I have just bought a new disc road bike which is very disappointing. Not the discs just the lack of urgency I had in my old bike. Both are carbon but the disc bike weighs about half to three quarters of a kilo more so I was expecting a difference but not this dead feeling. It was cheap though so I suspect finishing kit etc. is heavy.
How can I pep it up or have I just bought a lemon?

Tyres and wheels are the first place to look, if the former are slow the whole bike feels bad, if the wheels are heavy that has an impact too.

Maybe put some nice, fast rolling rubber on first and see what impact that has. Michelin pro 4’s are £35 a pair in Decathlon at the moment so a fairly low outlay.

@FOG

weigh the wheels (take off the tires/tubes/cassette/rotors).

A lot of good quality production disc road bikes even in the £2K+ range come with +2kg wheels

You can easily zip up the performance with an aftermarket set – could easily lop 300-400 gm off the wheels without spending silly money. Get some decent tires if the bike did not come with some.

Check out which standards your bike dropouts use.

I’d then look at the OE finishing kit, it can hide a surprising amount of weight with thick wall bars, thick wall seat post, heavy saddle

You will probably find the geometry of the old bike is steeper than the new one, its not all about weight.

As above, weigh old tubes and tyres first. If heavy, replace.
Some tyres can be fairy light but draggy which doesn’t help the zippy feeling.

My recent 700-35 Schwalbe g-ones are 400g but fly along like 200g 700-25s ( but with more comfort )

Cheap carbon wheels? 50mm carbon rims from china on some light hubs would probably save most of that weight gain and do a lot for the aerodynamics.

It might not just be a case of more weight, but where it is too. There was an interview with Cav’s mechanic talking about Cav swapping to Di2, it wasn’t so much the weight that persuade him (at the time Di2 was heavier), but it meant all the weight was around the downtube/BB, which meant Cav could throw the bike arround more in a sprint as it felt lighter than having mechanical shifters on the bars. I imagine hydraulic shifters aren’t light? In which case a new bar and stem might offset that?

Depends what you have and what the budget is:

£4 – new bar tape (always good for a feel good factor, stick something racey and thin on)
£40 – new tyres
£400 – Lightbike wheelset

Another £400 – new finishing kit, saddle, and a pair of racey carbon shoes.

Agree with buckster, at lot of whether a road bike feels ‘zippy’ is to do with geometry not weight and a lot of the current breed of ‘do it all’ disc road bikes have pretty relaxed geometries. What’s your new bike and what’s the old one?

Disc road wheels – get some Hunts, very very nice for the money.

its a Planet x RD80 – I said it was cheap! The old one was a 10-11 year old giant TCR2 now passed on to youngest son who started sniffing about as soon as he heard I had bought a new bike.
The new bike does feel longer and without having the 2 together to compare it definitely feels more stable descending but is hard work going up.

There’s your answer right there .. The TCR(even old ones) are very light and handle like on rails ! I’d save more money and order 2017 tcr they have disc brakes 😉

if you think it’s weight, then weigh stuff, no substitute. You never know where the shortcuts are, some are easy to sort. Did it get the wheels in the description, or the wheels in the photo? Classic PX 😆

If in doubt, stick a set of turbos on it.

Easy answer, get a decent frame and swap the kit over, maybe change the wheels too.
Planet X/On-One complete bikes are a good way to buy groupsets, or workhorses, but not a good way to get an inspiring bike (with a couple of notable exceptions).

You might be able to muck around with position and finishing kit/wheels etc, but it’ll always be a bog standard frame.

On the other hand, TCRs are fantastic bikes in almost all versions. I wish i still had mine (only to look at, i’m probably over the weight limit and it’d be near enough 20 years old now……..)

Whilst the PX isn’t an “adventure” road bike, I’ve had two with discs and both have felt slugglish. The most recent was ~20lbs with ~1600g wheels and still felt slow. Slow beyond the 2lb difference to my rim braked race bike. And the power meter and rides trying to hang on on club rides told me as much.

I think some of it must be down to the frame in my case. Maybe the RTD PX is also a bit of a “dead” feeling frame. It looks like a Hong Fu FM166 frame, so you might find some more reviews on that, see what others say, if you can’t find any reviews of the PX per se.

Is actually slower? I’m always dubious about feels slower rather than is slower.

At constant speed up a hill .75kg won’t make much odds wherever it is

Does the planet X have hideous tires with stiff side walls?

+1 on wheels & tyres

Another thing is riding position, have you set it up the same? I didn’t click with my Defy until I lowered the bar a fair bit, putting more weight on the front wheel and making it corner more confidently and therefore feel more nippy. Just a thought.

If it’s the standard build that is listed on the site, get rid of the tyres, Hutchinson nitro wired are horrid . Treat it to some Michelin pro4 on sale atm in decathlon

Oh and geometry, the bb is lower than the giant which is why you feel like you’re in it not perched on it but you’ll get used to it soon enough

It’s not just the wheels; I recently bought a very expensive Italian race bike, which is stiffer and lighter than my endurance bike and it’s faster, up, down and on the flat.

Another vote for noce tyres – but also nice tubes! Latex tubes are a revelation. Combine with some nice ‘open tubular’ tyres like Vittoria Corsa or Challenge Strada and they will make a big difference.

Tcr has excellent race geometry and a short wheelbase. I suspect ypur bew bike has a slacker headtube and longer chainstays. Lighter wheels will help, as will better tyres (always the first upgrade). But… there is no substitute for geometry and as you have discovered, you can race a touring bike but it won’t feel like a race bike.