How would you upgrade this tired road bike?

[blueovercream]

I’ve offered to fix up my brother’s old road bike as a bit of a fun project:

- Giant OCR 4, base spec model from 2004-ish
- Mixture of Sora and Tiagra 7 speed stuff
- All components working though look a bit scabby with surface corrosion etc

He’s allowed me a budget of up to £500 which I know is approaching reasonable second-hand complete bike territory. But there’s no fun in that for me and with a clean, the frame will actually look quite nice. Ideally I’d spend less.

Could do anything from a comprehensive service through to upgrading the whole groupset. Or just stick some nice wheels on it. 7 speed freehub would presumably cause a problem for a groupset upgrade. Happy to source good used parts.

So what would you do? All suggestions welcome!

[Barchettaman]

Strip down and clean
Check hub and BB bearings; strip and repack if necessary, a new square taper BB will only be a tenner
Replace shift/brake cables and outers with Jagwire Road Pro
New brake pads
New rubber. Put in the widest tyres you can; 25 will almost certainly fit, try 28mm
New bar tape.

That’s what I’d do anyway. Best of luck and have fun!

[Pickled Piper]

As above. i tend to also change the inner tubes with older bikes. This may just leave you enough to get some upgraded second hand wheels.

[CheesecakeRunner]

On top of the suggestions above…

New chain and cassette.
New high quality tyres, as wide as you can fit (something like Conti GP5000) and latex inner tubes. They’ll make it feel like it’s flying.

[andyeds1234]

Don’t spend £500 on it, would be my advice.
Sell it for a couple of hundred quid, and spend £700 on another used bike.

[klootzak]

Assuming it's a project you're after rather than best value for your ~£500, I'd go for decent tyres (second the GP5000 recommendation) in the widest size you can get into the frame, then put Dura-Ace cartridge-type brake blocks/pads on, then a new chain, cassette and rings, then new shifter cables and strip the rear derailleur and clean or replace the jockey wheels.

New wheels would be good, and £150 would get a serious upgrade over the OEM wheels. However, you should check that a 8/9/10 speed freehub (which is what will be on most wheel sets at that price) is compatible with a 7-speed cassette. I have a strange feeling that 7-speed had a different freehub, but I'm not completely certain about that.

k

[anonymous-user]

Strip everything, degrease, clean, regrease, new bearings, pads and bar tape, new tyres. Don’t waste money trying to upgrade it, just make it rideable and enjoy it as it is. You don’t need 8/9/10 speed.

[blueovercream]

Thanks all.

I'm increasingly thinking that a strip down and clean up along the lines suggested is the way to go.

A new set of wheels would be great but the reading I've done suggests that a 7 speed cassette won't go on an 8/9/10 speed freehub. This then sends me down the route of a new groupset and significantly higher cost.

Nice tyres a good suggestion. I've got GP5000s on my own road wheels and I really like them.

[Waitforme]

andyeds1234 said:

Don’t spend £500 on it, would be my advice.
Sell it for a couple of hundred quid, and spend £700 on another used bike.

This ^

[ExigeNRG]

Watch out if upgrading beyond 7 speed. The rear dropout spacing increases from 126- to 130 mm for 8 to 10 speed.

[Kawasicki]

I rode an old OCR earlier this year… wow, it was really nice.