I am a casual commuter (in average 2 days per week, 30 km per day), on a generic bike which I bought a few years ago.
Yesterday I took the opportunity of having the bike reviewed and the chain and back cassette was changed (the technician said I am lucky to have gone so far and I believe him).
Coming back home after the repair was a new experience: significantly faster and easier.
My first question is whether an old vs new chain can change the riding experience in a significant way. I am trying to weight this vs a placebo effect (though I felt the same way this morning).
If the answer is "yes", than I would be keen on changing/fixing other elements which would help me. I want to keep the bike and the breaks are good (this is something I take care of since my life directly depends on them). Are there other parts I should explore changing/improving?
Note: I do not want to turn my bike into another bike, I am happy with the basic parts as they are. It is rather some elements which need periodic change (chain in the example above) or simple fixing which I am trying to locate.
In other words the V-breaks are great, even though changing to disk ones could be much better. The frame is heavy but never mind - I will not switch it to a carbon one. On the other hand if making sure that [something] is tight is important, I would make sure it is tightened. The whole question arose when I saw that enormous difference after just changing a chain (and some other basic adjustments I do not know about, but they were just adjustments)