I want to go faster on my bike. Do I need to buy a new one?

This is another recurring question from friends who are new(ish) to cycling. It all depends on a few things. Mainly what do you want to do with your cycling?

Why do you want to go faster? Aiming for some pbs on strava segments? chasing KOMs? Wanting to get in to time trialling or road racing? Or just want to improve your average speed on rides out?

Bikes are expensive, and not getting any cheaper. I spend half my life looking at new frames, wheels, components etc. Lots of internet dribbling. Lots of filling up shopping baskets on websites to compare the cost of upgrading to an electronic groupset or building up a new frame. Followed by lots of deleting items from said baskets as I realise that I really don't need them, nor can I afford them right now.

Having spent a few years with a few more pennies coming in and a much higher motivation to go faster I have spent a fair bit in the past on trying to do so. Here are a couple of things I noticed made a big difference.

If you're serious and you love a bit of specific training, buy a power meter. This is going to help you train more effectively than a heart rate monitor and also help you realize a lot about where your limits are and how to push them. The biggest difference in speed is made when you push harder on the pedals, all the other adjustments are good and help but won't make as much of a difference as being able to push out 10 watts more for that time trial.

Wheels are the first and biggest speedy upgrade. Rotating weight is where you want to make your bike lightest to get faster acceleration. This balanced with aerodynamics as they're constantly passing through the air makes a good light, aero wheelset a worthwhile investment. A lot of high end frames from big manufacturers used to be sold with "training" wheels in the past (cheapish, robust wheels that you can run into the ground without breaking the bank to replace) with the idea that you will have a separate set of race wheels for the fast days. Nowadays with the major brands having extremely good in-house wheel builders (Trek - Bontrager, Specialized - Roval etc) you can get a great set of wheels on a high end bike off the shelf. But you'll be paying a lot for said bike...

I built up an old Cervelo as my TT bike, after my first dual carriageway 10, where I clocked 20 mins 30 something seconds, one of my club mates faced me with the challenge of dropping under 20 mins without spending £2k on new bike bits. This was back in 2013, I promptly splurged on a HED Jet 9 front wheel and a Jet Disc (having previously used a deep section Shimano C50 front and very, very old Bontrager disc on the back) and dropped the 36 seconds or so over the season to get under 20 mins (which back then was a bit of an achievement) for a mere £1600(?!?!). A combination of training more effectively, having faster wheels and dialing my position in helped there. That and a really shiny pointy hat.

If you're just looking at completing a long ride a bit faster, notching your average speed up on the club run, getting round a sportive as fast as you can or getting to work a bit quicker than usual then you can do that for no expense. There are plenty of training plans online that you can have a look at that work off perceived exertion instead of following heart rate monitors or power meters etc. One of the quickest guys I know on a bike trains with very little info but he's a lifetime athlete who used to run for Great Britain. He knows his body and when he needs to train and when he needs to rest from experience, how far he can push himself etc. This takes a while to get used to and if you can afford a powermeter it will help you understand your body a lot better too.

So you have a nice road bike that fits you well, you're comfortable enough on it to ride it for a few hours and you're looking to go faster with minimal cost. Training. Wheels. Powermeter. That's about it.

Now, if you want to buy a pretty bike and know that it will make you go out riding more and in doing so will take you to the next level, then there's always that too. I've spent over a year on my aluminium commuter bike and right now I personally can not wait to get on my carbon summer bike and start hooning around the roads I ride on a little bit faster (it's got faster wheels on it, init). Just need some of that nice weather to pop up and for Covid to stop being such a disruptive little bastard.