I picked up an old Giant AC-3 for $400 a few months ago. I need to get out on it more now that the weather is getting nicer here.
Finally made it back out to the trails after a 5 yr absence. Had a pretty big crackup and just never made it a priority to get back out there. Also lost my riding buddies when I moved so it's harder to get motivated. They've been building a new trail at Lake Milton State Park so I tried that out. 10 mile singletrack loop crammed into a pretty small area. It took me a while to get my groove back and I definitely need to work on my conditioning, but it felt good. Still riding my Fuji hardtail with 26.5 inch wheels that I used to race back in the 2000's. Had a broken presta valve stem when I got the bike out and it took me several stores before I finally found a tube. I guess the larger wheels have really taken over the market and I'm out of the loop. I'll probably stick with this bike though as it works just fine for me and I won't be racing again.
Finally made it back out to the trails after a 5 yr absence. Had a pretty big crackup and just never made it a priority to get back out there. Also lost my riding buddies when I moved so it's harder to get motivated. They've been building a new trail at Lake Milton State Park so I tried that out. 10 mile singletrack loop crammed into a pretty small area. It took me a while to get my groove back and I definitely need to work on my conditioning, but it felt good. Still riding my Fuji hardtail with 26.5 inch wheels that I used to race back in the 2000's. Had a broken presta valve stem when I got the bike out and it took me several stores before I finally found a tube. I guess the larger wheels have really taken over the market and I'm out of the loop. I'll probably stick with this bike though as it works just fine for me and I won't be racing again.
Well, let me say, if you have SRAM brakes, they are horrible to bleed... who thought using 2 syringes and push/pull to get air out is a good idea?! I've done it 4x and they still were so bad. On the 5th try I intentionally overfilled it and now they're acceptable.
I bled too many motorcycle brakes over the years. I have the LBS do the pedal bike brakes nowadays. #firstworld
If I get a bike with sram brakes, first thing I remove. Immediately. Don't like the feel of them and bleeding them is a pain. Shimano brakes are so easy to bleed it's like cheating and they have much better feel to them. In my opinion.
The bleeding and design of SRAM/avids never made it to acceptable standards. From bleed screws with special adaptors and other bleeding paraphernalia to distinctive turkey gobble rotors, defective taper bore and lack of fluid volume that didn't account for full pad wear, why couldn't they just adopt a conventional design with normal bleed nipples and make it work like Shimano and others.
Its funny how the SRAM brakes are universally hated for years and years but they never bother changing them. I love the XT's on my current bike and soon I'll have Magura MT7's on my new bike and looking forward to trying them out.
I'm seriously considering pulling them off and moving to XTR or something but I don't want to drop $500 on a bike I've had less than 3 months.
SRAM brakes have been garbage since i got back into MTB'ing like 13 years ago and there's so many good options both cheap and expensive that there's no reason to ever look at them. People try to justify Code RSC's but they're garbage. you can get XT's for like $200. its a no-brainer.
The new 7100 SLX, $278. Totally worth it. Well, any amount is worth getting sram off of there I will say, I've got a newer Trance that has Guide RSC and they're acceptable. Maybe just an anomaly lol.
even the budget shimano stuff is better than the higher level SRAM bits. I have "generic" deore level brakes on my canyon (often if you look up the part numbers shimano has a oem/house spec kit that is identical to the "level" branded stuff" and they are better than the upgraded codes on my buddies felt
Thanks guys... need to think about this a bit. I'm hitting the trails today so I may make the decision in a moment of Zen under the trees.
I have Guide RS on my Trance Advanced and while I didn't like them at first, I actually prefer the feel of them now. The XT's on my son's shimano are way more sensitive IMO. I know it's all what you're used to, but I like the SRAM's now.
The best purchase I’ve ever made in my life hands down. Did 26 miles climbed 6k very and descended some of the hardest knar trails in PNW like a champ. That was after work. I would put one in a cc and pay the revolving interest to get one if I had too.
Looks interesting, first ebike I'm guessing? I've never ridden one, sounds dumb but I fear it would be so good it would condemn my other bikes which I really like. So I have avoided trying one.
I It has a 160mm zeb select plus. I ordered the 170mm airshaft $40 but I really like it how it is right now so we’ll see. I can upgrade to the RC2 with high and low speed compression/rebound but I like to ride them for a bit before throwing parts at them.