1 year with my Carbon Fibre project bicycle: Improvements I made

I think the bike is finally complete and unless something breaks, it will probably stay like this.

BHPian amol4184 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Bike completes 1 year! Sits at 5k kms and is going stronger than ever. To mark the occasion I did some upgrades.

The semi-hydraulic cable pull brakes were first to go. That meant also replacing the shifters AND doing the whole internal cable routing again. That cable routing has me on the boil so I have been avoiding this upgrade even though I got all the necessary parts a few months ago.

Anyhoo, one fine day I decided to bite that bullet but before that I ordered a routing tool from Amazon. My hopes were to not go through hours of pain and to that effect it works. Instead of 3-4 hours it took an hour - still not optimal but manageable.

Parts swapped:

• Onirii semi-hydro calipers -> Ultegra R8020 full hydraulic calipers.
• Ultegra R6800 rim brake shifters -> Ultegra R8020 hydraulic shifters.
• Rim brake 5mm housing -> Shimano BH90 hoses.
• No name shifter cables -> Jagwire shifter cable kit
• FSA chainrings -> Pass Quest aero chainrings

After the upgrade, braking performance isn't vastly better than mechanical disc brakes as some people claim. In my opinion the biggest change is in how they feel when you brake. The slight vibration from cables is gone and initial bite is stronger.

Apart from that, there is not much benefit to going full hydraulic when you consider the cost and efforts involved. And don't forget potentially messy bleeding jobs and specific tools required to set these things up.

Other notes:

1. The Panaracer GK SS are still holding well and I am yet to have a flat. The rear is balding but front is in good shape. I am planning to switch front tire to back in about 2k kms more and entirely replace front with a new one. The 32c tires seem to do the trick for me.

2. The hydraulic shifters are humongous. They feel good in hand but not necessarily better or worse than smaller rim brake shifters.

3. The rear wheel started sounding gruff. I did some research on how to change the bearings and replaced the bearings on it. Its like new and new bearings are incredibly silent. So silent that my kittens don't mind it. I used a bearing press tool for this job.

4. The chainrings had worn out. I could sense increased noise while on the big chainring. Instead of replacing them with FSA, I got a Chinese chainset by a company called Pass Quest. These seem well made but not any cheaper than FSA. The crankarms have lost their color from shoe rub but I am holding out from changing them. I love how stiff this crankset feels.

That's it for now. I think the bike is finally complete and unless something breaks, it will probably stay like this.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.