We Put £10,000 Of Upgrades Into A Triban

triban + £10000 of parts = ???

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[heksogen]

Now do pinarello dogma f frame with triban parts and compare ride feel.

[kellypaws]

I just want to say, I think Cade is the most honest and transparent bike channel there is. The original piece on the Triban was perfect and reflects my own view of (quality) entry bikes. They're brilliant, but of course they could be better. *Anything* could be better, but they're good.

Elsewhere on YT it feels like if it isn't a Pinarello, Specialized or an Orbea, you're some kind of second rate pauper that needs to re-assess your life choices.

This channel is a gem and I hope, that side from having more of Ben in every 'adventure' - because he's a legend, that it doesn't change.

[elmodiddly]

The thing that really strikes me is the absurd prices that companies charge for those with an endless pot of money. £100 for one single bearing is an absolute joke, it doesn't cost that, no matter how much you want to try to argue the case. To highlight, I bought a set of bearings for my ZZR1400 at the start of the year and that only cost £43 for 3 bearings in the set, including stainless steel gaiters, per wheel! That's a total of 6 bearings, built to support 260kg of bike alone, engineered to be able to let the bike do 0-100mph in 5 seconds, all for the price of one XD15 bicycle bearing!! Considering that my new bearings are also about 4 times the size and weight, each, you can see the disgustingly outrageous prices that cyclists are charged.

[MrMitzu]

My 520 is 8.7kg! Lots of Ali and cheap Prime wheels. Happy to show ya lol

[patrickgallagher]

After years of touring on a hybrid with 4 full panniers, I’d been looking for my first, budget road bike for commuting when I saw your glowing review of the Triban RC120. Got it on sale here in Sweden before Decathlon left the country and, having been made aware of its potential for gravel, I went all out on upgrades. In august I did week-long ride on rural gravel, double and occaisionally even single track. Never had so much fun on a bike!
Upgrades:
- 165mm cranks
- 48-32 chainrings + Microshift Acolyte 11/38 cassette + Microshift Marvo RD (gaining one lower granny gear at 7.5 gear inches - without even using a Wolftooth!)
- 650B MTB wheels with 40mm gravel tires (I swap them out for the stock 700C road wheels when commuting)
- TRP Hy/Rd hydraulic brake calipers
- Aluminum mud guards
- Rear rack
- Suspension seat post + Redshift suspension stem

Even with all the upgrades the total cost of this gravel monster was less than 1000 GBP. Thanks for the inspiration!
/Patrick
PS: There's been a photo in your RateMyRide-inbox for about a month

[felipealcabri]

11:50 Now you need to make a video of a Pinarello Dogma F with Shimano Claris 2x8. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[menyus]

I got a used RC520 about 4 months ago for the steal of ~350 gbp (including Conti GP 4season tyres in 32mm size and shimano spd pedals with flat pedal inserts). I did over 700 km since and the Shimano 105 set has been amazing, the TRP HY/RD brakes do the job well, it's been a great experience so far.

[alberon]

My RC500 has been given the full Ali Express treatment with Elite Ent carbon wheels, Continental tyres with TPU tubes, lightweight Ali crankset, carbon bars, stem, seat post and seat, plus Ti skewers. It has gone from 10.7kg to 8.6kg. All this has cost around about £470 so considering I bought the bike for £599 I have now got a fantastic bike for just over a grand.

[lobodk]

In the middle of pricing out upgrades for my Neo Modern Fusion Chambéry D’Huez(200$ Carbon OCLV Greg LeMond 55 frame 08’ LeMond/Bontrager Carbon Alpe D’Huez fork.) comes out to around $3, 790.76 so about 4 Grand of upgrades. Redshift Stem & dual seatpost compliments of Cade media lol, Hunt sprint aero alloy wheels, onyx vesper hubs, wolf tooth headset, new old stock Bontrager 52/42/30 & gonna fiddle with seeing if I can make a 11speed work on a triple crank. Coefficient AR 36mm dropbars & finally Gravel King SSR 28mm tires for stability & grip.

[marks]

The bike the got me back into road cycling 10 years ago was the Btwin Triban 3a. I upgraded the forks to carbon, upgraded the gears, wheels, tyres, saddle, seatpost. It still has the best geometry of any frame have had and is still in use today after 1000’s miles.

[paulwatson-work]

I've been riding my RC500 for about 3 years now, mostly for commuting. Thanks to some savvy second-hand shopping, it’s now sporting Whyte wheels with 38mm gravel tires, Giant Contact flared bars, and a full Shimano 105 groupset. It rides like a dream especially long distance and touring—though, it’s not a featherweight (but hey, it's far from the worst climber!). I like to think of it as a modern classic

[bendardania]

Roval Rapid and Enve 3.4 or 4.5 will transform any bike to a super bike.

[Czechbound]

There's an interview with Decathlon where they say that the gravel frame is different to the road frame. The welds are stronger for one thing for the bottle carriers. You can find it online.

[natsumi]

Love this. Looking at my Triban RC500 differently now.

[jalakere]

I’m riding a steel frame all-city that came with straight bars, apex 1 and a brutaly uncomfortable saddle. It now has mechanical GRX 820, an SLR boost and zipp 303s and I’m loving life with it!

[TypeVertigo]

Great point brought up at the end. My 2014 Giant TCX has Post Mount brakes and QR open dropouts, and upgrade options for those are getting limited if you restrict yourself to Shimano and SRAM. For wheels, the best option would be to have them built up for you custom. Novatech and Bitex still make hubs that can convert between QR and through-axle fitments. For brakes, you could bodge Shimano Post Mount MTB calipers and hook them up to your hydraulic-brake STI levers; indeed, the old R785 and RS785 Post Mount brake calipers for road bikes were just rebadged Deore XT M785 units with the banjo bolt swapped out for an inline hose connection.

[davidcharnes]

Ah yes, the weather where you work never disappoints. It is always bad. I always enjoy the road tests in the bad weather.

[seancerezo]

I just upgraded the wheels on that bike to DtSwiss G1800 and the difference was massive, my Triban came with Shimano 105 11s 11-34 and two praxis sworks chainrings and I'm quite happy. I mounted Pirelli cinturato H and I fly on this bike

[romanluu]

I have the RC 520 Microshift road bike and I have upgraded the saddle, chain (with hot melt wax treatment), handlebars (to 38 cm alloy ones) and tape, the tires and tubes (to Tubolito S-roads), and finally the wheels (alloy from Scribe). And though I have never ridden a super bike, I think for a beginner-level rider it is a fantastic bike for not that much money.

[walkerways]

This past Spring 2024, I bought an RC520 road bike. This channel made me aware of the decent, inexpensive bike with Shimano 105 components and I just couldn't resist. The stock bike needed a few changes before I fell in love with it, but after I changed the long nose narrow saddle out for the one I'm used to and the stock drop handlebars out for a Redshift clone kitchen sink/top shelf style handlebars (WEERAS drop handlebars) the bike rode great. I also got a stronger 32 hole rear wheel and 11-34 cassette to get a 1-1 granny gear (I'm 100+ kilos and felt I might be breaking spokes on the stock 28 hole wheel) other additions were Redshift Cruise Control Drop Bar grips and after trying the 28 mm tires, I decided to go with Bontrager AW3 32 mm instead. The rear AW3 only lasted about 1, 500 miles before I kept getting flats so I just replaced it with a 32 mm Bontrager H2 Hard Case Ultimate. Oh and of course I replaced the pedals with Crank Brothers Candy pedals. I just completed a 160 mile (258 k) ride this past week on the Triban and it's working out really well. Thanks for featuring the RC520 on your channel. At half the cost of a Trek AL5 Domane I am very pleased with it.