Thinking about an upgrade.....

[Radoheavy]

Hello!
New to the forum and looking forward to spending a lot of time here and increasing my knowledge base. I own a 2002 Cannondale
Adventure 400, The bike has been great to me and it still looks new. I recently put some fresh narrower tires (700 X 28) and she rolls a lot faster than before with OEM 700 X 35s. I am noticing that I'm getting a lot of clunking in the gear shifts and some chain slippage at the chain rings (triple) . Along with the rust on the chain rings and cassette, shifter slop and age (10yrs and counting) I thought it would be a good time to get a hardware upgrade.
I have been eyeballing the SRAM Red components. I have spent a lot of time looking and based on the quality, reviews & popularity of the group, think it is the way to go. I know this probably sounds like overkill for a hybrid but that where the forum comes in!
I'm riding anywhere from 15-25 miles daily and building up from there. Paved trails and the street are my terrain.
Here's a list of the components I have in mind:

1. SRAM RED BLACK Edition Crank set
2. SRAM RED BLACK OG 1090 cassette
3. SRAM RED BLACK Edition Crank set (DBL)
4. SRAM RED BLACK Edition Rear & Front Derailleurs
5. SRAM PC 1091R Power Chain
6. SRAM DoubleTap 10 Flat Bar road shifters.

SRAM BB30

I firmly believe I can source everything for under $1K.
I look forward to hearing from you all!

Thnx,
Pete

 

[vspa]

its not overkill in the sense that you can buy later on a new frameset and transfer all those nice new components to it, i would be afraid of compatibility issues though, since your bike dates from 2002 please double check before buying,

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Originally Posted by Radoheavy .... I own a 2002 Cannondale Adventure 400...

If this is the bike you're talking about: http://www.bikepedia.com/Quickbike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2002&Brand=Cannondale&Model=Adventure+400&Type=bike#.UOR-Cazg_Wk then I think you're gonna have some serious issues putting a full SRAM Red group onto that frame. For starters that's a flat bar bike, are you really talking SRAM Red or perhaps one of the SRAM MTB groups?

You could probably make it all work, especially if you're willing to change the bars but there's little to no point in putting a top end road racing group onto a bike that retailed for $700 complete. Upgrading parts might or might not make sense but if you're dead set on a SRAM road group I'd be looking at Rival not Red and even that doesn't make a ton of sense for this frame.

Personally I'd spend that thousand bucks on a complete bike either new or used. You'd get a much better return for your investment in terms of a better frame and more modern components and you'd still have your current bike for foul weather use or perhaps some off road use with cyclocross knobbies mounted in place of the road slicks.

You might improve shifting and overall mechanics of your bike with a new group, but in the end the ride quality is far more dependent on the frame and that won't change when by slapping new components on it. A lot of us have been down this path of trying to upgrade a lower end frame, it's typically an expensive way to go and in the end we're stuck with the same entry level frame and usually not happy with the results. You can buy a lot of bike new for $1000 and a heck of a lot of bike used at that price point.

-Dave

 

[danfoz]

Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming .

Personally I'd spend that thousand bucks on a complete bike either new or used.

+1. The OEM discount you'd get on components with a new bike can't be beat.