I don't know what I'm doing on a budget

unquestioned

Hello bike radar people. I'm here to share my bike.

First off, it's a cheap bike, a cerrera Titan special edition, cost me a whopping £300 (alot for me at the time) & it was there to replace a saracen that had been used for year.

The bike was primarily bought to use in a charity event, Maggies Monster Bike & Hike which is a 30 mile cycle & 42 mile hike from Fort William to Inverness but I also enjoy a bit of downhill/cross country riding.

It's quite a heavy bike for sure, weighing in at 18kg & all the components are budget but for me, that was fine at the start.
After doing the event I kept up on the downhill & have worn the bike a fair bit.
Everything is stock apart from the front forks which I replaced a week ago for a Rockshox Tora 100mm which I got for a bargain price & the rear shock which is a suntour something or other, also some Bontrager tyres as the halfords things were terrible.

My rear mech is on it's last legs but on the way I have some Sram XR4's with shifters & a set of giant MPH hydraulic brakes to fit, again bought at a bargain price. The parts being changed cost about £200 in total & with the bike at £300 I think I'm doing quite well on a budget.

So yes, a very cheap bike but also quite capable, I've had it down all of the Moray Monsters, The Nevis range except the championship route (a bit beyond me just now) all of the routes at Pitfichie, Laggan & a few others & nothing has broken as of yet bar 1 puncture which I suffered at Ben Aigan on New Years day after an attempt to jump a rock garden.



This is us at the start of the bike & hike

The Rookie

Sounds like the bike is giving you lots of fun, which is the main thing!

Don't get started on the upgrade route, the hill is steep and slippery, once you get started...you'll never stop!

Don't really know anything about the Titan though! Rear shock looks like an Suntour Raidon? Not brilliant but not too bad!

unquestioned

Raidon, that's the one. It was free from a friend, the original shock is a coil spring that did nothing except rattle loose every so often.

Upgrading is being done as bits break. The front shock had seized & was useless anyway with no lockout & minimal adjustment, the shifters & need to replace to fit the brakes (current is combi brake & shift) & the rear mech is on it's last legs & having trouble shifting, it has been abused though.

I'll eventually buy a new frame & such & can swap parts over. I always try to find the cheapest stuff possible, like the fork which cost me £95 which I was more than happy with after reading the reviews

allthegearnoidea

erm, wasnt the fork on the titan a 120mm?? iirc 120mm front 155mm rear?? if so dropping 20mm up front might hae a strange effect on your handling,
i seem to remember that they actually ride quite nicely out the box, and they were damn cheap for it too!!!
have seen a couple about and like the look of them!

JMcP92

It's giving you fun, can't complain, and it seems to work reasonably well. Far better than what I bought. I once (Clearly a very misguided and misunderstood time of my life) bought a full suspension Apollo from Halfords, cost me £427 and it was scared of dirt. I attempted to keep up with friends on cheap hardtails but it seemed my tyres were made out of the same rubber they use for making spacers, rock hard and grip onto nothing :P
Least you're enjoying yourself

unquestioned

allthegearnoidea wrote:

erm, wasnt the fork on the titan a 120mm?? iirc 120mm front 155mm rear?? if so dropping 20mm up front might hae a strange effect on your handling,
i seem to remember that they actually ride quite nicely out the box, and they were damn cheap for it too!!!
have seen a couple about and like the look of them!

Vastly improved it.
I'm not very experienced with bikes but compared to mates the rebound was terrible, I got alot of rattle back up through the bars & was a bit shaky over rougher stuff. Now I'm able to point the bike in the direction want much easier & it's much more stable on rough terrain, also no longer getting shaken to bits! Does feel alot different but in a postive way.

JMcP92 wrote:

It's giving you fun, can't complain, and it seems to work reasonably well. Far better than what I bought. I once (Clearly a very misguided and misunderstood time of my life) bought a full suspension Apollo from Halfords, cost me £427 and it was scared of dirt. I attempted to keep up with friends on cheap hardtails but it seemed my tyres were made out of the same rubber they use for making spacers, rock hard and grip onto nothing :P
Least you're enjoying yourself

Are you sure they were rubber & not Aberdeen granite? I bought the other half a bike for her birthday, let her choose it, she veered towards the apollo bikes because they were cheap. I said no on the ground that they weighed more than the moon, some had those horrible looking shock strut covers & while she's a total beginner I wanted her to have something that she wouldn't hate. Ended up going with a Carrera vengeance as it suited her needs & she liked pink :P

unquestioned

So now I have hydraulic brakes fitted, Giant MPH160's, got the set for £60 from JE James, was a bargain so had to be done. They feel much better on my little test than my tetro's did. Level is shorter & a better shape.
Also fitted the xr4 mech & shifter, unsure whether I like the shifter layout but most likely because I'm used to teh shinamo things I had previous. Shifting is smoother now, the altus mech was on it's way out though & was becoming very loose.

Never done any of this before & I think my chain may be too long although I'm unsure, my biking mate will have a look at it when I see him & shorten it if necessary.

So now my £300 halfords bike is alot better than it was, feels alot less cumbersome than it did, which is nice.

allthegearnoidea

Well done matey! Is great when you start learning how to do it yourself, a lot of it is Simple mechanics but we always try and find the hard way to do it!! ;-)
Re chain length, general rule of thumb is to run it round your big ring up front and the Big cog at the back NOT going through the mech and add one link, - basis being you shouldn't be using Big and Big or Small and small cogs due to Chainline angles!!

unquestioned

allthegearnoidea wrote:

Well done matey! Is great when you start learning how to do it yourself, a lot of it is Simple mechanics but we always try and find the hard way to do it!! ;-)
Re chain length, general rule of thumb is to run it round your big ring up front and the Big cog at the back NOT going through the mech and add one link, - basis being you shouldn't be using Big and Big or Small and small cogs due to Chainline angles!!

I measured it against the old chain & it has 3 more links but when I did the method you mention it seemed to work out. Unsure as to whether this has an effect, it can be fixed if need be though.

newbie_biker

The Beginner wrote:

Don't get started on the upgrade route, the hill is steep and slippery, once you get started...you'll never stop!

You're totally right about that, it's like a bloody drug. You're always looking saying to yourself "ooh, I want this" or "ooh I want that". I've always been very good with money but now that I got into this MTB lark I just dunno what has happened to me. :shock:

unquestioned

newbie_biker wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

Don't get started on the upgrade route, the hill is steep and slippery, once you get started...you'll never stop!

You're totally right about that, it's like a bloody drug. You're always looking saying to yourself "ooh, I want this" or "ooh I want that". I've always been very good with money but now that I got into this MTB lark I just dunno what has happened to me. :shock:

I'm ok when it comes to the bike, I have a budget & stick to it as much as I can.

Now, my old Alfa... different story. I just bought another one for no reason other than I could. I don't need it & will never use it

The Rookie

In 12 months mine has gone from Deore square taper, to LX to Powerspline to Deore HT2 to XT HT2.....mind you most of those upgrades were done for break even!

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The Beginner wrote:

In 12 months mine has gone from Deore square taper, to LX to Powerspline to Deore HT2 to XT HT2.....mind you most of those upgrades were done for break even!

Right over my head...
But I assume it was from better to better to better, also more expensive. Being of the noobish persuasion alot of bike talk still completely passes me by, I try to join in but I get confused :P

I do that alot with cars though, the one I'm almost finished. I put on stiffer springs on standard shocks, stiff shocks as standard, then uprated shocks, which I almost immediately took off & fitted coilovers because well, seemed like a good idea at the time.

The bike not so much like that, I'll have a look around & if I know something is about to break I'll replace it with something better or if I find something that is stupid cheap & is a vast improvement I'll do that. Can't beat a good bargain

unquestioned

So I've made a few changes.

Giant MPH hydraulic brakes
Outland D13Eight bar & stem
Outland kustom sealed pedals
Outland lock grips
sram x4 shifters & rear mech

The bike cost me £300, in parts I've spent £240 (a few bargains)

I'm happy where it is just now, it will be wheels next whenever I feel the need.



And dirty.

gt-arrowhead

Very nice I Instantly you were a bargain hunter when i saw that you bought those outland bars with the grips. Bloody bargain!!! i bought the D25Four or something like that, was an extra long one and came with grips too. £17 delivered! Those bars are actually amazing, they give you a very responsive feeling cos they are so long. I took mine off now for some red bars my brother gave me.

looks miles different from before.
I like your front wheel too, what make is it and how much did it cost you?

unquestioned

GT-Arrowhead wrote:

Very nice I Instantly you were a bargain hunter when i saw that you bought those outland bars with the grips. Bloody bargain!!! i bought the D25Four or something like that, was an extra long one and came with grips too. £17 delivered! Those bars are actually amazing, they give you a very responsive feeling cos they are so long. I took mine off now for some red bars my brother gave me.

looks miles different from before.
I like your front wheel too, what make is it and how much did it cost you?

The front wheel is the standard carrera one, I reckon the change in colour is a styling thing. When I change them I'll probably still keep the colour combo going as I like how it's got different coloured rims.

As for the bars, had to be done! I got the bars, stem, grips & pedals for £32 delivered! I was only looking for pedals as mine were worn to the point of slipping but I had to get a bar to match the colour.

Biggus86

Ride what ya got... these days it's easy to get wrapped up in upgrades and new bikes (I myself am not exempt), but it's great to see posts like this.

It's good to see your getting some bargains in aswell

gt-arrowhead

Ohh defo looks nice with different colored rims.