guoze

Hi,

I have been riding my D9 for 2 yrs or so, and am thinking it's about time for an upgrade.
As I love speedy rides, what basic upgrades should I get without changing the gear set configuration?
What brand and model to get to replace my stock tyres and crankset?


Cheers,

tomtomtom123

Well that is a question that has a variety of answers and is very dependent on what kind of goals you want to achieve. You should ask yourself what it is that you want. Do you want lighter weight, more puncture protection, softer ride, etc?

Having 451 rims, the Tern D9 will be more limited in tire options. I'm not familiar with that size, but all the Schwalbe tire models that I use for 406 rims are not available for 451. There are a few lighter and narrow road models that are available for 451. But I use heavier tires that are wider and have extra puncture protection, for the softer ride and almost no punctures, like Marathon or Big Ben Plus. The inner width of your rim will also affect the range of tire widths that are optimally compatible with the rim. And the fork clearance will affect the maximum width of the tires.

If you're happy with your gear range, there isn't much to achieve with changing the crank arms, unless you're wanting to switch to integrated spindles and outboard bearings for more rigidity or lighter weight. Some people claim that square tapered BB and cranks flex more, but I don't know if it makes any difference. I use Sugino OX integrated spindle cranks because of the 74/110 BCD double chainring setup with a front derailleur to give me an extremely wider gear range (519%) than the stock setup (291%) that my Dahon bike offered. Your D9 supposedly has 11-36T cassette so you have 327% gear range.

Other things you could change is going from 9 speed to 10 speed, by switching the cassette, rear derailleur (depends whether or not the old 9 derailleur has the same pull ratio as the new 10 shifter), chain, and shifter. You might be able to use the same chainring if it is thin enough for 9 speed chains. But if you don't mind spending money, you could simply change all the drive train components to models advertised for 10 speed, since a new derailleur only costs maybe $25, and new chainring maybe $25-40 depending on the brand. If you already have an 11-36T 9 speed cassette and your happy with it though, there isn't much reason to switch to 10 speed. I use 10 speed because I was unhappy with the large jumps between the higher gears that came with my stock 8 and 9 speed cassettes, so I custom mixed and matched my own 10 speed cogs to give me 9-13% spacings at the high and wider 14-16% spacings at the low, with a big 20% jump at the lowest gear, combined with a double chainring and front derailleur.

What's more important is keeping the chain clean and lubricated to reduce chain stretch, checking whether the chain has stretched too much and then replacing it soon enough before the stretch exceeds the 0.5-0.75% limit to reduce the amount of cassette and chainring wear. Supposedly you should replace the cassette after 3 chains that were replaced before exceeding the stretch limit. Supposedly the chainring can last longer than the cassette, but it doesn't cost much to replace it at the same time as the cassette.

Also important is cleaning the brake blocks and rim brake walls frequently to reduce rim wear. I replaced my stock brake blocks with units with removable blocks, like the Kool Stop Cross Pads so that I can easily slide out the blocks to clean them and then slide them back in without affecting the alignment. There are some Tektro, SRAM, and Clarks brakes that also have compatibly shaped slots to accept the same blocks. There are lots of different advice on how to clean the brake blocks. I tried metal files, but it doesn't remove much material or goes very slowly. I found that simply taking a sharp knife and rubbing it's edge perpendicularly on the brake block surface would quickly clean it. You can use soapy rags or wet wipes to clean the rims. There are some $4 rubber cleaning pads, shaped like rectangular erasers, that some shops sell to clean the rims. I used to only clean the rim and brakes once very few months, but my stock rims quickly wore out the safety line after 2000km and 1.5 years, so I started to clean them once every 3 to 4 weeks.

Other things you can upgrade are, seatpost suspension like Thudbuster or Biologic suspension which would add maybe 300g, saddle like the Brooks Flyer Imperial which will add almost 500g but saddles are very personal (I tried 20 other plastic saddles but went back to the Brooks although I had to cut the leather off at the bridge to lower it and reduce perineum pain), Ergon GP series grips which really makes a big difference in hand comfort (I use GP5 the largest and heaviest), switching the Syntace VRO stem to the Tern Andros 2 stem if you want to get longer or shorter arm reach by around 3cm, adding a Tern Cargo Rack which is 500g heavier than other models but is very long and stable with adjustable legs and mounts panniers further to the rear to prevent heel strike against the bags, handlebar bag adapter, better bike lock like Abus Granit 540 which is 1.6kg with the convenient EaZy KF holder bracket that mounts easily to the handlepost, switching to skewer bolt instead of quick release skewer for better theft security of your wheels (I use Hexlox skewer bolt and magnets to deter thieves who aren't familiar with it, but can be defeated if you know how it works, you can also use other specialized skewer bolt locks like pitlock, pinhead, abus skewers),

https://ergonbike.com/en/article-gp1.html

1nterceptor

If you haven't already; maybe put clipless pedals:

guoze

Many thanks for your lengthy explanation Tom, real useful for me as someone who is rather new in folding bike.
Basically, I need to have a faster ride without incurring huge cost.

I was told that changing the current chainring setup to 56T and changing the tires to sleeker smoother 451 models, would result in significant impact towards a speedier ride, without sacrificing much cost. Plus, perhaps a lighter wheelset if funds suffice.
What do you think?


cheers,