Just about to put together my new set of wheels to replace my existing bike.
This was gonna be my first on-line purchase so wasn’t sure what was going to be in the box or if I’d end up going to my local bike shop.
I’ve tinkered with my previous bikes and with Shimano, I find there is good support in terms of documentation and manuals.
So my previous bike was a 2011 Merida Ride Lite 94. Hard to fault this bike. It had the full Shimano 105 (5700) groupset. Trusty ol’ steed, but will serve me as a backup now.
The new bike is a full carbon and almost full 105 groupset. Ridley Fenix C30 road bike. Had a good sale at Torpedo7 for $1300. Seemed cheap to me. Best I was seeing from local bike stores was about $1750.
Most of the build was pretty straight forward for your average backyard mechanic, just make sure you got a torque wrench. Peace of mind if nothing else.
On this bike, all the torque values were visible on the components I needed to tighten accurately. I like to set my torque a bit less then recommended and in an orderly manner nip up handlebars, headsets etc. Better safe than sorry.
I had some serious issues getting the front derailleur shifting. Turns out there is a converter option. Do not expect that any of these settings are set on the bike out of the box. I am assuming they just attach it and ship it rather than adjust. I guess this is where a good local bike store earns its keep.
Check out my 2 minute video clip of my build. https://www.youtube.com/embed/kBW7Cqib238
I will hopefully update this post with more details once i ride the bike more to compare. I’m hoping to feel the carbon frame vs the alloy frame.
So far, definitely feeling the precision of the new Shimano 105 (5800) shifters. Wow. So smooth.
Few new pieces of technology on this bike I am sure I will need to become acquainted with