Hi all -- how time flies. Nearly 18 years ago, I was here on this forum asking advice about road bikes, and I bought my first nice Trek carbon model (used 1997? Trek 5500). Btw, it was a hoot to come back here and find that my old login still works after all these years.
Well, after riding spottily (once every few weeks/monthly) since then, now with lockdown I've been riding almost every other day on the nice roads here in northern CA. Maybe 17-20 miles each time, casual. I realized that my butt was killing me during the rides, so I got a new seat. And time for new tires.
But I found myself lingering in the store and drooling over those new carbon models, with their incredible light weight and slick finishes. Then I stopped myself (and so did the >$2500 price tags, how expensive things have gotten since I last looked!) and said, "wait, objectively my bike is not that bad. And it's not a few pounds that'll make the difference, to be honest, for my level of fitness". But still I lust for
something new.
I weighed my bike -- it's only 19.5 pounds actually. What could I do to spruce it up? New lighter wheels? Fork? I'm not actually unhappy with the gearing -- I'm not huffing and puffing and desiring a 2x11 speed in the back. It's working fine.
What do you all think? Thanks for any suggestions!
Here's some photos and my rough summary of what I've got:
1997 Trek OCLV 5500 carbon
Ultegra components
2x9 gearing
Mavic Open Pro (?) aluminum wheels
