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Upgrading my bike

Bicycles Asked on October 30, 2021

I’m very new to the world of bicycles, so apologies in advance. I have a second hand road bike built (by a professional) with spare parts of different components. The rear derailleur is Shimano Acera, the front derailleur is Shimano Tiagra. I have Shimano Tourney/TY SL-TX50 Thumb Shifter Plus – Silver, 7 Speed (or something like that). It also has caliper brakes of unknown brand/model. I am looking into slowly upgrading the components and was looking into upgrading the brakes and I am keen into changing the shifter and brakes for brake lever/shifters where it is all together. However, I am not sure which brakes or which brake lever/shifter I should choose to work on my bike. Should I change either the back derailleur (or front one) first or can I first change the caliper brakes for better ones as well as changing the brake level/shifters and at a later point change either the front or back derailleur?
Could anyone suggest anything?

Thank you!

One Answer

Shimano Tourney TY SL-TX50 shifters are 7 speed, so you must have a 7 speed cassette (or more likely freewheel) on the rear wheel. An Acera derailleur is from a 9 speed groupset (or possibly its an older 89 speed one.) The Tiagra front derailleur is from a road groupset and depending on age could be 3x10, 3x9 or 3x8.

You really cannot make any effective upgrades to a 7 speed drivetrain. You could replace either derailleur with better ones but it would make no difference. The 7 rear speeds and the Tourney shifters are the weak links.

You could consider upgrading to a 3x8 drivetrain, but you start to run into issues. If your rear wheel hub is a freewheel type you can't realistically upgrade to 8 speeds. If you have a freehub type hub with a cassette chances are it's a 7 speed cassette compatible that will not take an 8 speed cassette. In both cases you need a new rear wheel to accomodate a larger cassette. Additionally, to go to a 3x8 drivetrain you quite possibly need a new crank.

So you are looking at replacing about half entire the bike. At this point it's almost always better to look at buying a better bike with the upgrades you want.

Answered by Argenti Apparatus on October 30, 2021

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