Swapping the entire groupset

It was finally time to try and swap all the parts for my groupset on my racer, a GT GTR Series 5. I like the bike and frame, but I was not happy with the drive train. I like (apparently, didn’t know that myself when I started with the road bike) to tackle uphills. But the ratio on the bike was on the heavier side, with 39/53T and 11-28T. I do not mind going slow up the slopes, but I would like to do them in one go without pauses 😛

So I bought a complete groupset to swap out all parts. I did this instead of buying the separate parts since this meant that all the components would fit together.
I’ve never really wrenched a bike before, so I had planned to send it all to the local bike shop, but figured I could try and see how much I could get done myself.
New groupset is a Shimano 105 5800, 34/50T  and 11-32T.

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Swapping brake calipers

…on the bike this time.

2014-07-31 18.15.52

When I bought my racing bike I wasn’t sure if I’d like that kind of biking, so I bought a used one without knowing anything about the drivetrain.
Turned out I really liked everything about the race bike style, so I’ve traversed quite some kilometers now. Anyway, the drivetrain could use some upgrades it turned out.
It came with a 53/39 front chainset and 11-28T rear cassette, 8-Speed. Turned out this makes it quite hard to tackle the uphills.

So I bought a new, complete groupset. The 105 5800 11-Speed. 50/34 front and 11-32T rear. Now the problem is I have no idea how to swap all the parts 😛

Except for the brake calipers, they seemed easy enough and didn’t require any special tools.

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