is my bike not worth upgrading

andy46

just thought i'd share this with you all to get some of your thoughts,

went for a ride today with my mate and some people from his work, all went well had a decent ride then went to get some food and got talking about what upgrades we would like to do to our bikes if we had the money.

i was saying if i had the money i would like to upgrade the forks too possibly reba's, maybe change the rear shock too and also i quite like the look of the american classic xc wheels.

it was then when this lad who my mate works with piped up and said that my bike is not worth upgrading that much as it's not a top end spark, meaning alloy frame! :evil:

is this right? just because my frames not made of carbon, i shouldn't spend my hard earned on it! or is this yet another case of the dreaded bike snob :roll:

sorry for going on, just wondered if other people think certain models are worth putting more time and effort into than others.


cheers andy

bails87

It's a very nice £1700 bike for crying out loud. He's being an idiot!

Obviously some bikes aren't worth it, but I'd say yours is.

LoUiS1985

the lad was 100% right. onlyl carbon framed bikes are wroth upgrading.

bails87

Errr......?
Sarcasm?

LoUiS1985

what do you think??
the lad who said that is obviously a f***in tool!
Spark are awesome bits of kit and well worth upgrading

bails87

Heh, was worried for a moment!

stevet1992

Upgrade away ... Ive upgraded forks wheels brakes and gearset on my Carrera Vulcan ...

andy46

bails87 wrote:

It's a very nice £1700 bike for crying out loud. He's being an idiot!

Obviously some bikes aren't worth it, but I'd say yours is.

:shock: £1700

i only paid £1460 in june from evans 8)

we we're only talking as you do, but when he said that it just made me think WTF :evil:

bails87

Was working off RRP

The Big Cheese

If the upgrades end up more costly than the frame I wouldn't bother, what I mean is, if you put a set of Rebas on a £200 Shockwave-halfords-special it would be a massive no-no.

The guy is talking bollox, upgrade away, but don't get toooooo carried away (we're all prone to that here)

xtreem

What's his frame?
What would he do to his bike?
I'm curious.

andy46

i'm not sure TBH it was a carbon frame but there was no stickers on it so i'm not sure what type it was :roll:

he has all shimano xt gear on it but he's wanting to put xtr on and upgrade to fox forks.

ride_whenever

sounds like a bit of a pr*ck...


if you did upgrade it all then you could always get the carbon frame at a later date, you can get more performance for a smaller outlay by upgrading other stuff like forks and wheels though.

Andy

andy46 wrote:

i'm not sure TBH it was a carbon frame but there was no stickers on it so i'm not sure what type it was :roll:

he has all shimano xt gear on it but he's wanting to put xtr on and upgrade to fox forks.

I bet mine is better...

77ric

andy46 wrote:

i was saying if i had the money i would like to upgrade the forks too possibly reba's, maybe change the rear shock too and also i quite like the look of the american classic xc wheels.

look if thats what you want to put on your bike remember one thing it's your bike, your the one that has to ride it so just go for it, start a saving all them pennies. after all what the feck has carbon got to do with it, there are plenty of people who wont ride a carbon bike, either cause the can't/won't trust it or just don't like how it rides.


he must have been a roadie in a past life


f*cking bike snobs,

lesz42

my bike cost £400, i upgraded the wheels (£190) and the forks (£250), mad?



NO, they made a big difference, compared to the items that came with the bike


i EVEN have XTR on it






shifter cables that is!

guilliano

I take it he has an obsession with the image of his bike (the lad talking crap I mean)?

Personally I'd say ANY Spark is worthy of whatever upgrades you want to put on it. If I had a Spark I'd happily put Rebas, Sids, Fox Float or DT Swiss forks on it..... whatever made it the bike I loved to ride

andy46

77ric wrote:

andy46 wrote:

i was saying if i had the money i would like to upgrade the forks too possibly reba's, maybe change the rear shock too and also i quite like the look of the american classic xc wheels.

look if thats what you want to put on your bike remember one thing it's your bike, your the one that has to ride it so just go for it, start a saving all them pennies. after all what the feck has carbon got to do with it, there are plenty of people who wont ride a carbon bike, either cause the can't/won't trust it or just don't like how it rides.


he must have been a roadie in a past life


f*cking bike snobs,

HE IS!!!!

meesterbond

Surely there comes a point at which it's more cost effective to buy a new bike than replace specific components (unless they're broken)..

That said, I've always ended up replacing loads of bits and pieces and then once they're as I want them, I replace the frame... the Trigger's broom philosophy I guess, which means that technically I'm riding the same bike I did 7 or 8 years ago... only it's been the 2 sets of forks, 5 frames, 3 set of wheels and goodness how many other components!

BurtonM

Here we have a case of bke snobbery. Is he an all the gear no idea guy?
He's probably got the best bike but the worst technique, is he the last one up the hills? sounds like a bit of a dick to me, when nobodys looking key his carbon frame

SPIRO

BurtonM wrote:

Here we have a case of bke snobbery. Is he an all the gear no idea guy?

...or to put it another way..all the clobber, what a knobber

Think you should upgrade the bike(which sounds v.nice btw) then give your mate a damn good thrashing on the trail....or just a damn good thrashing full stop!

.

andy46

SPIRO wrote:

BurtonM wrote:

Here we have a case of bke snobbery. Is he an all the gear no idea guy?

...or to put it another way..all the clobber, what a knobber

Think you should upgrade the bike(which sounds v.nice btw) then give your mate a damn good thrashing on the trail....or just a damn good thrashing full stop!

.

thanks for confirming what i thought guy's

he's not my mate, just someone my mate works with.(my mate is actually a good down to earth lad)
this other guy did leave me on some of the climbs not by much though i'd like to think that was his carbon hardtail

but on the rougher downhill parts i had him

at the end of the day like someone else said on here it's my bike,my money so i'll do what the hell i like with it.

jayson

My current bike was only £250 and yet ive just spent £250 on new gears, brakes, cables, wheels and tires for it.

That guy sounds like a right numpty who's best ingnored. Aslong as ur happy spending and putting new parts on ur ride then who really cares what anyone else says or thinks, its not coming out of their pockets and they dont have to ride so sod em i say!!!!

Buying new parts and upgrading ur bike is one of the most fun things in the world as u caress each and everynew part before actually putting it on the bike, the looking at all the new shininess as its all finished then that first ride with it all............ fantastic

bomberesque

basically what that lot said except..

if you only just bought the bike in June, I would think it very early to even be considering upgrades in any serious way. Of course shooting the sh!t in the pub doesn't count and we all do that but honestly, I'd enjoy your bike for at least a year before considering major upgrades (shocks, forks, wheels) if I were you. Otherwise all you're really saying is you should have bought the higher model in the first place.

That said, I'm no angel; I changed out the forks on my new HT within 2 months of building it ... but that was because I had to admit to myself that I had chosen, bought and fitted the wrong fork in the first place so all my own fault!

andy46

exactly, that's my point!

i won't be doing anything major in the near future we were just talking "if i had the money i'd etc etc" it's the way he put my bike down just because it's a lower model that wound me up a bit :evil:

he even took the p!$$ because of how clean mine and my mates bikes were before the ride, as we both clean our bikes after every ride

bomberesque

a roadie made fun of how clean your bike is? that doesn't sound right at all, roadies have been known to buff and polish their bikes *during* rides

meh, ignore him, sounds like a knob

btw if his is an unbranded carbon frame then he's got a cheek getting all snobbish on you

joec1

hahaah bomberesque you make me chuckle...

as i was reading the above posts i was thinking exactly what you wrote... haha.

had to smile.

OP. i have a Mongoose Tyax. i have things i would like ot change..... dont need ot ... but would like ot improve... its life. everyone thinking or wants better. if you are comfortable with what you have then tweak it to make it better (add better brakes etc) but if you cant get comfortable with it then swap to something altogether new.

guilliano

If he has a carbon HT and is looking to upgrade to Fox forks then he is a knob and a brand junkie. He should be looking at Rockshox Sid forks as the ONLY fork for his bike if he knows what is good (which he obviously doesn't).

Next time you ride with him get behind him on a descent and buzz his rear wheel.

SPIRO

andy46 wrote:

but on the rougher downhill parts i had him

So you are the better rider, have more balls and are the first to the bottom of the hill - i would point this out to him if I were you.

Enjoy your bike and upgrade away i say - like others said though, would give it a bit longer first though, still sounds pretty up to date to me

PS Thanks to this thread i am now looking at upgrading my bike with Ti bolts - Damn you!! :?

.

Andy

SPIRO wrote:

andy46 wrote:

but on the rougher downhill parts i had him

So you are the better rider, have more balls and are the first to the bottom of the hill - i would point this out to him if I were you.
.

Actually that makes him a better descender, not a better rider.

SPIRO

andrew156 wrote:

SPIRO wrote:

andy46 wrote:

but on the rougher downhill parts i had him

So you are the better rider, have more balls and are the first to the bottom of the hill - i would point this out to him if I were you.
.

Actually that makes him a better descender, not a better rider.

If your a downhiller - its the same thing