Well it’s time for a update. We have put a little over 1k miles since upgrading the CoMax’s. Must say it was one of the best decisions we have made bike wise that is. For less than half the cost of a new FastRoad we were able to replace most of the systems with better than OEM stuff. The drive train upgrade to the new Shimano Ultegra 8000 series was money well spent. But since then Shimano has introduced the new 105 7000 series that is very close with less $$. If we were doing the updating now I might go that way. Shifting is very smooth, much more so than our old 5300 105 setup. However, some of that is due to the wear and tear on the 105s. Cool factor …. a win.
We are thinking of upgrading the disc brakes and handle bars next. But, I’m not sure of the bang for my buck. Only time will tell.
Now on to the wheel set and tubeless setup. We were faced with either replacing all the spoke nibbles on the OEM wheetset or replacing the wheels anyway. The new wheel set is without a doubt the best $$ spend. The wheels that came of the bike were Giant\’s midrange set so not bad to begin with. However the replacement wheels make the bike come alive. It’s amazing the difference in acceleration and rolling even with my 69 year old tired engjne. They were true out of the box and remain so. It should be noted that I’m not a light weight at 210 lbs.
The tubeless experience has been a bumpy though;. This is the one upgrade I was looking forward to the most. You see 7 years ago I found out I have CHF (Congestive Heart Failure) and my current EF (Ejection Fraction) is only 25 -30. That coupled with being 69 means I don’t have a lot of strength available at any one time. Sure I can petal 10K miles/year. But, I really have a hard time fixing flats. Since purchasing these bikes I have found taking off tires and putting them back on is best left for my home workshop where I have the tools to help out. It’s not something I can do in field anymore. So the prospect of mot worrying about flats on ride was worth the price of admission. At about 300 miles I had my first leak. I didn’t even notice it when it happened only after I had stopped at an intersection I saw sealant on my front fork and realized what happened. Was able to ride the rest of the 25 miles back to the car without any problems. Plugged the tire and continue to use the tire. Since then I have had 3 other leaks which have only been discovered the next day before riding. Plugged them all and not had any more problems. After the first 1k Miles the tires appear to be wearing well and should be good for a couple more thousand before replacement.
About mid month someone nice citizen decide to throw a fluorescent light bulb off a bridge over the Withlacoochee trail near Inverness., FL. We were riding early in the morning and didn’t see it until after we had ridden through the broken glass. We stopped to check out the tires and couldn’t see any damage so we continued our ride. On the way back to the trailhead we rode through the glass again. This time about a mile from the bridge was a loud bang. The glass took out the side wall of my wife’s front tire. The damage was so severe that even if I had a tube it couldn’t be field repaired. It would have required a boot or a replacement tire.. So I can’t fault the tubeless tires itself.So in 2000 miles (1000 each) we have had to replace a tire and had 4 leaks requiring a plug. That’s a lot of attention to tire health IMHO. However, In 4 of the cases repair was not needed until I got the bike back to my home workshop and the repair didn’t even need to take a wheel off the bike. So I plan on keeping the tubeless setup.
I’ll update this thread as time goes on