Most pointless upgrade

Equipment
1

Always see lots of posts about the best bang for buck upgrades be it a power meter, aero wheels or a years sub to TrainerRoad.

How about the most pointless upgrade you’ve done?

I’ll start with I just saved ~6 grams with ti water bottle bolts! They are very cool, very 90s looking oil coloured but I’d save more weight cutting my hair!

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2

Red pinstripe to take my boring black/gray bike to “splashy”.
1 Watt lost from added weight of non-functional fluff :stuck_out_tongue:

3

Lighter weight chainring bolts. :slight_smile:

4

An old endurance MTB racing trick was to replace water bottle bolts with cleat screws so you’d have a spare if you lost one during a race…

5

carbon presta valve caps

j/k :wink:

6

The valve caps have only one place where they fit: in the trash can. Real cyclists like their Presta valves fully exposed!

7

Naked Valves FTW!!! :boom:

8

I’m way too much of a cheapskate OCD engineer to ever have committed a “pointless upgrade”.

That I would admit to.

9

100% with you in the summer but winter roads in the UK mean the valves need some protection!

10

I spent $600 to change from Shimano to 1x Rival. Huge waste, even on a CX bike.

11

I once thought zero gravity brakes were a good idea.

12

Carbon Bottle Cages. Even the superb Arundel ones. Completely pointless.

13

I’ll second this one (the carbon bottle cages)

14

This seat cheapo full carbon seat to save a few grams.

I actually rode with it on the trainer for about 1 month before I couldn’t take it anymore. I was trying to convince myself all was good. :grimacing:

15

Guilty of going full weight weenie on my Colnago Tecnos build (2000 steel frame) - carbon cages, ti bottle cage bolts, ti headset bolt, 135g Selle Italia saddle, ti skewers; however…it came out to 18.4 lbs, exact same weight as my ti/carbon CT1, so there’s that

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16

18# steel bike is impressive :+1:t4:

17

Is it bad I can’t think of anything?

Hopefully going from 3x10 to 1x11 on the mtb is not a pointless upgrade (as you’re getting a lot less range) but that’s about it

18

Titanium water bottle cage bolts & stem bolts never corrode.

Just sayin’…

19

And there is my new ‘reason’ for having them, no longer pointless!

20

I love this thread :metal:

We are all probably guilty of something like this at some point…

I think the most pointless upgrade I’ve ever seen – and only installed once – is the SILCA ‘speed shield’ that comes with their tubeless valves. It is supposed to make your valve more aero. Wow.