I forgot to update this post. Shortly after part one, I upgraded the groupset. We tried the Cobra trail at Filinvest and with my non-existent bike skills, I couldn't even make it up past the first uphill. I needed bigger gears. The stock cogs are 7-speed 14-28s. I wanted to keep costs down, so the best compromise was an 11-50 10-speed.
The downside to buying a cheap bike is that you will have to upgrade everything just to upgrade one thing. My cogs were threaded, so I needed to upgrade my hubs to be able to fit a cassette-type freewheel. I also had to upgrade my rear derailleur, of course, to match the new cassette. My shifters also had to be upgraded, but I had combo shifters (brakes are integrated with the shifters), so I had to get new brakes, too. I went with a 1x10 setup, but I did forego splurging on a bottom bracket just to keep costs down.
Here is the parts list:
Weapon 11-50 cassette
LTWOO A7 Elite RD (Make sure to get the Elite, or long cage version. The regular version will only accommodate up to 46 IIRC)
LTWOO A7 shifter
Ragusa XM-500 hubs
Ragusa crank
Deckas 34T oval chainring (oval cranks = game changer)
Shimano MT-200 hydraulic brakes
I also added a long seat post (400mm) from FMFXTR.
All in all, I've spent around 8k just for the upgrades above. Yikes. Remember that the bike cost 6.3k new, plus I already spent over 1k on the cockpit. That brings me to around 15k spent on the bike. Still waaaay cheaper than an entry level Giant, Trek, or Merida bike. Those bikes cost about 25k new. My bike may not have the prestige of those three, but I can run circles around them.
The last upgrade on my list would be the bottom bracket. My square type bracket is about to give, so I'll be upgrading to some hollowtechs soon.
But…I'm also thinking of getting either an air fork or a rigid fork. I think a butterfly bar and a rigid fork would look cool.
