Cheap performance upgrades >$100 AUD

Yes, I'm an Australian, so less than $100 AUD (Australian dollars for the uninitiated) is about (as I type) $89 USD (US dollars) or £60 GBP (whatever that stands for?).

I'll break this down between both, road and mountain.

Both:

Odyssey Linear Slic Kable; (Yes, that's how BMX'ers spell stuff) - If you run any cable actuated brake then you need this. The linear housing is extremely stiff and transfers loads of power to the calipers, if you're unhappy with your mechanical disc, V-brake, cantilever or road brakes, try this cable housing & see what happens. It's the poor man's Nokon cable. Comes in loads of colours too - I use this on both roadies and my singlespeed 29er - my 26" mtb has hydraulics so I don't use it there.

Kool Stop brake pads; (more poor spelling) the Salmon pads are fantastic, no matter what application, especially in the wet (funny that, as they're designed as a wet weather pad). They're rougher on your rims but if you're as frustrated with the poor performance of road calipers next to to discs then I recommend you try them paired with Odyssey cable.

XTR Gear Cables; XTR cable will spice up any drivetrain and make it punch above it's weight.  The full inner & outer kit is best but even just the inners will improve poor shifting.  Of course, if your shifting is really that bad, then it may be another issue altogether.

Road Specific

KCNC Ti Pro lite seatpost - at almost half the weight of a Thomson and just as stiff, you can't go wrong with this item. If you already have a carbon frame, then an alloy seatpost is a good upgrade, carbon posts on carbon frames are just too noodlely for me. If I were running an alloy frame, I'd run a Thomson or a KCNC rather than a carbon post.

SwissStop Flash pads; These just sneak in, because in Australia, a set of four costs $99AUD! I Found these because I borrowed a set of carbon tubular wheels for my roadie and needed some carbon specific pads, they work for both carbon and aluminium rims very well. I recently bought a pair of weight-weenie type brakes which worked quite poorly (review coming in the near future), the addition of these pads to my brakes made them stop as well as my 105 brakes (but not as well as my centaurs).

MTB specific

Diatech Anchor Disc Brakes - Wow, I miss my Diatech's, they were fantastic, no-nonsense performers. I had a set on a bike that was stolen and I would happily give up the bike to keep these brakes. I bought a pair on Fleabay for $95AUD delivered and cannot rave enough about them. The only negative is that as they're quite powerful, you need to relax more than usual at the lever.

And that's enough for now, more bargain bits coming soon.

Have a great weekend riding.

Hello, welcome to my blog thingy.

Yes, my ego is that large I think people will want to read what I have to say.

What's this all about? This is a blog for the cyclist who can't afford the best gear but still wants performance.

Why listen to me? My wife and I have a mortgage, 1.5 kids, two cats, five bikes (four are mine) and a single income. I can't afford the best but I love cycling.

Keith Bontrager is often quoted as saying 'Strong, light, cheap. Pick two" well I reckon that out there, you can find all three - you just have to look.

I used to work in the cycling industry - at the blunt end of course, so I know a cone spanner from a tyre lever. Also, I'll be blogging about real products, that I've actually used, in the real world.

I'll post up bargains, bargain-hunting tips and the odd bit of 'holy shit, look how expensive this is!'. And maybe some dumb, random pictures and videos too.

I'll also be blogging about bike maintenance on the cheap, cheap fixes for jobs where expensive specific tools are often recommended. I'm no Sheldon Brown but I try.

I ride mountain and road - both geared and singlespeed. So the majority of posts will appeal to both the leg-shaving and baggy short crowd. As a parent, I'll also be talking about products for cycling parents, kids bikes, seats and the like.

I hope you enjoy my blog and I hope I have enough time to write the bloody thing.

If anyone does stumble across this first post on the world wide interweb and you think the premise is vaguely interesting, feel free to post up what you'd like to hear about.

Thanks for reading.

Cyclopath