What is the focus on components all about?

[midnight armadillo]

Hi all. I have been reading up on bicycling since I am considering biking to work. I spent my entire childhood and teen years (well, until I got a license) on a bike but haven't ridden one in about 15 years.

I have noticed many, many websites and forums statements like "that bike has a nice frame but crap components" and many other near-obsessive details about the particular brand and model of various bits bolted to a frame.

When I was a kid my Schwinn 10-speed had a deraileur and brakes. It shifted and stopped without drama. Am I missing something here?

[DS1]

1. I think it's mostly about 'digital' shifters and derailleurs (sp?)

15 years ago you had a level and you could control precisely which gear you were in, or more accurately exactly where the chain was on the rear sprockets. Now they have newer systems where you have to click through each gear, and you can't fine tune the tension much. If you have crappy components, this will start to get sloppy after a while, and need tuning up.

Personally, I prefer the old system where I could drop from 1st to 6th gear in a single throw.


That's my take on it, anyway. There's also the issue of weight, but it's not important here.

[Kolesar]

3. Ah, old school!

That's cool. Anyway, the feature is called "indexing". It works great on bicycles with simple cable routing like downtube shifters. Add some cable routing up the handlebars and you get friction and lose your response.

There are modern "trigger" shifters where you can shift by four or five gears with a single push of a button. The Campagnolo Ergopower shifters on my road bike are a dream.

[Kolesar]

2. The cheapest components have stamped parts & poor tolerances. They get out of tune quickly

Those are found on the ~$200 bicycles that are referred to as "department store bicycles". The noted components-makers have "group levels". Please refer to "Groups" on this page: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/shimano.html

I don't know if I can tell you how much you have to spend to get a decent component group. Note that mountain bikes come cheaper than road bikes and that is a function of the components. If you are cycling to work, the low gears of a mountain bike would be good if there are any hills, since you probably have some books and a raincoat with you.

You could probably put a rack and panniers on "any" decent road bike and be ok. If your trip is long, you might want a lighter bicycle so it is not as much work.

[DS1]

4. I bought a mtn bike last week to fart around town on, work and back

I love the lower gearing than my cannondale c2, it gets me over the big hill between home and work with hardly any effort. Nice not showing up all sweaty. Plus, it doesn't beg me to go faster and faster like my road bike does.

I have 105 shifters, ultrega "gear changers", and dura ace pedals on the road machine. They're adequate. I wish I'd know about the kit you mentioned up thread about shifting more than one gear at once. That's the only thing I miss about my last bike.

[Clovis Sangrail]

10. you definitely get what you pay for

with good indexed components you can shift multiple gears pretty fast, and repeatedly hammer the shifters back and forth.

[happyslug]

5. The difference is how well do the components do their job.

In my teens I had a bike with "crap" components. The best way to use the 10 speed feature was to find the best gear to peddle in, and just stay in that gear. When I upgraded to Shimano XT and XTR components, I finally found out why people like the better components, they actually shifted gears when needed, not a few minutes later when the need is long gone (With Crap components I ended up walking my bicycle up any long hill for the bike would NOT shift down fast enough so that I could keep on peddling). With my XT and XTR components I can shift as needed and the shifting occurs as I shift NOT a minute of so later.

Thus the key to components is how fast they do what they are suppose to do. The higher end, the faster the components work (And smoother). I live in the Mountains of Pennsylvania and go up hillside on a constant basis. The better components just do a quicker and nicer job of shifting when it is needed. On one hill I go up I go through the entire range of my gears as the slope steepness increases. When it hits about 12% I end up walking the bike, but up till then I can peddle. When I had junk components I had to quit peddling up the hill a lot sooner as the bike gears became to hard to peddle do to the slowness of the gears to downshift.

Now on the flats the advantage is NOT as important. The frame itself saves a good bit of peddling power (Up to 40 % of your peddling power is lost when peddling a "High Tension" steel bike of your youth compared to a modern Aluminum frame).

Better components makes the bike work better, more important for someone who is going up and down grades then on a flat highway.

As to brakes, Modern Disc brakes, brake a bike quicker and with more power then old fashioned brake pads, but unless you are going down a long steep grade NOT a significant difference. I use old Fashioned Brake Pads and I have see where I need something stronger like the new Disc Brakes, but unless you are going down such hillsides, the extra weight of such brakes are NOT worth the greater stopping power (Again I point out I use Brake pads, and they have stopped my bikes even going down 4-5 mile long mountain sides).

The best recommendation I have heard on this subject is get the best Frame you can afford, and then upgrade the components as you see fit over the next few years. Shimano XTR is considered the best, but it is twice the price of Shimano XT components but is NOT twice as good. The big difference is if you are racing or not, if you are racing the slight advantage of the XTR components is important for it gives you a edge, but for most people XT components are good enough (and much better then the components on your old Schwinn 10 speed). Scam out of California 9.0 series is as good as XT (And some say XTR). Scam is a relatively new company (i.e. started to make components much later then Shimano which has dominate Components sine the 1970s).

[DS1]

6. I think you mean Sram

:)

[happyslug]

7. I did , but Sram took over Sachs, a German Component maker in 1997

Sram:
http://www.sram.com/en/

Shimano:
http://bike.shimano.com/

[DS1]

8. I posted because I had to look up 'scam' like you wrote in your reply

and found sram. Couldn't believe someone would name their company scam :)

[wtmusic]

9. The more you ride, the more it becomes an issue.

As others have already stated, cheap components just don't work as well or last as long.

And they make noise, which can drive you crazy if you ride a lot.