Customising a brand new bike

[Becker_11]

General question: I've found a bike I like. Frame, wheels, brakes all exactley what I'm looking for but I'm not happy with the gearing on it. It comes standard with 48/38/28 11-30 8spd btw it's a flat bar road bike. I was wondering what a bike shop would say if I asked them to swap the gearing for 50/34 12-26.

I'd understand if they charged for doing it but I'd hope it would be cheaper than buying the bike then swapping the gearing out later on. What does everyone think??

[MattyK]

Bike shops don't (usually) build bikes. They get them mostly pre-assembled and do the finishing touches. So any changes means buying and adding parts, which will be charged at their costs plus markup plus labour. If you're lucky, they might give you something back for the parts you don't want, but typically they won't be worth anything to the shop.

You're probably better to either cough up for a bike with the spec you want (unless you're getting a bargain) or buy the parts you want online yourself and either get a shop to fit them, or learn to fit them yourself (or phone a friend).

[Becker_11]

Thanks MattyK I reckon I'll have to just keep lookintg.

1 more question. If a bike comes standard with an 8spd cassette how easy/difficult would it be to swap it out for a nine speed? Given flat bar shifters and a long cage rear mech?

[JustJames]

You'd need a new rear shifter.

The rear mech should work with 9 speed just fine - it just goes where the shifter tells it to go.