Answers > How to Tune Your Bicycle to Make It Go Faster?

wle atlanta October 31, 2010 at 9:51 pm

unless your brakes are dragging or tires almost flat, no ‘tuning’ will help much

wind resistance is the biggest issue

and strength of the motor [that's you]

‘tuning’ usually means adjusting shift and brake cables

wle..

Peter J October 31, 2010 at 10:47 pm

There are few things you can do, but they won’t help too much as the above post said. The best thing to increase your speed is to get the smooths tires possible. This will reduce drag with the pavement and give you a little better speed. Additional improvements will get more expensive progressively. You can add lighter parts, but as the part you purchase gets lighter in weight the price goes up exponentially. With replacing most of your parts with much more expensive parts you will also get a small increase in speed. The final option is to change out your front and rear sprocket for ones that are “harder” to pedal with. This will give you more top-end speed, but again not too much. Those are about all the options you have. Good luck!

Horndog October 31, 2010 at 11:34 pm

In addition to keeping the brakes from dragging and having smooth tires as Peter said, you also want to get the narrowest tires available for your wheel. You could also consider running a higher air pressure in the tire. This will further reduce your drag on the riding surface. ( If you want to split hairs, there are also lightweight tires and tubes available, but expect to spend a lot more time repairing flats if you plan on riding in the street )
Inexpensive weight reduction involves removing dead weight on your bike. Kickstands are nice, but face it, you don’t use them while in motion. I usually strip off my reflectors and the associated hardware, also. If the police hassle you about running “dark”, a few strips of white, amber and red adhesive reflective tape should meet the visibility regulations in your area.
That is about all for the basic weight reduction, and you probably did that already. The other somewhat easy options for weight reduction involve the amount of gear you carry and the size of the rider.
Pedal clips might be worth looking into, there can be a weight savings in the smaller clipless pedals. I suggest the option because if you are looking for speed, getting the most energy into your pedal stroke increases your efficiency by allowing you to transmit power during your up stroke as well as your down stroke pedal cycles.
The last thing would be to ensure that all necessary bearings on the bike are properly lubricated and adjusted to allow free movement of all of the moving parts. If you plan on being that anal retentive about the whole thing, your order of importance for bearings are:
1. Wheel bearings. They move any time the bike is in motion.
2. Bottom bracket / crank-set. Active during pedaling.
3. Headset. Least important bearing set. Used for turning and supporting the fork. Turns can also be accomplished by leaning in the appropriate direction. Before dropping major coin in this area, consider pedal upgrades as they are used whenever you apply force to the crank.

mtlbiker November 1, 2010 at 12:27 am

Without actually changing any parts: Inflate your tires to maximum recommended pressure, clean and repack wheel bearings, overhaul bottom bracket, true wheels, clean and lubricate chain. These are things you should be doing anyway on an ongoing basis. If you have a heavy bike that is not designed for use on the road there is only so much you can do. If your bike is already in good shape, you will notice very little difference.