this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
133 points (98.5% liked)
Bicycles
3103 readers
8 users here now
Welcome to [email protected]
A place to share our love of all things with two wheels and pedals. This is an inclusive, non-judgemental community. All types of cyclists are accepted here; whether you're a commuter, a roadie, a MTB enthusiast, a fixie freak, a crusty xbiking hoarder, in the middle of an epic across-the-world bicycle tour, or any other type of cyclist!
Community Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
-
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn.
-
No ads / spamming.
-
Ride bikes
Other cycling-related communities
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's funny that the high end (human powered/"analog") bikes tend to actually be pretty good at this. Want to change your $5k+ bike from 11s to 12s? Yep, should be doable
you'll need to replace group set and possibly the rear hub, but it's totally possible.
Upgrade from cable to electronic shifting? Again, totally doable.
Switch from Shimano to SRAM or Campy? Yep, should be possible.
Now, if you crack your carbon frame...well, that's another story.
When you crack your carbon frame you can move the other gear to the new frame (though it's a bit tatty and the new SRAM drivetrain is so much cooler than the old one
(I buy a frameset and whatever specialist gear from a manufacturer and have a local bike mech turn it into a bike, I reckon I'm pretty safe from the problem as long as I'm able to run human powered)
Except if they change BB or axle spacing standards, which seems to be happening every few years.
I struggled to find a half decent 135 QR 29er wheel last year for my Trek Xcaliber. A nearly $2000CDN bike from 2016 with nothing wrong except the free hub, and everywhere told me to just get a new bike.
I like my bikes, but I really hate the people running the industry.
Trek is particularly bad about this: they now sell a "platform" instead of a bike. This makes it comparably hard to get replacements for a Domane or CheckPoint because certain parts are sized for that bike and that bike only.
But a 135 QR 29er wheel isn't that special, so finding one that wasn't either a junk hub or $600 hub shouldn't have been an issue. Even finding TA non boost wheels is becoming difficult.
I ended up finding a lightly used Nukeproof wheel for around $100.
Thankfully the fork on that same bike is just using off the shelf SRAM parts.
I'm a road bike guy, so that's probably my ignorance showing. I've sat out the recent evolution in MTB stuff.