Best Carbon Upgrades for Your Bike 

Even if you have the modest two-wheeler in your garage, with a high model aluminum frame or entry level carbon, a responsive drivetrain, and just the right types of wheels, it comes a time when the urge to upgrade it is too strong to resist. So, the question is this: 

What carbon upgrade should you consider for your bike? 

Many cyclists will tell you that it depends on what you’d like to achieve and how much you’re willing and able to spend. 

Let’s say you want to ride and climb faster on your bike. In such a case, it makes more sense to upgrade the wheel set. And if you’re interested in becoming a stronger, experienced, and a better athlete, it makes a lot of sense to upgrade your power meter.

At the end of the day, cyclists have different reasons for upgrading their bikes. From our perspective, though, it all often comes down to enhancing performance and fun. 

So, in this piece, we’ll look at some of the most awesome carbon upgrades that can give your bike a perfect touchup for better performance. So, let’s get to it: 

Awesome Carbon Upgrades for Your Bike 

  1. Upgrade to a Carbon Frame

Your bike is nothing without a frame. But that’s already too obvious to tell you, right? Perhaps the better question is: 

Are you comfortable and impressed with your current bike’s frame? At the end of the day, you need to ensure the frame is up to the standard if you must get the most out of your cycling experience. 

There are four types of bike frames in the market: 

  • Steel
  • Titanium
  • Aluminum and 
  • Carbon 

Aluminum and carbon frames are the most popular right now. And while we know that there are differences that set every piece apart, we feel that carbon fiber makes for the perfect upgrade. 

Here’s why: 

Carbon fiber is a perfect upgrade for a steel or aluminum bike because it’s strong, comfortable, smooth, stiff, and light. Because it's flexible, manufacturers are able to engineer the material to stay stiff in a specific direction and easily compliant in another. This means a carbon bike stays smooth on bumpy and rough terrains and stiff in the most important areas for easy pedaling. 

Furthermore, carbon frames are superior to aluminum, steel, and aluminum frames in weight. 

To be clear, the lightweight nature of carbon doesn’t compromise its strength. Even in comparison with other materials, it still remains robust despite the weight. However, you do have to keep an eye on the grade of the carbon, as some tend to have more fillers that practically add irrelevant weight to the material. Here at DIY Carbon Bikes, we use the most quality Toray carbon fibers. 

Again, carbon frames are stiff yet very responsive. From a technical point of view, they’re easy to change lay up to enhance ride quality, something that isn’t possible with aluminum frames quite yet. 

Now, if you’ve decided to upgrade the frame of your bike from aluminum or steel to carbon fiber, you’ll have to ensure you choose the right model. Check out all of our frames available at DIY Carbon Bikes to see what is best for you.  

  1. Upgrade to Carbon Wheels 

Do you need more performance than your bike currently gives? Then it’s time to replace your current wheelset with carbon wheels. While there are other types of bike wheels that you can buy, you want to give carbon wheels the first priority, and for good reasons. 

Currently appraised for their deeper, aerodynamic hoops, carbon wheels on the road are overtaking alloy wheels in popularity and use. Not only are they lightweight in design, they also have an impressive weight to stiffness ratio. 

Even at a significantly lower weight, experts have been able to produce carbon in more complex shapes. For manufacturers in the cycling space, this means the ability to produce performance-optimized rims for better cycling. It’s the higher rim that easily guides the air in wheels better, leading to less drag and therefore more speed to push your bike forward. 

When in use, carbon wheels remain stiff to the feel, and this stiffness makes them better at cornering than aluminum wheels. As far as sprinting goes, carbon wheels excel at transforming every pedal stroke into speed, and it does so better than aluminum and alloy wheels. 

With the advancement of disc brakes, carbon wheels also now do not suffer from overheating or braking issues. 

On a mountain bike, carbon wheels allow for lighter weight for climbing and acceleration, stiffer cornering, more vertical compliance for comfort, and wider rims for lower pressures for grip, speed, and comfort. Carbon wheels are also lower maintenance as they stay stiff year after year without need for truing. 

  1. Get Your Bike a Carbon Fork 

If a time has come when you feel like you want to have a supplier ride regardless of the nature of the terrain, a carbon fork will make a perfect upgrade for your bike. In other words, it’s an upgrade that will smoothen out your ride on bumpy and rough roads, so less impact is transmitted to your hands and your ride ends up being worth the while. 

Again, carbon forks are just as lightweight as the frame made of the same material. So, if you replace it with your current aluminum fork, you end up shaving out more weight for better riding performance. It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in winning a race with your road bike or you want to tune up this part on your mountain bike, a carbon fork will be a great upgrade, or a good side fork for certain applications. 

Final Thoughts 

As we’ve mentioned, upgrading your bike, and how you do that, is entirely up to you. At the end of the day, the kind of upgrade you opt for comes down to two things: how much money you’re willing to spend and what you want to achieve at the end of the day.

If you have any questions about upgrading your bike, feel free to contact ty@diycarbonbikes.com

Written in collaboration with Bikeshaven.com 

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