machines and reach the same speeds than we have now a days, so I dont see why 9 speeds wont work at your level.

Have fun in the races :)