Spending £300 on a bike to upgrade later

dhobiwallah

Just looking at the number of threads of the - I have £300 what should I get variety - and numerous replies recommending good frames with (comparatively) poorly specced components to upgrade later.

How much do people spend on upgrading? If I could only afford £300 on a bike how much is another £50 going to get me later on? Maybe some people have a regular amount that they see as 'hobby money' so will have £300 every few months or so and over a period will end up with a £1200 bike based on a frame from a £300 jobber...

Maybe it is just me, but I can't see me having the spare cash to make it worth replacing the parts as the new ones would probably be so close in spec to the originals I may as well have sprung for them initially at a considerably lower overall cost. (having bought twice).

If you buy properly decent upgrades are you polishing a turd? Not to put anyones new pride and joy down, but a fantastic frame on an entire bike costing £300 is all relative - I would suggest that putting a brand new set of XTR brakes costing over £300 on their own is not a sensible use of resources...

While there is eBay and CRC etc bargains do they still make it cost effective? (Although my hardtail does have some bargain-tastic brakes as combined brake/gear levers were as popular as being stuck in a lift with Jedward and they are the wrong (American) way round!)

While I can see the sense in buying cheap(ish) initially to see if we end up with another fanatic or someone else ends up with a posh clothes horse, at the beginners end of the market you are probably better off replacing that inital 300 quid-er with an entirely new bike (maybe a poor frame with nice components and transfer everything across in one go!)

So when you upgrade how far beyond the original do you go (Alvio to XTR? :shock: ) and how much do you spend relative to the cost of the bike to date....

supersonic

In most cases it is better value to buy full bikes - however the price of new ones as gone up, so upgrading a cheaper model can be viable. It is all about research, you goals and the bike. So what happens will vary a lot, person to person.

If you buy a £300 with average parts throughout, you may replace them all. Costly. But if you buy one with half good, half bad, you may only replace half of them.

The most important component is the fork, Assuming the bike fits, you want a light, smooth fork with effective damping. Most forks on bikes below £500 are pretty dire. Even below £1000 they are not always great: so fitting a good fork like a Reba to a budget bike can have massive rewards.

Even at £300 I would make sure it has disc wheels and 9 speed groupset. Remember you don't HAVE to upgrade parts - drivetrains can be remarkably similar, but 9 speed opens up a lot of choices still.

If I was going to do this I would start with this:

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-53 ... 68118.html

Is a good buy in it's own right. Add a Reba (£250), hydro brakes (£80) and maybe new wheels and you'd have a great bike.

garynevstasche

supersonic wrote:

In most cases it is better value to buy full bikes - however the price of new ones as gone up, so upgrading a cheaper model can be viable. It is all about research, you goals and the bike. So what happens will vary a lot, person to person.

If you buy a £300 with average parts throughout, you may replace them all. Costly. But if you buy one with half good, half bad, you may only replace half of them.

The most important component is the fork, Assuming the bike fits, you want a light, smooth fork with effective damping. Most forks on bikes below £500 are pretty dire. Even below £1000 they are not always great: so fitting a good fork like a Reba to a budget bike can have massive rewards.

Even at £300 I would make sure it has disc wheels and 9 speed groupset. Remember you don't HAVE to upgrade parts - drivetrains can be remarkably similar, but 9 speed opens up a lot of choices still.

If I was going to do this I would start with this:

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-53 ... 68118.html

Is a good buy in it's own right. Add a Reba (£250), hydro brakes (£80) and maybe new wheels and you'd have a great bike.

This is an interesting conversation and one I'm contemplating currently (spend less now and add to it in future, or spend a bit more now).

Re: the Decathlon bike above, would it be better to spend the extra £150 upfront and get:

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/81-2011-id_8168695.html

dhobiwallah

supersonic wrote:

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-53 ... 68118.html

Is a good buy in it's own right. Add a Reba (£250), hydro brakes (£80) and maybe new wheels and you'd have a great bike.

I suppose that's my point. Between those 2 bikes listed in this thread (£350 vs £500) If you add £250 + £80 (x2 to get similar to the elixirs) + £150 on wheels (£560 in upgrades) added to the original £350 you had over £900 to spend in the first place. And it is now attached to a frame from a £350 bike which now seems like the weak link

dhobiwallah

garynevstasche wrote:

Re: the Decathlon bike above, would it be better to spend the extra £150 upfront and get:

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/81-2011-id_8168695.html

Don't know enough about the specific bikes but a quick google:

Suntour Fork £85 vs Rockshox £185
Mech Disc? vs Elixir 3s £160)

Before you even go down the route of X5 vs X7 and other differences you have more than made your money listed above. Not helped by the fact you will be binning new or hardly used forks/brakes you have already spent £85 plus on simply to throw away.

garynevstasche

That was my thought really.

It's only £150 more, but you seem to be getting spec which would cost a lot more than £150 to put on the first bike. Plus the frame is probably better to begin with.

I mean you might be able to make a bit back selling the bits off the first bike, but not a great deal I wouldn't have thought.

The Rockrider 8.1 might be an extreme example to use though, as it seems to be unanimously considered well over-specced for its price.

dhobiwallah

I wouldn't write off the frame necessarily (although I don't know about the rockrider range specifically). The point that a lot make about the upgrade option is that the frame is quite often the same on a large portion of a bike 'range' and may even be identical on the bottom and top end machines (although a lot now have a carbon top-end bike).

I would have thought in this case you will be better off in the wallet going for the higher end bike straight off in this case. You might get lucky with eBay on stripping the other bike but I wouldn't hold out much hope for a high price on mech disc brakes, as an example. You, along with everyone else, will be looking for deals on the 'upgrade', not on an £85 fork with miles on it already.

Enjoy whatever you get though - but get it soon, the trails are awesome at the moment!

supersonic

It is wear you draw the line. Spend £650 and you can get bikes from Germany with Rebas. Spend a grand and you can get carbon.

danlightbulb

But would 95% of people really benefit from a carbon frame? I wonder what the 'optimum' price is for a casual MTB rider to spend? Everyone on here says the RR8.1 is the best bike for £500, but then alot say the Boardman Comp is better for the £650 but I can't see much in the spec that makes that difference. These bikes from Germany with Reba's sound good, no-one probably knows about them though (I certainly don't know where to go for them on the net).

Wish someone would just write a guide and say something like:

If your a once a week or two week rider who likes to ride cannock, llandegla, brecon; then buy this £500 rockrider.
If you've been riding for x months and want to go X% faster then buy this boardman comp.

Well you sort of get my drift i'm sure. Too much choice around imo, can be a bad thing.

FYI i've been riding 6 months on my Rockrider 5.2 and am feeling its fork and brake limitations, definately holding me back if only on confidence to carry speed into corners and jumps. Should I have spent £500 on the 8.1 from the off, yes in hindsight I should have. Would I benefit now by spending £1k +. No I don't think so.

Chunkers1980

The RR, if you take DH, drops of >1 foot, going as fast as possible, looks and FS out of the equation it would equal the RR for VFM

supersonic

Wish someone would just write a guide and say something like:

If your a once a week or two week rider who likes to ride cannock, llandegla, brecon; then buy this £500 rockrider.
If you've been riding for x months and want to go X% faster then buy this boardman comp.

If it was as simple as that I would have said it. It is not though - as budget increases, more options become available.

The Boardman Comp gets an Epicon air fork. This is lighter and more adjustable, and for some is worth the extra, especially with the lighter frame. Is it worth it for you? Either are good buys.

Carbon framed bikes often take a slight hit on spec, but you will save more weight on the frame, and are often a smoother ride. So again, something to weigh up if thinking about an upgrade path.

danlightbulb

supersonic wrote:

Spend £650 and you can get bikes from Germany with Rebas.

Any chance of a link supersonic?

Have searched net to no avail.