Improving MTB tips?

Genesis Core 20

Hi,
I have a Genesis Core 20 and i want to improve it a bit. Ive had it 2 years now and i love it. But im trying to improve it a little, ive ordered new grips and DMR pedals. Im looking to improve looks and maybe performance. Any ideas?
Thanks

robertpb

How much money are you thinking of spending, there's quite a lot of upgrading you could do.

Genesis Core 20

Not very much im afraid, ive spent 40 on pedals and 15 on grips. It depends what i would be spending the money on, i could stretch to £100. Is that enough?

bails87

Tyres would be the obvious place to start, what have you got now?

Genesis Core 20

Ive still got standard tyres because i wouldnt have a clue were to start with new tyres. Is there any that would give me some protection against punctures and give me grip?

gonetothehills

Reducing rotating weight is one of the best ways of imrproving performance, so tyres and (obviously!) wheels are a good place to start. For £100 though - you might be pushing it to better the wheels that are currently on there.

What sort of terrain to do you ride on? You should be able to pick some 2nd hand (with decent life left) ones up on the forums - or quite happily buy new with your budget. Maxxis, Panaracer and Schwalbe all have a range of treads for different terrains, but consider the High Roller / Advantage from Maxxis for general all-round use - and they're not too draggy on the roads if you're riding to the trails from home. Out of interest, what do you have on there at the moment? The advantage of getting some good 2nd hand ones is you can try them out without breaking the bank to see if you notice an improvement, and that you're happy with them.

If you just want to treat it to some bling though (as you mentioned 'looks' as well as 'performance' - some new QR skewers, stem spacers, bottle cage bolts, all nicely colour coded are a good way of giving it some upgrade love... 8) Won't do anything for the performance, but if you've got change left over from the tyres...

Genesis Core 20

I would like to focus on making it lighter if possible, is there any other light weight parts i could get? And could i get 2nd hand light weight wheels cheap enough?

Ive still got standard tyres on and im not 100% on what they are :roll:
Thanks for your help

gonetothehills

I've just had a look on google and if it's a 2009 Core 20, then you have Alex DP-17 rims laced to some Shimano M495 hubs, by the looks of it.

If you went for something further up the Shimano range, on some Mavic rims you'd get lighter weight, strength and better hub sealing. If you could stretch to say £150 you might pick up some Hope Pro II, or the older XC hubs on Mavic rims and have massively better sealed hubs (and the possibly of a colour to clash with your frame!) There seem to be a few sets of Bontrager Rhythm wheels on the For Sale forum at the moment - just had a look and there's a set there for £100. I don't have personal experience of these but they're not going to be a bad wheel. Don't forget you can add a bit to your coffers by flogging your existing wheels if they're still servicable...

The only consideration (and this is based on the assumption that I've identified your bike correctly) is that you have Centrelock disc rotors, and you may find that most other brands (than Shimano) use the 6 bolt ones. You can either sell your rotors and buy 6 bolt ones or get adaptors to make them fit. HTH.

Genesis Core 20

I have the white version but thats pretty much exactly the same (the one in the pic has presta valves which mine doesnt, if that makes any difference) I dont have the green one! I should be able to stretch my budget and as you say i could sell my current wheels (their like new).
And what do you mean about the rotors? Is this to reduce weight?

getonyourbike

I thoroughly recommend Maxxis Advantage tyres, in the 2.1s they make a good cross country tyre but if you get the 2.25s they're a great trail/am tyre with lots of volume to stop pinch punctures and loads of cornering grip. I switched from teh standard Speed Kings and noticed a massive difference straight away, I can keep teh speedkings for summer now.

gonetothehills

The rotors (if they're as they are on the Evans spec) attach to your hubs using Shimano's proprietory splined method. It's cool - works well and is easy to put on and take off. Problem is, other companies to Shimano make hubs!

They (pretty much) all use a way of attaching the rotors that instead of the splined lockring uses 6 small bolts. Again - works fine and has done since the birth of disc brakes on MTBs - but to get your rotors to fit on some new Hope hubs (or those Bonty wheels that I mentioned above, for example) you'd either need to buy some '6 bolt rotors' or get an adaptor. I'd be inclined to sell the rotors (separate to the wheels as you'll make more doing it like that) and get some new (or new to you) ones for the new wheels. Neater that way.

gonetothehills

Here you go - this is a Hope Pro II hub, and you can see 5 of the 6 bolt holes for the disc rotors on the left hand side



and the 6 bolt rotors look like this:



This is a CentreLock disc hub (the spline that the rotor attaches to is the notched silver bit on the LHS).



and the rotors look like this



That rotor is on Chain Reaction for the princely sum of £9 posted! It's a Deore one, 160mm (check the diameter of yours before you go ordering them - you need to match them up or your brakes will need adaptors too!)

Northwind

Nice bikes those, and not many glaring shortfalls in the spec...

With a budget of £100, leave the wheels alone- too expensive to get a really worthwhile upgrade. Use what you have for now, upgrade only if you have to (ie they start to get knocked out of round, or the hubs wear- but if you service them, they should last)

Tyres though, definately, oem spec mountain kings are mince. Tyres are a minefield though, so many contradictory opinions and it depends on your riding and your trails. On One have a big discount on Schwalbe Nobby Nics which are light, fast, and good allrounders- not ideal tyres for the middle of winter though and not massively tough. Kenda Nevegals are another great allrounder, but there's loads out there. But it's definately going to be worth looking at.

If saving weight is the idea, get some cheap scales- you can't save weight til you know what stuff weighs. It's amazing how much weight hangs around in some components, I've got a seatpost that weighs half a kilo in the garage, it looks nice and it's bontrager branded but it's like an anvil. My brother's road bike came with inner tubes that weigh 400 grams. Stuff like that. Better to spend time than money at this point.

Other than that- if you're ever asking "What should I upgrade" that's usually a sign that you should upgrade nothing. Stuff will come up over time that doesn't work for you or starts to wear so save your funds til then. You don't want to spend £100 for a used set of wheels that aren't much better than what you have, then break the rear mech tomorrow or something