Cycling is an expensive hobby. It all adds up from buying bikes to regular maintenance, but the cost can be minimised when it comes to upgrades, especially if you look in the right places. Whether you've bought a new bike and you're looking to boost its performance or your current bike is looking and feeling a little tired – we've got you covered. Here are seven upgrades that will cost you less than £50.

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1. Fresh rubber

Although many bike brands do a good job of their tyre specifications, often, new or second-hand bikes don't come with tyres that are best suited for your particular conditions. And with the right choice of best mountain bike tyres, making a tangible difference to how your bike rides, a new tyre or two could revitalise your whole off-road cycling experience.

2022 wtb verdict shoulder knobs.jpg, by Liam Mercer

When it comes to tyres, it's best to consider whether you're riding wet, dry, hard or soft trails and buy rubber to suit. While mega spiky tyres look cool, they won't perform over hard terrain and vice versa.

Although many tyres cost upwards of £75, great tyres can be picked up for around the £50 mark if you look in the right places. Then, you could look at just replacing the front tyre, as that's the one that provides the bulk of control and confidence.

Additionally, to save a little more cash, you can move a part-worn front tyre to the rear, making way for a fresher, grippier front tyre while still providing usable traction at the rear of the bike. As that tyre will be a little worn, it may even reduce rolling resistance as the tread wouldn't be as aggressive.

2. Get those tyres converted to tubeless

Yes, I'm harping on about the tubeless tyres yet again, but that's only because it's worthy of an upgrade and thankfully, making the conversion won't cost you more than £50. Unless you need a new set of wheels.

2022 liam staff bike valve.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Tubeless-ready wheels are already commonplace on most bikes above the £1k price point, meaning that they come with tyres and wheels that are tubeless-ready, and sometimes, tubeless valves are included in the box.

If this is the case, all you need is a bottle of tubeless sealant. And if your rims don't yet have tubeless rim tape or the valves were not included in your bike purchase, it's not a massive cost to get these. 

Even in the worst-case scenario, you'll need to buy some rim tape, valves and sealant to get your bike rolling tubeless. All this can be bought for less than £50 and will make the biggest improvement to the way your bike handles, thanks to a reduction in overall weight, and you'll be much happier rattling down some chunky gravel descents. 

3. Fresh or upgraded brake pads will improve stopping power

All off-the-shelf bikes come with either resin (organic) or sintered (metallic) brake pads and both kinds perform at their best in specific conditions. If you're riding resin pads in the wet, you'll find that you've got next to no braking power, and as such, a change to sintered brake pads will make a whole world of difference and boost your confidence to no end.

2022 absolute black pads 5ct.jpg, by Liam Mercer

That doesn't mean that there's not an argument for resin pads though, as these bed in very quickly, operate much quieter and provide more initial power when it's bone dry. When buying a new bike, it's smart to find out which pads it comes with and change them to suit your particular conditions.

Worn pads are also something to pay attention to simply because they won't slow you down as efficiently, and cause damage to your rotors. 

As with anything in cycling, brake pads are excellent things to experiment with, as every brand does things a little differently to the point where one brand's organic pads, for example, provide better stopping power than another. There are also loads of compounds on the market, and as pads are generally inexpensive, it's worth some investigation.

4. Grips and bar tape

Lizard_Skins_Strata_Grips_3.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Grips for flat bars and tape for drop bars come in all shapes and sizes, and they're not a one-size-fits-all kind of product. Often grips are the first thing I'll change on a test bike because the right choice of grips can stave off arm pump and up confidence when out on the trail.

While wrapping bar tape is a slightly more laborious task than changing grips, having a bar tape that suits your riding makes a huge difference in comfort. Bar tapes come in a range of thicknesses and materials, some being extremely sticky, and some slick. Once you've ridden your bike for a while, think about how the bar tape feels to you and then consider if swapping it could help, for example, with numb hands or your hands slipping off the hoods. Swapping your bar tape or grips is also a super quick and easy way to give your bike a fresh look, or perhaps a little pop of colour. 

As for grips, there's a huge range of rubber compounds, diameters and tread patterns to choose from. Super slim grips will improve bar feel, whereas thicker ones can provide better vibration damping. Again, grips are great things to experiment with as they're not all that expensive.

5. Refresh your cables

This goes for any second-hand bike or one that you've been riding for ages. Unless you're running the extra fancy electronic SRAM eTap AXS or Shimano Di2 drivetrains, your shifting relies on cables to move the derailleur up and down the cassette. These cables can stretch, and dirt (and rust) can find their way into the housing, which has a huge effect on shifting performance, making it slow, sloppy and making the shifter paddle feel heavy and clunky.

2022 privateer 141 cable routing 2.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Brand-new cables can cost as little as £5 or under, but they can go up to £60 if you're gagging for those marginal gains. They're simple to fit at home too, as you only need a pair of cable cutters to cut the cable to length. So if you don't mind a bit of wrenching, fresh cables are a cheap and effective upgrade.

6. New cleats

2022 Quoc Gran Tourer II Hope Cleat.jpeg, by Patrick Joscelyne

Ok, so this one's not exactly a bike upgrade but it'll bring a better time out on the bike. The big appeal of clipless pedals is their security and ability to transfer power more efficiently, but it's no secret that cleats wear and as they live at the bottoms of your shoes, they're very easily forgotten about. Worn cleats can pop out of the pedal with blissful ease, and spending the £13 to £30 (let's ignore the Silca ones...) on a brand new set will provide solid interaction with your pedal's mechanism.

If you can pull up on your SPD pedal and your foot pops right out, it's time for a new set of cleats.

7. Finding the right saddle will make your bike more comfortable

While the best saddles for mountain and gravel bikes can cost an awful lot of money, the most important aspect of any saddle is how well it fits. With that in mind, if weight, flex and rail material aren't a priority, a correctly fitting saddle can easily be bought for less than £50 - especially if you can find one on sale.

2023 selle italia x-bow superflow hero 2.jpg, by Liam Mercer

There are many factors to consider when finding the best saddle for you, but the most important one when it comes to comfort is width, and how that fits with your body. But first, you need to find the width of your sitbones, which can be done by sitting on a bit of cardboard and measuring the distance between the middle of the indents. 

Take this measurement and look for a saddle that's of a similar width. Then, consider the saddle's profile and features.

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