Carrera Hardtail thread - owners pictures and spec's

The Rookie

You have to look at every component, bar ends (do you use them as they aren't at the same angle!), grips, bars, stem, seatpost, saddle, seatpost clamp etc etc. how much does the rim tape weigh, lightweight can be circa 5g, I've seen it as heavy as 45g, tubes etc

step83

Haha yes I do use them, I noticed after I took the photo an muttered some insults to myself.

Weight saving does get a bit much, rim tape I'm using electrical tape if I can get some folding slicks I'll miss very to those once I wear these out an probably go tubeless at the same time for less rotational weight. May look at a lighter stem and sawing down the bars a bit though

The Rookie

1 layer of electrical tape will weigh about 5g.

Folding will save you about 100g a tyre.

Foam grips are a good one to try, often about 70g saving over a push on for less than a tenner.

step83

foam ones sound a good idea, bit of shock absorption as well possibly as ive no suspension. I did order a new chain ring today keep spinning out on this and hill were far quicker. Going up to a 38T narrow wide so I dont have to worry about a chain device. And yes, its purple!

Tyre wise I had a look mine are 675g front 570g rear, If I go down to a 1.5 slick I can get 485g per side less if I got thinner. We are talking 200g 1.1's though. Im now looking around to see what else I can do to make it lighter blaming you for that! :evil: haha

The Rookie

Lots of options available, a wired 1.5" will be about 500g (I've tried a few), a folding 1.5" will be about 400g, Schwalbe do a 1.35" Durano which is just under 300g (road tyre thickness of tread though) and for 2 parts of not much (about £7) Decathlon do a 1.2" that is about 425g.

step83

Ill keep those 1.2s in mind could be handy for the summer thinking these will be a little safer for winter or some semi slicks so least im not worrying about soggy leaves!

Went out for a whiz tonight was very very quick feeling the bars need to be a bit narrower turning felt a bit slow for my liking being 710mm though is probably why. Ill see about chopping them down and possibly going with a longer stem if I'm too upright. defiantly noticed it being easier to accelerate though.

The Rookie

You certainly notice the improvement in acceleration the most.

710mm is a bit wide for road use, my commuter is on 580's (flat, no rise and minimal upsweep) as it helps get past traffic, I run a 100mm stem, no spacers below it (all above) and the stem flipped (so it's practically horizontal) to further lower the front end, my grips are about 3" below saddle height.

step83

Im loving it to be fair, new ring turned up today £15 for a narrow wide you cant go wrong. Ill see about fitting it either tomorrow or the weekend. The camera really hates the purple unfortunately.

38T crazyness ahead

The Rookie

May find that a but undergeared, I run a 46t on my commuter and could just top that out in the old 11t rear downhill (over 40mph), but have recently swapped to a Shimano 12-27 cassette to get a slightly lower first gear.

step83

Did about 30 miles yesterday, cant really comment gearing wise route I went on was pretty exposed so i was battling headwinds and crosswinds most of the time. Riding downhill and having to pedal to keep momentum sucks.
Hills were interesting not sure my fitness will let me do too many big hills at the moment but ill get there.

I've chopped 20mm off each end of the bars so turning felt much better and looks less daft. Now im getting a lot of tingling in the hands though so would i be right in thinking i need a slightly longer stem? I used the bar ends to sort the discomfort for that ride but its not pleasent.

Think ill need to start a thread for this bike its becoming a little obsessive!

The Rookie

Tingling in the hands can be many things, road buzz for example, the angle of the grip area (back and up sweep) or if it's like "pins and needles" it could be pressure reducing the blood supply.

step83

True, probably a combination of me holding the grips too tight and the buzz from the road, some of the roads were pretty rubbish and slippery with leaves and such.
Ill give it a try again this weekend hopefully if its dry and less windy i can relax a bit more on the ride

demelitia

Here's my 2013 Vengeance. Bought the middle of this year for a bit of canal path exercise. Had about 600 miles out of it so far, no problems apart from a faulty bottom bracket and the gears being completely out of whack from the off.



Homemade front mudguard, crud catcher, and bikehut rear. I think ill be doing away with the crud catcher.

Recently (last week or so) spent a bit of money on it:

Conti X-king racesports and Conti Supersonic tubes to replace the standard 'robust' Kenda offerings and get rid of some unneeded weight. I'm sure the Kenda tyres on their own must have weighed nearly a kilo each!
Selle Italia C2 gel flow saddle - mainly as a result of a 5 hour ride making mincemeat of my giblets.
Deity seatclamp - because its red.
Wellgo OEM Flat pedals (Gusset copies I think?) - Lighter than the original alloy pair, grippier from what I can tell. The main problem is they've turned out to be pink in most lights rather than red. I'll leave them on for now and see if they annoy me enough to get rid of them.
The new additions are all untested and untweaked apart from a quick ride around the block, i'll update with any observations.

Next up,RS Reba RL's up front and some Avid Juicy's. So much for a bit of canal path exercise eh? I'll need some lighter weight wheels; 'Carrera' really arent afraid of speccing portly gear on these bikes.

We'll see what Santa brings...

Lewis A

There's a lot going on there, but it's looks good! The seat seems very low though, do you have very short legs?!?

demelitia

Thanks. Yes I do have short legs, but not quite that short ha! The seat was there after putting the seatclamp and all the other gubbins on, it's usually slightly higher. I had little time to set everything back to my normal layout as I needed to leave for work.
Ive got a few bikes, the parts and accessories have been switched around from place to place trying to find what works. I don't usually have the bottle cages on for example, hydration gets taken care of by an Osprey Raptor 14 (nice piece of kit) which I lent out on the giblet crushing ride I mentioned. It just happens that everything has ended up on this one leaving the other ones bare.
I'm usually the nominated ride mechanic ( why is anyone's guess, I've only just started getting back in to bikes) so having the pump and toolbox always on the bike is handy. I don't mind a little extra weight when I'm out with friends on a cruise. If I'm on my own it gets stripped back.

The Rookie

Slightly higher? Should be about 6" higher!

demelitia

I don't have it quite that high, it works for me though so I figure that's where it should be. 600 + miles without any issues as I say. The bike was a bargain due to someone else making an impulse buy. It's maybe an inch or so too big for me, but I wasn't going to turn it down for the price. It meant I had a bike that was a bit more xc capable than the vitus vee 29 I'd been commuting on. My plan was to have this as a hack/tinker bike whilst I built up an On One Carbon Whippet frame as a 1 x 9 set up. When I finally got around to ordering the frame they'd gone out of stock in the size I wanted and have discontinued production in favour of the 456 evo's I think? Just my luck.
As it stands I'm at a bit of a crossroads, but all the parts I'm buying can easily be switched on to whatever frame I end up with and I'm keeping the originals to rebuild the bike if I decide to sell it.

CipherMaven

Here is my Carrera Kraken in completely original spec as far as I am aware. I bought it from a work colleague many years ago. It covers less than 100 miles a year as I am a roadie first and foremost. The only changes I have made are to replace the chain and add the bottle cage. Could someone confirm the year of manufacture for me? From reading around I believe it is a 2003 model.

Thanks

The Rookie

Check the frame number, it has the last two digits of the year in it, I think that is 2003/4 as they only change models every two years.

CipherMaven

Thanks Rookie. The frame number is P3BM36720. There's not a two digit year by the look of it so do you think the 3 between the P and B signifies 2003?

The Rookie

Yes, I forgot they only went 2 digit later and the paint scheme tallies with it being about that year anyway!

deadbeat13

Here's my Carrera Kraken - I must have been a good boy last year as Santa dropped it off for me on Christmas day....



It's my first bike (pedal powered) since i was a lanky teenager 20 years ago. They've come on a bit since then!
Looking forward to getting filthy on it.
Ta for looking,
Nick

arkitekt88

I have the same Kraken, got it in the summer.
Just been for my first ride of 2015 and got absolutly drenched! Had to cut the ride short unfortunatly but the bike performs very well in the wet thanks to the fantastic tyres on it. I have lots of confidence despite poor weather.
Hope you enjoy your new ride!

step83

After faffing with stems etc on the kraken i came to the conclusion the 50mm was to stubby and kept my too upright. So popped to the LBS and came back with a nice 90mm Deda stem which feels great and actually looks better on the bike

FizzyArmilzz

Can anyone suggest any upgrades I can do to my Vulcan?
Have just recently changed shifters, dérailleur and bled brakes, everything is stock except pedals, dont know what pedals are on it but theyre plastic.
Have 2013 Kraken wheels on it with 2 random tyres.
Have 2 brand new Halo Knobbler Tyres in the house ready to go when I need to.

The Rookie

Tyres and forks, the two most important components, although if you have plastic pedals then possibly a vaguely safe pedal will come first as they have similar grip to as if they were made of ice.

FizzyArmilzz

I tried to remove these pedals but they wouldnt budge, what exactly do I do to remove them?

buddy_club

One side has reverse threads, so unscrews clockwise (left i think) If that's not the problem then try some shock and unlock spray used on cars and old machinery - don't get it on the brakes though.

arkitekt88

Hi all,

My Carrera Kraken 2015 is completly stock and has had nothing done to it thus far.
If there were any upgrades you would suggest, what would be the first thing you would change?

dirkpitt74

Probably brakes. Not used Clarkes brakes but some of the reviews aren't too favourable.
Kraken got a good review in MBUK last month and came top of the group test.