I know there are a lot of non-motorized 2 wheel personal transport users on here and as I have not that long started riding again after nearly 25yrs due to a fcuked hip and associated back problems I am happy and quite proud of myself that I have achieved so far.
Anyways
Started off with a comparatively cheap Trek Marlin 5
Which I bought new last summer.
For the first few months it was literally just riding round the local carparks to get my crappy body to work in some way that meant i was actually going forwards when i pedaled.
Upgraded to the local woods earlier this year and have been slowly building confidence, stamina and improving my ability to fall off!
Had a few rides out with Pablo then rode his bike and the difference between a cheap off the shelf and Pablos which is fairly highly customized was obviously night and day. It was sooooo easy to ride making the inclines seem so smooth and easy. We discussed and plotted and I decided to make some fairly easy and cost effective changes to my Trek and see how it would turn out.
First change and what made Pabs bike so easy to use was the gearset. The Trek cam with a 3x7 gearset and Pabs was 1x11. Decided go the 1x direction and ended up the a fairly new to the market mid level 1x12 gearset in the shape of the Shimano SLX M7100-1 kit which included the shifter, new front gear, new rear cassette and new shifter. This allows for a greater gear range, a little weight loss and a fair bit of de-cluttering of stuff.
20200807_173024 by M3l 2o0sX, on Flickr
I them goy some new grips, much comfier in the hand, definitely improver holding feel (wrist geometry) as they are a nice rounded grip instead of the hard molded rubber with a weird kinda palm rest built in.
20200802_161725 by M3l 2o0sX, on Flickr
Also got me some grippier pedals - https://burgtec.co.uk/product/mk4-composite-pedals/
Bike is currently in the shop as I didnt have the correct tool to change out the bottom bracket for the right 1 so when I collect I will get some pics up and a post ride assessment of the new parts fitted.
Pabs also donated a new stem which moves the bars back a bit so you can be a bit more upright instead of wieght forwards.