Quote Originally Posted by withm View Post
I have to agree - the cost of the upgrade part by part will be more money than the value of the bike. Sell the bike (or keep it for a spare - a guest bike if you will), and buy the one you really want. I would suggest to anyone contemplating buying a new bike that they expect to ride more than a couple times a year to look for full 105 components at a minimum. Anything less and you'll be wanting to upgrade in a very short time.
Withm, now that I think about it, that's what I really should have done. When I bought the bike, I wasn't sure if I was going to ride a whole lot or even enjoy it, so I didn't want to buy anything too expensive (the Avail 1 was about double the cost of the 3), and the 105-equipped bikes seemed like "too much bike" at the time. Now that I want to go further and (just a bit) faster...I don't feel like the bike is holding me back, exactly. It's just not doing anything to get me to where I want to be.
I borrowed a 105-equipped OCR3 when I was visiting my boyfriend's family. And honestly, if I hadn't ridden that bike, I wouldn't even be considering it. I knew that I didn't have a gear I was comfortable in on the 8spd cassette, but I thought it was just me. Same thing with the shifters--not great, but what do I know? And then BF borrowed that bike for me. I think a certain someone owes at least the cost of a new cassette...