The Truth About Performance Gains: How to Invest Wisely in Upgrades

How to Choose the Best Cycling Performance Upgrades Without Wasting Money

Navigating the world of performance upgrades can be overwhelming. Every brand promises to save you time or Watts, often at eye-watering prices. But how much of it is marketing fluff and how do you decide where to invest your hard-earned money? This article breaks down Watt-saving claims, the costs behind them, and how to get the best bang for your buck

Decoding Aero Claims: Are Brands Being Honest About Watt Savings?

TLDR – Brands generally aren’t overly clear about how they reach their claimed watt savings, but third-party testing does exist!

Let’s take one large bike brand’s claim, in this case Colnago, that their latest generation aero bike, the Y1RS, saves 20 watts over their last bike (V4RS) at 50kph. They provide the White Paper explaining how they tested the frame. However, in comparison testing to their V1RS frame, they don’t mention if that saving is with a rider present, handlebar widths, or what wheels and tyres are used. We also don’t know if that was an average across all wind conditions or the peak at a specific one. If we take their word that all is identical, that watt saving still comes at £5500 cost. That’s £275 per watt!

This is a similar story with a lot of kit and equipment unfortunately, there are some useful third-party experiments that have been conducted though. Tour Magazine have tested many bike frames with mannequin legs, while Cycling News recently tested wheels and bike frames with and without a rider. There is also an element of some items working with some riders better than others, which is where wind tunnel testing comes into play to really validate aero savings. At ATP Performance, we’ve been doing wind tunnel testing for Olympic athletes, professional, and recreational riders. Helmets and skinsuits can vary in performance dramatically from one rider to another and wind tunnel testing can tell you for certain what will be fastest for you. But this itself is a high cost, often costing £1000 per test and saving an average of 20-30w, so £50-33 per watt saved.

For the sake of easiness, we’ll take brand values and combine with some relevant independent testing to give an aero watts/£ savings chart. Here’s a chart we have taking some averages to show you the cost per watts.

Drivetrain Efficiency: Do Ceramic Bearings & Wax Chains Actually Save Watts?

TLDR – Save the ceramic bearings for fast moving parts with high revolutions, and embrace chain waxing

The next consideration is drivetrain losses. In recent years, oversized pulley wheels have hit the market from multiple brands, while ceramic bearings and waxed chains have become more common to see across amateur races, not just the pro ranks! There’s good reason for this, since as well as being faster than a standard lubed chain, using waxing systems can also reduce the rate of increased wear or drivetrain losses from a mucky drivetrain. Lubrication is needed for the drivetrain to work, but getting one that stays in place in multiple weather conditions is often susceptible to dirt and grime sticking to the components. This increases wear and increases drivetrain friction and watts wasted. Wax doesn’t have the same sticky properties so can help a chain last longer as well as running smoother in more conditions. This also means that in the long run wax treatments can reduce expenditure such as on replacement component parts.

When it comes to OSPW, that’s a little clearer cut. They tend to have watt saving claims in the region of 2-4 watts depending on your power output. A good rule of thumb is 1% saving of whatever power you are putting out. This still results in say 3 watts saved at 300 watts, for a cost of at least £350 from established brands. This does make them one of the worst value upgrades to enhance drivetrain function. Ceramic bearings are another slightly contentious one. Ceramic bearings are harder than steel, and this means the clearances need to be incredibly tight or you get longevity issues. This happens as the bearings can impact the steel races and cause small imperfections that over time become more of a problem. They do have the potential to save some watts, and used in higher RPM areas the savings are greater but be wary of videos of cranks spinning for ages with zero load on them. A bearing is not spinning with zero directional load, it needs to be fast and smooth with that force applied as well. Savings for bottom brackets and wheels are again in the region of 2-5 watts depending on speed of rotation, and cost around £150-300 for a full bearing set.

Below we have a chart outlining different drivetrain efficiency savings that can be made.

Rolling Resistance: Why Fast Tyres Are the Best Value Upgrade

TLDR – fast tyres are one of the best value upgrades, but look after them

Finally, rolling resistance. Tyres have come a long way over the last few years to become much faster rolling and far grippier. Given they are the main contact patch with the tarmac and remain so 100% of the time, they are an often-overlooked performance enhancer. The difference between a rugged winter tyre and a fast race day tyre can legitimately be in the region of 20-30 watts. Given the cost of two tyres, even expensive ones, is at most £200, that’s a brilliant £10/watt saved. Yes, they need replacing more often, but even 3 sets during a full race season is still far more worthwhile than an aero frame vs a round tubed frame.

Free Speed: How to Gain Watts Without Spending Money

TLDR – clean your bike, look after your kit, train your physiology, hone your skills, and train in the position you want to race in

Some free upgrades however that cover both these elements are also key to include. There is very little point in buying these upgrades if you aren’t first making sure you’ve optimised these points:

Ride in an aero position (reference: R28 testing) – the body makes up about 70-80% of all drag that is created from a bicycle and rider. You can wear the most aero equipment and ride the most aero bike, but if your position is not optimised then you will not see a big return on investment. Spend time training with your hands on the hoods and elbows as a 90-degree angle with forearms flat to the ground. You can check out our wind tunnel testing where we found the watt savings possible just by doing this!

Clean your bike and check your tyres – a fast bike is a very slow one if it has a puncture. Before any race day, go over your tyres and check for any flint or debris in the tread. This can be pushed in when riding and result in a puncture, and tubeless doesn’t always seal. Additionally, a dirty drivetrain will lose you a handful of watts, far more than any wax treatment will save. Learning to clean and check your bike thoroughly will make a big difference to how fast it can go. Cleaning the drivetrain and tyres will also increase their longevity and get more value out of them.

Grease bearings and learn to maintain them – although ceramic bearings can be faster, a well maintained and greased set of steel bearings can be very quick. For race days in good weather, you can even strip the grease and use race oil instead to save some watts. Just be sure to re-oil more frequently and re-grease if using in wet weather. This will also save money long term as you don’t have to replace your bearings as frequently.

Training optimally to produce the watts – if you can’t produce more watts to start with, you won’t be going faster. That’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t buy upgrades to save time, but as Eddy Merckx famously said, “don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades.” I’d personally say, do both but prioritise the training. A lot of people don’t optimise their training well, be that training too much or too hard too often and burning out, not doing the correct training specificity, doing what works for others but not necessarily them, or only training within their comfort zone. It’s very difficult to be truly objective when it concerns yourself, and often getting coaching and optimising your training will make the biggest difference to performance. Invest in yourself.

Practice bike handling skills – Another key element of performance and one that is free to practice is skills. Thibault Pinot, very fast at going uphill, but would almost lose that time and more if he had to go down the other side of it. Also, a notoriously bad time triallist even with good power output because he didn’t train the skill of being able to maintain a better position on the bike. Train in an aerodynamic position and improve your cornering. Almost every race on the roads, even time trials, involve corners. Saving 3 seconds over 10 miles with a £350 OSPW is a lot more expensive than getting better at cornering and saving 3 seconds across a handful or corners.

Final Verdict: Where Should You Spend Your Money for Maximum Speed?

Cycling marketing can be scary and daunting with watt savings sometimes coming in at extremely high prices. Fortunately, there are many items that present many watts saved for fewer pounds. There is also plenty of trickle-down technology and the law of diminishing returns. The latest aero bike saves very few extra watts over the previous generation or a cheaper frame material. Meanwhile the latest and greatest aero socks may only save a watt more than the next best, which itself is 5 watts faster than the old generation.

Generally clothing, chain lubing, tyres, and equipment that focussed on making you the rider more aerodynamic are where money is best spent. Outside of that, maintaining and cleaning your bike and tyres will keep things running faster and for longer, saving watts and money. While training in an aerodynamic position will yield more functional W/CdA savings than anything else.

Article by: Andy Turner

Head coach, and lead aerodynamicist at ATP Performance. Having accrued more than a decade of racing experience, from amateur to professional level, and coaching for close to a decade, Andy has a wealth of practical and scientific knowledge when it comes to performance solutions. Andy is also an experienced wind tunnel technician and aero tester, having worked with individuals and brands in personal and product development.  Andy uses his knowledge of aerodynamics and background in data analysis to critically asses’ products and brand claims for their validity. He is then able to apply this to individuals and their specific requirements.