Carrera Hardtail thread - owners pictures and spec's

The Rookie

When your legs are old* may have an excuse then! Until then......

*ANY age younger than mine is young as I never intend to get old, either gracefully or disgracefully!

Bulletproofbob

I'll work on it ha ha! Loving the bike, reviews are spot on and I love it


Just been reading your Kraken thread, amazing!! I fancy shedding a little weight but the belly is first point of contact

Yslen

One of my tasks for this week: take some decent pictures of my bike.

johnp801

Is this frame (year 04, I believe), significantly inferior to later and newest types, Kraken and Fury frames, (ref - weight, etc), in any way?

The reason I ask is I have pretty much changed/replaced everything on this bike and the gears "never" miss a change, the hydraulic brakes stop dead and the wheels spin great. The only major thing I would consider putting on now, is to preplace the current RockShox Recon Silver TK forks with a set of lighter and better ones such as Recon Gold, Reba or Suntour Epicon .............but, is the frame holding the build back significantly by being not as good as current incarnations??
if not, I may look at upgrading the forks and probably, eventually, put a hollowtech Chainset on it

blue9iron

The only thing holding this bike back are the reflectors all over it get rid.

The Rookie

That frame stayed in the Carrera HT's until 2011, anecdotal evidence suggests the later frame is if anything slightly heavier, my 16" we weighs in at around 1750g.

johnp801

Thanks, Rookie. I just dont want to find out I'm flogging a dead horse, in upgrading the parts on this frame.
However, this frame is very different from even the 2008 Fury "All Mountain" version that I did have (for my mrs). That frame seemed to be the same as the current incarnations, (i.e. with the additional seat post reinforcing support). My mrs went on to get a Rockrider 8.1 which is very nice and weighs about 5lb lighter than the same sized Fury AM (2008) and maybe 4-5LBS lighter than my own Kraken.
Apart from the weight, I prefer my Kraken (20 inch frame) in its current state than the Rockrider. The forks are identical apart from the Rockriders being remote Lockout but my Deore/Deore XT shifters and derailleurs work smoother and quieter than the Sram X7 set on the rockrider, (plus I much prefer the Shimano, push - pull) and the Superstar headset on the Kraken seem smoother than whatevever is inside the Rockrider, too.
I think that the point I am making is my Kraken frame seems to be a lot heavier than the rockrider, even though its a bigger frame, (20 inch, compared to 18 inch) as that is the only place I can see where the difference can be.
If I swap the Recon Silver TK forks out for a set of Epicons, that may drop just over a pound off the weight of the Kraken. I'm not sure if changing the chainset to a Hollowtech set, which make that much a significant difference, yet

The Rookie

I doubt the frame is much heavier, at that price point the RR frame won't be below 1600g (I don't know what it does way) and while the later frame is meant to be heavier than the old one, I've never seen weights but I doubt it's over 1850g, leaving the MAXIUMUM difference as 250g, leaving the rest of the 5lb to worry about first!

step83

I think my 2004 version of the Kraken frame is about 1.7 Kg an thats a 20in version. Its stripped so weather permitting i may go out and weigh it tomorrow for you

The Rookie

My 2006 stripped weighed 1485g, painted 1735g.

johnp801

Very interested in hearing what your 20 inch, 2004 frame actually weighs, Steps 83

Kowalski675

Haven't ridden my Kraken since buying my Boardman and was going to sell it, but now thinking of using it for local xc type rides (towpaths, woods, moors etc) now that the summer's a distant memory and everything's muddy (less cleaning and wear an tear on pivot bearings). Just bought a new chain for it, it's getting the Elixir 3s off my Boardman and I'm hovering over Epicon forks on Ebay (if I get those then it'll get a shorter stem too). Could do with a cheap inline seatpost too.

The Rookie

For info, I just got the chance to weigh an 18" latest shape frame and was amazed as it came in at just on 2Kg, that's over 250g heavier than my 16" 2006 frame!

Kowalski675

The Rookie wrote:

For info, I just got the chance to weigh an 18" latest shape frame and was amazed as it came in at just on 2Kg, that's over 250g heavier than my 16" 2006 frame!

But there's more metal in an 18", obviously.

johnp801

I'm still very interested in if anyone can tell me the weight of a bare 20 inch, 2004 Kraken frame.

The Rookie

Kowalski675 wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

For info, I just got the chance to weigh an 18" latest shape frame and was amazed as it came in at just on 2Kg, that's over 250g heavier than my 16" 2006 frame!

But there's more metal in an 18", obviously.

Yes, but there shouldn't be 250g worth,rear triangle is the same, BB shell the same, 2" of seattube, 20mm of toptube and 35mm of downtube plus some headtube should be about 80g at most!

step83

Sorry totally forgot about weighing it! just come in from checking.

Frame with dropout the four bolts for the bottle holders and parts of the headset that dont fall off when you remove the fork 2.3Kg i checked the scales im using with a 2Kg weight didn't realise it was that heavy.

The Rookie

Stock headset is about 140g for the two bearings.

johnp801

Many thanks Step83, it was as I had thought/feared. The 2004 Kraken frame is just a heavy frame (it certainly looks it). I guessed the bulk of the weight difference between that and the Rockrider 8.1 was in the frame. Good to have accurate and informed info rather than just guesses and wishful thinking....many thanks again for going to the trouble of checking it for me, I appreciate it. I'm thinking a change of frame may be as applicable as putting air forks and hollowtech chainset on it, now. I'd never be remotely interested in taking the paint off it, taking the gears off it (derailleurs, cassette, triple chainset and shifters), or putting SPD pedals on it as that is just silly to me as I want it to retain some semblance of the bike its intended to be.
I dont think any Carrera hardtail ever built comes anywhere near close to what Decathlon are knocking out as the Rockrider 8.1 and especially in that price range, even if looking at it as a starting point to upgrade.
P.S. Just thought...that Fury that came with the Epicon fork is probably the closest.......but wasn't it 700 quid??

The Rookie

The 2004 kraken frame is the same as my 2006, that is 1735g for a 16" and not heavy at all!

I agree though, no Carrera has matched the VFM of the RR 8.1

step83

I was very miffed when i weighed it to be honest. Im going to be building it as a commute bike so im not massively concerned if the frames weighty. But yes have to agree the RR's cannot be beaten on VFM currently.

johnp801

The Rookie wrote:

The 2004 kraken frame is the same as my 2006, that is 1735g for a 16" and not heavy at all!

I agree though, no Carrera has matched the VFM of the RR 8.1

The 2004 Kraken frame (20inch) is 2.3kg. Steps weighed one and to me...thats heavy. If your 2006 small Kraken frame is the one in all the pictures in here, the purple painted one, it is not the same as the one I have or the one Steps has and it definitely isn't the same as the 2008 Carrera Fury AM (18 inch) that we also had here before selling it, it is very different.
It is not relevant to me, what a 16 inch frame weighs as it would be like riding a childs bike and way too small. Even my mrs has a medium Rockrider (18 inch) and she is only 5ft 3 and weighs 9 stone, as a small bike would be too small for her. One thing about the Rockrider for her though...the Recon forks come with a standard spring and her weight doesnt come close to what the spring is meant for.......its doesn't seem cost effective to swap out the spring....

do forgive me if I start sounding like a weight weenie, that would be my worst nightmare, lol. I couldn't care less about the odd 50 grams here and there, its trivial and pointless, I'm just bothered about whole 1 lb lumps

The Rookie

My frame is the same one produced from 2003 or 2004 through to 2010 yes mine is a 16", but no wsy will a 20" weigh that much more, my frame weighs the same as a similar age and size Rockhopper, I've had quite a few similar budget ((saracen, voodoo, Giant etc) frames and none has been lighter.

Even if the difference from 16-20" is that much, given the above, I still doubt the RR frame is significantly lighter, bearing in mind that the frame is about 1/6 of the total weight and my bike has gone from 12.5-10.0kg with the same frame.

Knightmofo

Hey all, just got my new Carrera Kraken 2013, loving it, though what should i be thinking of upgrading first?

Kowalski675

Pedals, to grippy ones.

Knightmofo

okay, cheers looking into some, im having issues with my chain guide, it can go up however wont do down to 1st as it wont really move past 2nd.. is it too tight and how can i adjust it?

The Rookie

Post in workshop and tech, but call it a front mech, a chainguide doesn't change gears! It could be a problem with the low stop or cable tension, read up at park tools.com on how to index it.

Corners R Us

So the Carerra's been having an easy life of late as I've not really used it on the road as intended so with the mucky weather seemingly here I'm going to use it as my winter steed and take my pride&joy Marin Mount Vision off the trails and giving it a bit of a winter overhaul in readiness for next summer (rear shock overhaul, swing arm powdercoated black, new bearings if needs be, new M720 XT rear mech and new XT front mech etc).

So today I applied my winter wheels from the MV: Mavic 317s with a Maxxis High Roller 2.35 up front and a Tioga XC 1.95 at the rear. The 9 speed cassette on them has been removed and an 8-speed 11-28 applied. I'm going to drop the 42T ring and fit a bash guard I've bought today on eBay and run a 2x8 setup initially. Over the winter I'll evolve the bike into a 2x9 11-32 setup as I upgrade bits on the MV further. The stems been changed from a 110mm item to a 90mm one. The bars on the Carerra are 620mm and a bit narrow so I'll upgrade to 680mm ones in keeping with my MV setup. As luck would have it I have a spare 31.8 90mm RaceFace stem in my box of bits after changing to a 70mm one on the MV.

More updates as they occur. Corners

The Rookie

WTH is that saddle!!!!!!

Corners R Us

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sell ... -prod23428

Looks odd I know but by god is it comfy! I also have one on my Marin and wouldn't park by rear anywhere else!! Case of don't knock it until you try it.......

Only shortcoming I've discovered is the nose will bend if you miss time a landing. The one on this bike is slightly twisted to the right.

Comfy Corners