Mountain Bike - Hard tail

I appreciate the input but I'm not drinking that coolaid. I've been rocking a trek 4100 with a non disc brakes and blown out shock for the last 7 years. I can hold my own on any single track with anyone on a 5K bicycle even on that clapped out bike. We have some pretty decent trails that we ride in Palos, Il, Kettle Moraine, Wi and Kalamazoo, Mi and I have never really had any issues. A refuse to spend that kind of money on a pedal bike. For 300 bucks if the bike lasts me 3-5 years I figure I got my money's worth. I figure I'm moving towards a hell of an upgrade from what I'm riding now.

I understand the concept of building something off a platform that will allow universal swap outs of shocks, brakes, wheels and that. Lance, you know me.

 

I'm just saying that because my first mountain bike was a $600 Specialized, with similar spec to what you're looking at. For what I'd spent on repairs and replacement parts in the first 6 months of ownership (taco-ed rims, broken derailleurs, pedals, bearings, chains, etc), I could have bought a $1500-1800 bike, and the upgrades weren't even at the same level as the pricier bike. My current bike would have cost me about $3200 if I'd paid msrp, but the only items that I've had to replace were from wear (chain, sprockets, grips tires), not because they didn't last a reasonable amount of time.

 

When you say "hold your own"... do you mean with folks that are actually Cat 1 or 2 riders? My buddy paid $200 for a $800 msrp bike. He has close to $1200 over that in it now when you count all the parts/labor, missed rides, or mechanical failures.

 

i'd go as far as to say an old ass bike with decent shit on it and new-enough tires can do just fine on any up part of any local XC park and pedalling is pedalling on the relatively flat parts... if you're super in shape dude, i'd have no doubt a 20 year old bike can hold its own with any new shit. i hardly even touch my brakes when i ride my local XC singletrack, so kinda who cares what they are, doesn't even matter really.

i'd beg to differ once the trail points down. shit shocks and shit brakes and 80* HT angles and long ass stems, i'm suspect. im sure SOMEBODY can do it, but if you're hitting steep ass rock/root gardens and hucking doubles and going off 2 foot drops full on with a mtb from 1996, you need to be racing in the DH world cup, otherwise i dunno about any of that...

i see spandex avenger, carbon HT XC dudes wiggle their way down 2 of the local FR runs i use for training runs. they're not SUPER gnarly, and the drops and jumps have little ride arounds for the most part, so its doable. steep and tech enough that you can't pedal up it, but they still get down. the speed difference between them riding their brakes until they catch on fire, and me on my DH bike, is laughable tho. there IS a point where the new fancy bike starts making a big ass difference.

you don't need a $6k+ bike to have fun, that's true... although they are fuckin rad as shit. but its been said 50 times in here already, buying a shit bike and upgrading everything is dumb if you have the intention of being into it a decent amount. you may have missed the boat by a few months, but in the off-season, you can find $2500-3000 bikes all day long for 50% off on clearance or hardly used. for $1200-1500 you will get a bike you won't ever have to touch and will work flawlessly all the time. much better use of money. any bike with XT shit on it, some decent wheels/hubs, and a mid level or above Rockshox/Fox/Marz fork is gonna be way more enjoyable in the long run.

 

Well you are GIGANTIC Lance. No offense you are probably way harder on equipment than my 155 pound ass. I do appreciate the input though.

Hold my own in the Midwest single track stuff. The only mechanicals I've ever had over the last several years on the old trek 4100 was broken derailer once because I branch got stuck in it and some flat tires. I don't race but I would like to maybe this summer and I mostly go ride the single track around here for cardio. It's nice not having to pump gas in something and get out and have some fun.

Now the shit you are talking is way more gnarly than anything I think I have ever ridden. Besides one time when I rented a bike out in San Luis Obispo. I was riding by myself on some pretty nasty rocky down hill trail when I ran across some Cal Poly kids. They asked me if I was by myself and I said yes. They looked at me like I was out of my mind. Then I rode with them for the rest of the 20 mile loop. But no, the midwest stuff around here isn't even remotely as crazy as you're talking about. I think for 300 and the bike was 850 retail it will be a nice upgrade for me to ride the below trails, get my work out, get out and have some fun.

http://cambr.org/SMF/index.php?action=home

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/kms/trails.html

http://www.singletracks.com/Michiga...By=|loc:42.291667~-85.587222~25~Kalamazoo,+MI

 

That for $300 is pretty darn good. None of the components are outright junk and from what I gather you're riding I doubt you'll break anything any time soon. If $300 is your budget, go for it!

Do understand though that this bike is what it is, made to a price point. Don't try to upgrade it. If you need something better just sell it and get that something better.

 

The trek store near me always has pretty decent deals on new old stock. Might be worth a shot to peak at their virtual inventory.
http://locator.trekbikes.com/worldwide?referer=

 

Pull the trigger and buy it. Later get something better and you have a quiver.

 

BTW..... we had a really fun race a few months ago. Each "team" of four riders had to go to Wal-Mart and buy a "mountain bike" and the limit was $199. All riders shared the one bike and took alternating 13 mile laps for six hours and flat pedals only. The course has some tech but nothing crazy.

At the start if the race each team tore open the box and had to BUILD the bike first and then the first rider took off. It is noteworthy that every bike came with a disclaimer/warning "not for off-road use".

We had 15 teams and only two teams DNF'd....one bike basically spontaneously disassembled itself, and the other DNF broke the suspension fork in half, luckily and environmental disaster was avoided because the fork contained no damping fluid.

The remaining bikes were donated to a local charity.

We also did the BB-gun biathlon....you ride your bike with a Crossman 760 on your back and there are 10 shooting target stations on the 14 mile course. THAT was a friggin riot.

 

well shit. Im in a pickle. So I bought a nearly complete el mariachi, carbon niner fork. SS. No brakes.

Okay, no problem, I have a set of BB7'S at home I can throw on.

get home, and realize the hubs are shimano ICE tech centerlocks. Rear wheel has a rotor, front does not. so Im throwing brakes on, a little bummed, but whatever, I'll just order an SLX rotor center lock for the front and be good.

So the rear rotor says its 160 but no matter how many washers I stack on the mounting bolts for "IS" it still rubs and is not rideable. SO im like 4 beers deep, and just took a sudafed (allergies) and I start tinkering with shit, a little bit hot headed. Next thing I know, the caliper is in pieces from me taking shit apart without thinking, and I dunno how to get it back together or what im going to do about brakes. I can figure out putting it back together, but will these brakes work?

 

Get some SLX's. Problem solved with better braking.

 

Blue Sky had them for 50% off

 

That's even cheaper than I can get them with my team discount. I don't need them, but I'm tempted to order a set anyway.

 

hahaha this made me laugh. i feel like that sums up 90% of bicycle everything. that's how i feel about Hope Tech 3 V4's... except they're never on sale... but i equally don't need them and kinda wanna buy a set anyway.

 

Oh i've got SLX's on my spearfish and LOVE them. But these bb7's were practically given to me

 

BB7's are good stuff too, for what they are. The ones I have on my commuter bike have some monster thick spacers between IS bracket and the caliper itself. maybe post pics to see what are you up to? Is it aligned right on the rotor plane and is just not positioned right for the rotor contact patch?

 

well I ordered a set of SLX brakes and center lock rotors for like $138 and free shipping. Cant complain.

 

Hey..... are you still heading up here??? Shoot me your number and we'll ride.

 

After a little over a year, i'm finally getting close to finishing my bike build.

Specs:
9:Zero:7 alloy 135mm rear offset frame
Cannondale Lefty Fork w/100mm travel, Mendon Cyclesmith conversion clamps
65mm Surly Marge Lite Rims, tubeless, front C-dale hub, rear, hope
Shimano XT RD & cassette
Raceface Turbine Crank
Wolf tooth Narrow/Wide 32t Chain Ring
KS Lev dropper post
WTB Volt Saddle.
70mm stem w/ Truvative Holzfeller bars.
CrankBrothers Candy3 pedals
Sram Elixir 9 brakes.

I still have a few tweaks in the works, notably a little machining to my frame and shock clams got get a little more clearance, a Richey WCS Trail flat bar and 45mm stem, carbon rims and and when they're available, Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 4 tires. Right now, it scales in at 31 pounds with the shock. I'm possibly considering a 650b+ wheel set, as well, but the bike is pretty close to where i want it.



I also entered my first XC race this weekend. I ended up 11th in my age group out of 23 and 36th overall, out of 89 entries for my category. this was not bad for my first sanctioned race! initially, I expected that I would be racing to not be in last place, as racing a 32 pound fatbike against racers on much lighter XC machines was sure to handicap me considerably, but after going into the 1st turn after the 3/4 mile fire road sprint in 6th, my goal was a top 10 finish.

Unfortunately, I made a few errors and lost the course twice, which cost me a bit of time and i'm a terrible mechanic- I installed my lefty the night before the race, which in and of itself is a big no-no. I made sure that i torqued the shock clamps, but since the shock raised my bar height by about 50mm, i flipped my stem and forgot to make sure the bar clamp was adequately torqued. as a result, the bar started to rotate in the clamp about 2/3 of the way through the first lap. By the 2nd lap, it had gotten noticeably loose and i dropped my pace a bit to compensate.

Still, I had a great time in spite of my troubles and the uninspiring course and i learned some valuable lessons: 1. Dig deeper, there are reserves there. 2. Embrace the suffer. 3. Always have my mechanic check the bike beforehand.

 

Awesome work on a diff first race result! Talk us through the build, there's a few things going on incl pretty tall gearing no, for my legs anyway. I'm thinking of entering a few novice races, prob some enduro type, this year to add a new dimension to weekend warrior type riding.