new bike or upgrade

bjohnson

recently bought a trek 3900 to get into cycling and shedding some pounds. i got the trek 3900 as it seemed the best i could afford good frame etc. just got back from having some fun (and falling off) on the witchs trils at fort william and would love to get into this more but the bike is obviously lacking.
my question is this, should i plan to upgrade the bike as and when i can afford too or should i save the cash up and spend it on a better equipped bike?
anything i have to spend will take quite a while to save up so im not sure what is best long term?
im sure people have asked this a million times before so your helps appreciated!

supersonic

Depends how you budget and long term goals/ target pan out.

what are you aiming for?

bjohnson

well realistically i would be sticking to a hardtail as most of the time my cycling is cycle tracks rather than trails but i would like to have the ability to be better equipped. I did the world champs course and cour trail and the biggest problem were vibrations on the fast secttions and cramped hands from hard braking on the technical bits.
im still learning but it seems that by the time i have upgraded to disc brakes new forks wheels i could get that on a new bike. but to save that much for a new bike will take me about 18 months where as upgrading would let me have some of those things a bit sooner
hope that makes sense

supersonic

Is yours the disc version?

Frame is quite nice so worthy of upgrading, but forks would be top of my list, a 100mm Tora or Recon.

bjohnson

no didnt get the disc version does have the 'holes' for the disc upgrade though

supersonic

On the hubs too? If not would need new wheels, so if want discs would seriously consider a new bike.

s-worksenduro

Best way is to look at the areas you want to improve, see how much it would cost to uprade these parts, and then see what sort of bike you could buy for the money. If you are looking at getting new forks, disc brakes and a wheelset, it is probably better looking at complete bikes, especially if you were thinking of doing the drivetrain as well.

What you could do though is turn it into a long term project. Upgrade it gradually over the next year or two, carrying out the work yourself so that you learn the mechanical skills (will save you a fortune in labour costs!) and then if you wanted, later on down the line, you could get a new frame.

First though I would definitely sit down with a calculator and price up possible upgrades otherwise you can easily spend an awful lot!! Also, is there any chance you could get a bike through the cycle to work scheme? Save a large percentage, and you pay it off through your salary over a year or so, meaning no waiting for saving!!

bjohnson

thanks for the help guys.
im a house husband so the work scheme isnt an option unfortunatley!
i did wonder about doing it as i go then replacing the frame down the line but got a bit put off from reading other threads about different bits having different sizes and fittings etc, or is that me over complicating it?

s-worksenduro

The majority of stuff should swap straight over, you may need to get a new front mech, bottom bracket and headset when you get the frame, but some frames do come with a seatpost, clamp and headset. Possibly looking at an extra £50 when you come to buy a frame.
It will cost more than a new bike of a similar spec, normally you are looking at an extra 20-30%, but if you are doing it as a long term project, this should offset that a bit. Also, if you do go down this avenue, keep all of the bits you take off so you can reassemble the "old" bike when you are done to raise some more funds!