spitfire557

Hello all, long time lurker who finally registered an account here.

My question for you folks is this - I'm debating if I should spend some cash on my current bike to get the most out of it or just save my pennies and buy a new bike?

My current bike is a 2016 Trek Domane 2.0 C. In summary it is has aluminum frame/carbon forks, Tiagra components, and Bontrager TLR wheels.

I ride all road and average about 100 miles per week. I'd love to up that average and start including bigger climbs more often.

I'm not sure if it's worth spending the money on new wheels or components, or if I should just save up and buy a new bike when possible.

Appreciate any advice you offer.

trainsktg

Both? Buy a nicer bike and keep the lower spec one for the trainer, wet rides, commutes? My first road bike is still with me; it now has an upgraded group set and wheelsset.

Keith

bonsai171

What are you hoping to achieve with a new bike that you can't do with the current one? The Domane is a pretty nice bike. Of course if you have $ to burn

Looked up those wheels, and they are about 1700 g. You could go lighter, and wheels are good bang for the buck. Is your bike a 10 speed or 11 speed rear?

Dave

audiomagnate

The latest version of your bike looks a dream machine to me. https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/domane/ BTW, I went to a twenty year newer, three pound lighter bike (Cannondale 3.0 Crit > Cannondale Six 5) and didn't get any faster on hills. Like I used to tell my ex-wife all the time, it's the magician not the wand.
EDIT: Your current bike looks awesome too! https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/domane/ If it's as stiff as they say around the BB and chain stays I really don't see how a new bike could get you up a hill any faster, and you'll be giving up that killer suspension tech. Maybe lighter wheels on your current bike is the way to go.

Sy Reene

Yeah.. a new wheelset (eg. Hunt alloy) and perhaps a 105 crankset.. combined could save you about 500 grams.

topflightpro

If you want to get faster, I'd suggest spending that money to improve your training and riding comfort. If you haven't already, get a proper bike fit. Get some nicer bibs or more comfortable shoes. Add indoor training to your plan with a trainer and Zwift. Maybe take a day or weekend trip to someplace new to experience new rides.

A bike alone isn't going to make you faster.

mstateglfr 

You want in increase your avg miles/week and do bigger climbs. Cool.

A new bike wont do that for you. What you need is a map. That can be had for a few dollars from a gas station, or use google's version as I hear its pretty complete.
All seriousness- a new bike wont increase your miles or make you climb bigger hills. The only thing that will do both is you deciding to do both. Go plan some routes that are longer and include more hills.

If there is something with your current bike thats keeping you from riding more or climbing more- mention it.

HTupolev

You should upgrade your bike and buy a new bike, and then buy three additional bikes and a recumbent unicycle.

But I'm not sure what this has to do with increasing your mileage and climbing bigger climbs. If you want to increase your mileage, the best way to do it is by riding more miles. If you want to tackle a bigger hill, I'd recommend going to the bottom of a bigger hill and riding up it.

spitfire557

I suppose I worded my original post incorrectly. I'm well aware that upgrading my bike isn't going to make me a better/faster rider.

My question is as simple as this: is it worth upgrading my bike? A Tiagra group set isn't exactly top of the line. Would I see any benefit from upgrading?

For those of you who understood my original post and answered accordingly - thank you. I don't plan on doing anything with my bike anytime soon, but I'm curious if this winter I should budget for any upgrades. I currently ride on Zwift quite a bit and am content with my trainer setup.

Perhaps I will research new wheels or upgrading the group set. I'm always looking to improve, both myself and my equipment.

spitfire557

I'm not sure what changes have been made in the last 3 years, but if you Google 2016 Trek Domane 2.0, the first link will have my bike's specs. I would post a link or photo, but the forum will not let me until I reach 10 posts.

HTupolev

Depends on what your threshold for "any benefit" is.

A full groupset upgrade from Tiagra to Dura Ace will net you around 800g, which might improve your climbing speed by somewhere in the neighborhood of .5% to 1%. It'll also give you an extra cog out back, which will give you either a slightly wider rear gear range or slightly tighter rear gear steps. And the shifters will have a slightly nicer tactile feel.

JohnJ80

^this.

Not all that infrequently, something happens to my main bike and if I didn't have another bike to ride, I'd be grounded until the parts arrived and I had time to repair it or my LBS repaired it. With the short cycling season we have here (Minnesota), that's not acceptable.

I have two bikes - one a pure road bike and the other a gravel bike and I have several sets of wheels that can be used between them. That to my way of thinking is the best of all circumstances.

sfrider 

Keep two bikes. This way on your commute/errand bike you can keep things basic, while on your road bike you can throw on things like an out front GPS mount, bottle holder, saddle bag, cadence and speed sensors, maybe a power meter (handy even if all you want to do is count calories if weight loss is your thing), and all the other fancy stuff you're not going to leave out of sight. I use SPDs and normalish shoes (original Chrome Kursk Pro) for my everyday bike (old Bianchi with a mix of Ultegra 6700/Dura-Ace 7800), and Specialized road shoes with speedplay x2 pedals for my 'ride' bike. (Properly shimmed and wedged for my leg geometry. X2's chosen solely based on my need for float.) My commute takes me past a local Chrome store, so usually when I'm looking for something, like another pair of shorts or a slightly different backpack I'll stop by there - they make some incredibly durable gear. Not cheap though.

spitfire557

Thank you for the response. After reading that, it certainly doesn't seem like it'd be a worthwhile upgrade.

I understand my bike is a "entry level" road bike, so I'm just trying to make the most educated decision I can about this.

Side note: went out and got three PR's on Strava tonight. Including one on a local climb.

Weakbikr

Opinions are like noses, but my thoughts are if your happy and comfortable on the frame why not upgrade it? You'll have a nicer version of a bike you love...

bruce19

I'm with you on this. About 4 years ago, a friend sold me a Guru Sidero (Italian for "of steel.") for $1200. Came with SRAM Rival and had only been ridden a handful of times

. It just didn't fit right. For me it fit perfectly. Over the first 2 years I upgraded to SRAM Red. With Speedplay Zeros, it weighs about 17 lb 14 oz. A couple months ago I bought a new CAAD 12 w/105 for $1300. Again, fits perfectly and weighs 17 lb 14 oz. How they weigh the same I don't know. But, they do. Point is...I have 2 bikes that I love to ride and I don't worry about a bike being down and no road bike available. I should mention that I went to Mavic Ksyrium Elite USTs on both bikes. To the OP: If you can afford it, I'd definitely consider having 2 bikes.

02Giant 

Two leads to three which leads to four which...

Kimmo 

Make sure you have nice tyres first, and light tubes.

A wheelset upgrade would be noticeable, depending on how light you go. Your Tiagra groupset is actually pretty decent, except for the crank which is a boat anchor.

bonsai171

Jumping the thread here a little bit, but what do you consider nice tires?

Dave

Runinman72

I would upgrade what you have as your bike is a nice bike!

xroadcharlie

Actually you have a fine road bike now. While the wheels get poor reviews, If you aren't having problems with them, Your good to go. I don't think you'll gain much in terms of speed or hill climbing with a new one, Unless your gears don't go low enough. You can correct that by swapping out the stock 50/34 chainring with a 46/30 that will lower your low gear by 12% making it easier to climb hills. Unless you use your top gear frequently, You won't loose any top speed either.

Now for those of us with comfort bikes, There is significant room for improvement in terms of speed if we bought a decent new road bike. Those fat low pressure tires, The bolt upright seating position, and the extra 10 lbs of weight still allow for comfortable cruising at moderate speeds, And a very low gear (21 gear inches) make hill climbing easy. But if I try to go fast, I can feel the bike fighting me. Their great for exercise and pleasure, Not so good for speed.

Kimmo 

Something light and supple. Look at what's specced on bikes with Ultegra and above; Continental GP, Michelin Pro, Pirelli and so on.

Seattle Forrest

It really doesn't make sense to buy a groupset for an existing bike in most cases. Exceptions for cases like modernizing a classic frame that's dear to your heart. You're going to buy one, at full price; Trek buys millions, at a discount. Also, Tiagra is pretty good, and I'm guessing most of your stuff has a lot of life left in it.

New bikes are fun and you should buy one if that's what you want. People already broke the math down for you on that.

If you have some money to spend on cycling, it sounds like your best option might be a power meter. Or a cycling vacation. A power meter can be great for your fitness (if you use it for training), can be very helpful pacing yourself in the moment (climbing that hill) and over time (helping you manage and predict recovery needs).

Seattle Forrest

Grand Prix 5000 are currently the lowest rolling resistance tires you can get for clinchers. I haven't been on them personally, some people say they're not very durable. Same goes for Pro Ones, very low RR, but they cut easily. IRC makes a great tire called RoadLite which is also very fast, but a little tougher.

Rolling resistance is the energy it takes to flatten a round tire into a contact patch. Costs energy on the front of the patch, you get some back as the rear of the patch springs back. Tires that are supple need less energy for this. Really crappy tires will use about 25 watts more (for the pair) than really good ones. You're putting out whatever you're putting out, those watts go to making you faster on the better tires.

You probably already knew all of that, but just in case anyone didn't...

Kimmo 

Rolling resistance correlates with suppleness, which also correlates with comfort and grip.

So it's basically those three factors versus puncture resistance. I'm not worried about punctures, but YMMV.