Spend my money...upgrade/new bike/gizmo..new to racing

[gaz0303]

Hi all,

Finally made the leap and bought my Cycling Australia Gold licence and have done a few club races. I wish I had started earlier.

I also have a little money left to upgrade my bike - currently a 2004 Trek 2200 (alu with carbon forks/seat stays) with full ultegra 9 speed, Reynolds solitude wheelset (1540g) and eggbeaters ~ total 8.3kg for an XL. I spend most of my time mid-week on the trainer and use Trainerroad.com to provide a rough training plan based on power from my Kinetic Inride, and get outside on the weekend. What option looks best:
1. Get a real power meter of some sort - I love data but feel this would only add value to my weekend rides. I will always be the biggest limiter to the bikes performance. Powertap/power2max. ~$1000
2. Upgrade to a current groupset - Ultegra/Force. I'm not tied to any particular brand but would depend on deal. Allow $1000. Intention would then be to upgrade frame at later date.
3. Upgrade bike - I think to get an upgrade from current set up and balance budget I would need to look at stuff around $3-4000. Enough threads on what bike in this range but being in a female and child dominated household, I would like to support a company that supports female cycling and/or junior development in Aus. Suggestions welcome.
4. Upgrade frame, and change components later.

Thoughts?

 

[Cuthbert]

If you intend to keep racing a new bike would probably be the best long term investment given that your current ride seemingly has a few years on it. I was in a similar position to you not so long ago - bought an older rig to get started on before upgrading when got more into it. Apart from a weight saving, the stiffness and direct power transfer/acceleration of a modern full carbon frame is very noticeable - an important asset to have when responding to attacks etc under race conditions. You could then keep the existing ride as a dedicated trainer bike.

 

[gaz0303]

Thanks...as I expected.

Guess I'll continue looking for a bike.

 

[whitey89]

$4k will get you full advanced carbon bike, ultegra di2 and a decent wheel set aka TCR adv 0... an ultegra groupo will set you back close to $2k and then your stuck on an average frame/wheels with a nice groupo. You're going to get far beter performance out of a good carbon frame rather than a new groupo. i think its new bike time

 

[Capone]

Get fitter, i get flogged often on my Defy Advanced, fast bike slow rider

Di2 and all this marketing shit wont do squat, in fact my work mate happily smashed people on his 10 year old Giant roadie