Lightening the load on a Carrera Vulcan & Improving Brak

mattrixdesign2

My Mrs has a 16inch Carrera Vulcan, nice bike for the money, gears are great, frame great etc. I want to both try and get out a bit more and do some proper MTB rides, we have both done Grizedale Forest and other "proper" MTB rides, I go out on my own a couple of times a month.

I have just upgraded the tyres on my Specialized Rock Hopper to some Nobby Nics, I then put my old Specialized tyres on her Carrera, it took a lot of hard work to get the stock tyres off the Carrera, very tight fit, and they were wide and chunky and weighed a tonne, the new tyres were easy to put on :? . So its already a weight saving and performance upgrade.

Any ideas what else can be changed to improve things, but on a tight budget? The pedals are not up too much so they will get changed. The fork is clunky and chunky, but I expect the only time that would be changed is when I upgrade mine, she can have the Darts - if they would fit. Wheels may be another upgrade, again when I change mine (it seems she will be getting all the hand me downs!).

What else is there that will be adding excess weight?

ALSO - it has Tektro Cable disc brakes, nice addition to a cheap bike, but my old V-Brakes on previous bikes were stronger. The brakes seem "spongy", I presume this is pull on the cable... Any easy upgrade, is it worth swapping the pads out to give a bit more grip?

The Rookie

Best and easiest upgrade would be to some hydraulic discs - you should be able to get a pair for about £60 used, that will save you about 1/2lb in weight and give better braking., the DDM wheels on the vulcan are actually reasonably light and pretty tough (lighter and tougher than the spesh/Alex combo on lower level Speshs which are weak and heavy (the rear weighs over 1300g), total weight is about 2150g), The Vulcan is a well balanced package in that it has no obvious weaknesses (other than tyres) to exploit cheaply but bars and stem are a good (and easy) place to start.

Simon

mattrixdesign2

Aye - it is a good bike.

The tyres were horrendous though, really big tread, very wide, and a pain to get off he rim, its was hard work, once off I realised how heavy and stiif they were.

The Specialized tyres were dead easy to get on (and off if there is a puncture!).

I will think about brakes. As the performance is shoddy, it doesn get used that often, but she is willing to give a good try off road, just want to make things easier

The Rookie

I've ridden 2 bikes on the Tektro IO's (A Vulcan and a some fitted to a Scott that came off a Banshee) and neither felt very good at all, the daughters BF's Spesh has Avid BB5's and they are much better - if you just want to improve braking without losing weight swapping just the callipers to those would help.

Simon