Sounds wierd I’m sure but its really nice to hear someone excited about a modest ugrade. I franky find the ‘my bike’s three years old, time for a new one’ statements rather vulgar tbh.
I live in Kent so not quite as wild as for you, but UK weather is varied isn’t it, to say the least.
So. Personally I’d stick with mechanical 105. It’s what I’ve got in 10 and 11speed and it just works, year after year. (Actually 10 years so far on the 10sp)
Lighter or more aero wheels would feel great. Who cares if they’re not the ultimate, but I’d never get carbon rim braked. You’d never want to use them.
Therefore, as suggested above, new kit, fancy shoes, a modern aero road helmet, would give you a bit of speed and a nice warm glow.
Edit: thinking some more, really good quality waterproofs, tights and boots is what gets you out the door in winter. Less glamorous but staying warm and dry over long rides during the colder months will make you significantly faster.
I was in a similar situation last year where I got a small bonus from work and wanted to buy something a bit more bling. I bought some Parcours Grimpeur wheels (40mm) depth and have been very pleased with them, no problems running tubeless, they feel nice and stiff climbing and out of the saddle efforts, and obviously a slight aero advantage over the alloy wheels they replaced. Braking is fine (most of the guys in my club have disc bikes but I have not run into the back of one yet!), even with a bit of dampness. tbh if its really raining I take my other bike (with full length mudguards out) so I cant really say what fully wet braking is like. I do swap them out for alloys on occasions - e.g. alps trip last summer where I know there will be very large amounts of braking heat generated.
The Aria looks like a nice bike btw, I still prefer the look of a rim brake road bike…
I’m also in the UK and I’ve wasn’t brave enough to take the carbon step either when I replaced my summer wheels 5 years back but when I replace them eventually I think I’ll try Carbon this time, apparently the carbon rims and pads have progressed to a stage where wet isn’t really a problem.
I’d be a hypocrit to say don’t upgrade the whole bike but equally, if you like what you have now, some nice wheels is really good idea. The idea that spending ~£600 on rim wheels is lost money but £4k on a new bike is an investment is a little laughable.
Lookup LightBicycle, they offers rims with decent brake surfaces (there is a grooved graphene upgrade option that is worth the extra). I realise the UK can be 4 seasons in a day but you could always swap wheels/pads over for the winter months.
Spend all the imaginary saved disc bike money on some bike trips.
Part of the reason (excluding money) to stick with this one is it was bought with inheritance so for sentimental reasons I’d like to keep the frame going for as long as possible.
Think I might just have to try carbon, I do have a gravel if it’s grim and I could always sell the wheels if I’m too scared.
Merlin have a set of super cheap Token carbon clincher wheels on offer, with a campag hub (£400). Carbon brake track, but at that price you could just have them (and the pads) as your nice weather wheels.
I would personally look at the HED Jet 5 wheels….fast, aero, reasonably light and an alloy braking surface. I would avoid carbon braking surfaces like the plague, especially in the UK.
My Fulcrum Wind carbons brake much better than my HED Belgium+ rims did in all conditions. The newer carbon braking surfaces aren’t the old ones.
I’m sort of lost on this England topic, too. I grew up riding the moors and the proper steep random hills you encounter by simply turning left. They’re nothing compared to descending mountains in terms of building up heat.
One thing I noticed with carbon wheels is that there is a bedding in period. When I first got my Farsports wheels I had a couple pucker incidents where it seemed to take 3x longer to stop than I thought it would.
But after riding them for a while with Campagnolo red pads, the stopping improved enormously. I don’t even think about it anymore.
Honestly if you like the bike keep it and upgrade the wheels… Or if you want electronic shifting go for that. A nice pair of deep wheels feel nice at speed and light ones feel amazing when accelerating.
If you have no desire for wider tyres you can run that frame until you want to make a change…
After 8 months training and prepping I found out today that my A event (320km coast to coast and then back again) next Friday had been cancelled but I never received the email.
As you can imagine I’m gutted so after reading this thread again I hit up the classic impulse purchase site and found a couple sets of wheels to spruce up the Bianchi.
Faux zipp 454 nsw and a set of Mavic Cosmic alu rim carbon fairing wheels.
Any one have opinions on the faux zipps? Older mavics on an older bike (2018) could look retro fast?
