Help with what is wrong with my giant please

u05harrisb

just started mountain biking at the beggining of the summer holidays, managed to get myslef a giant boulder for £250 at the LBS. i ride alot, every wednesday with the local XC racer guys, at least 2 times on top of that then in the hols an extra 1 or 2 times on top all of them on bridleways dirt tracks and paths that sort of stuff, i know ive done at least 2000 miles on it. one im amazed the bike has lived of a sort, its time for new brake pads apparentally is this a normal sort of timing? the back are trashed well and truly and the fronts are doing a little better wear wise. the rims are apparentally have also hit their safety line thing, care to elaborate please? the rear "cone" of my back wheel isalso gone, whats the rear cone? the forks that came on the bike are horrid! they didnt really move much at all when i got it and have now nearly compleatly stoped moving at all over a ride, is there anything i can do about this? because im in effect running a really heavey rigid fork! not awsome

thanks everybody!

bennett_346

If you have money to upgrade the forks, do it, get some RS toras or something, cheap in the chain reaction sale right now.

And yes, the pad wear is not abnormal.

u05harrisb

i do have money to upgrade forks but im saving for a new bike at the moment so im gonna try and live with the awfulness and save up and probably get a carbon fibre XC secound hander probably because all the people i ride and will be raceing with soon all have carbon racers and im keeping up and doing close time wise runs on a bike nearly twice as heavey so im hoping when i upgrade il slay them haha

supersonic

2000 miles is good going for brake pads!

Tom Barton

Replace the brake pads - quite normal for them to wear over this distance.

The 'cone' is a cup and cone style bearing system used on shimano hubs alot. They require occasional maintenance to prolong their life and keep smooth. The chances are the bearings are worn and will need replacing. If that's way over your head, may be worth popping down the LBS so they can either do the job for you or at least make sure you get the right bits to DIY.

Don't discount other bikes for your upgrade too. Carbon is super fly yes but there are also titainium and of course a well chosen alu frame will cost less and let you drape super shiny kit on it! Not that carbon frames arn't good, just don't buy because everyone else is buying, buy the bike that's best for you.

hbrashaw

boardman pro ht? for your next bike
toras or recons for forks
superstar for brake pads

u05harrisb

aww okay to be fair im not too suprised by the pads just wanted to compare, i dont break much doing mainly XC stuff so i guess thats why, i dont think im gonna bother getting the cone thing sorted because im gonna get a new bike in the new year, funnily enough i was planning on getting a boardman pro HT but i think i might get an ex rental one from my LBS they have a Kona Kula Gold for £850 just need to find if it fits me and then they also have a Moda carbon race bike which is just soo soo cool and is £1300 just over my budget but if its still in the shop next year im so having that!!!

are there any recomendations for brake pads that they would more than likly have in store when i take the bike over today?

thanks guys!!

cooldad

Cones probably just need a grease and adjusting. Simple 5 minute job.

cycle monster

Sounds like fairly routine servicing to me. Ask your LBS how much they charge for a service, you might be pleasantly surprised.

cooldad

Sounds like you just need to do some basic reading - look through the technical forums, or follow the link in Nicklouse's sig for Parktools, and learn some basic maintenance.
Much cheaper, and more fun to do it yourself, and sooner or later something will go wrong on the trail. If you know how it works, you can probably fix or bodge it.