Giant FS upgrades

adowling92

Looking for advice on what cheap and cheerful upgrades to go for my Giant FS mtb?
I want to customise it a little and make components better.

any suggestions?

jamski

Anything you don't like about the bike or that isn't working for you? What sort of riding are you doing, and what's your budget?

adowling92

jamski wrote:

Anything you don't like about the bike or that isn't working for you? What sort of riding are you doing, and what's your budget?

I've always had a hardtail mtb, so im new to FS (apart from when i had an Apollo when i was a kid :P).
I was thinking maybe a shorter stem, new handlebars and lockable grips.

i mostly do cross country, but i do enjoy some downhill slighly technical trails. Would love to have a go at doing jumps also!
Budget wise i reckon £100 max at the moment, but i can afford to go higher for the right stuff

Hope that helps, i'm a bit of a newbie to customising bikes!!

jamski

Contact points are always a good place to start. Grips, pedals, tyres. Shorter stem and wider bar will make the bike more 'modern', not sure if it would mess with the handling though if the bike is designed for a certain length stem at least.

Then if you're doing more trail riding a dropper post is always good, but that will be over your budget.

Fork/shock service and skills training are other things to think about spending money on.

First off, if you're thinking grips, go for it. I like the Easton lock ins and they come in all sorts of colours. I normally get a contrasting colour. £10 on chain reaction. Enjoy.

adowling92

jamski wrote:

Contact points are always a good place to start. Grips, pedals, tyres. Shorter stem and wider bar will make the bike more 'modern', not sure if it would mess with the handling though if the bike is designed for a certain length stem at least.

Then if you're doing more trail riding a dropper post is always good, but that will be over your budget.

Fork/shock service and skills training are other things to think about spending money on.

First off, if you're thinking grips, go for it. I like the Easton lock ins and they come in all sorts of colours. I normally get a contrasting colour. £10 on chain reaction. Enjoy.

I was looking at dropper posts, found this one: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/rock ... d|547776UK , which has good reviews and is do-able for me money wise. Are there any particular ones you'd recommend?

I'll take a look at those grips, thanks! I was thinking maybe the Orange grips

Any particular tyres you'd recommend also? Sorry im such a nub at this :P

The Rookie

If you are on the original tyres I'd be looking at decent tyres first!

adowling92

The Rookie wrote:

If you are on the original tyres I'd be looking at decent tyres first!

Any suggestions mate?

jamski

adowling92 wrote:

jamski wrote:

Contact points are always a good place to start. Grips, pedals, tyres. Shorter stem and wider bar will make the bike more 'modern', not sure if it would mess with the handling though if the bike is designed for a certain length stem at least.

Then if you're doing more trail riding a dropper post is always good, but that will be over your budget.

Fork/shock service and skills training are other things to think about spending money on.

First off, if you're thinking grips, go for it. I like the Easton lock ins and they come in all sorts of colours. I normally get a contrasting colour. £10 on chain reaction. Enjoy.

I was looking at dropper posts, found this one: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/rock ... d|547776UK , which has good reviews and is do-able for me money wise. Are there any particular ones you'd recommend?

I'll take a look at those grips, thanks! I was thinking maybe the Orange grips

Any particular tyres you'd recommend also? Sorry im such a nub at this :P

Tyres I can't really help with, sure others can. The Reverb posts are good, personally I wouldn't spend that much. The Brand X one from chain reaction would be my choice. Two year warranty on it too. Be careful if you currently have a layback seat post though, as most droppers are inline therefore you'll make the bike feel slightly smaller. May or may not be an issue. The RSP plummet from tredz is good value too.

The Rookie

adowling92 wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

If you are on the original tyres I'd be looking at decent tyres first!

Any suggestions mate?

Tyres should be chosen based on owner preference, the type of riding and the terrain ridden on, you don't want a super sticky (and draggy) tyre for cross country but do for downhill for example! I change from my usual XC/singltrack tyre to a stickier but draggier setup when I head to trail centres.

Let us know the above and you'll get some meaningful suggestions. Suggestions before that are meaningless!

adowling92

The Rookie wrote:

adowling92 wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

If you are on the original tyres I'd be looking at decent tyres first!

Any suggestions mate?

Tyres should be chosen based on owner preference, the type of riding and the terrain ridden on, you don't want a super sticky (and draggy) tyre for cross country but do for downhill for example! I change from my usual XC/singltrack tyre to a stickier but draggier setup when I head to trail centres.

Let us know the above and you'll get some meaningful suggestions. Suggestions before that are meaningless!

Most riding near me is regular trails (New Forest), so i'd need XC tyres most of the time. Are XC tyres still good and grippy for the odd downhill section?

cooldad

It's not extra grip for DH, it's toughness, but for riding down hills XC will be fine, and much lighter.

The Rookie

For the NF I'd go with a 2.25" Rocket Ron front and a 2.15" Racing Ralph rear, EVO compound and folding. You'll loose about a Kg off the bike and they will drag less and corner better.

I don't quite agree with CD, They use a very sticky tyre for DH only as you wouldn't want to drag its sorry carcass up a hill on an XC bike, but yes it's toughness as well so they can plough through rock gardens at unabated speed.

adowling92

The Rookie wrote:

For the NF I'd go with a 2.25" Rocket Ron front and a 2.15" Racing Ralph rear, EVO compound and folding. You'll loose about a Kg off the bike and they will drag less and corner better.

I don't quite agree with CD, They use a very sticky tyre for DH only as you wouldn't want to drag its sorry carcass up a hill on an XC bike, but yes it's toughness as well so they can plough through rock gardens at unabated speed.

Thank you for your advice, I shall have a look and order these up tonight

LimitedGarry

If the tyres are the wire bead Ardents shown on Giant's site, I'd definitely get new tyres for the bike before anything else.
Some puncture protection IMHO is a worthwhile trade-off for non-competitive XC riding.
And then it's also up to you to decide whether your priority is going fast on flat or going fast on the descent. Personally, I'll take the better grip over speed any day, as local XC descents are rather featureless, with an occasional small natural jump, which gets you to speeds over 50kmh very quickly. And while fast XC tyres are... fast, they're often pretty censored at braking. Which is not a good trait if you're going at 50-60kmh.
In essence, if you ride mostly cross country but enjoy fast descents, you might as well stay with the Ardent, getting a 2.4" one for the front. It's a really nice tyre.

Away from tyres, a shorter stem affected handling on my hardtail in a very positive way, going from 90mm to 60mm. However, the issue might be seat position. Getting a shorter stem may make you want to move your seat slightly back, as to not feel cramped on the bike. This is something you gotta try for yourself. Buy a bunch stems online and if you don't like them, just return them. As for your old stem, they usually can be sold for some small cash. Lots of people building up bikes from cheap used parts.
Lockon grips should have been on your bike two days ago. Go get them ASAP. Get some nice ones to go with your colour scheme. If you get into the bike colour game, start at your cables. Everyone has black cables these days. So boring
You don't even need to get new cables, just wrap the old ones with electric tape. Lasts forever, holds well, looks good, is cheap, just takes effort to do nicely.

If you get more into descending, might be worthwhile to start considering better brakes and rotors, once you clear some more money for upgrades.

jamski

I think cables are probably a very personal taste. I'm all for a bit of bling, but I HATE cables. The less you can see them the better, definitely not something I want to draw attention too. But each to their own.

LimitedGarry

Yeah, I guess it's a personal taste. The way I see it, the cables are there no matter what an they're also seen no matter what. So might as well treat them as a crucial part of the bike, which they certainly are, and make them fall in line with the overall scheme of the frame.

That said, I'm a PC builder and I always was very particular about cables being tidy and good looking, even if they're not seen from the outside.

cooldad

The Rookie wrote:

For the NF I'd go with a 2.25" Rocket Ron front and a 2.15" Racing Ralph rear, EVO compound and folding. You'll loose about a Kg off the bike and they will drag less and corner better.

I don't quite agree with CD, They use a very sticky tyre for DH only as you wouldn't want to drag its sorry carcass up a hill on an XC bike, but yes it's toughness as well so they can plough through rock gardens at unabated speed.

I use the stickiest tyre for any riding, but as I don't do DH stuff, I go for lightest as well.

adowling92

New grip and tyres fitted:




I'm thinking the grips maybe a little bright, but i like them

Next on my list is a dropper post. I can't use a stealth style post because i do not have the holes for internal cable routing. Any suggestions without breaking the bank? £200 max i think.

jamski

The grips look great! Have a look at the Brand X dropper from Chain Reaction.

adowling92

jamski wrote:

The grips look great! Have a look at the Brand X dropper from Chain Reaction.

The brand x dropper post seems to be made for internal routing

cooldad

The RSP Plummet gets decent reviews at £79, but most places seem out of stock in 30.9 at the moment, although I haven't hunted. Go Outdoors have them at £99.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.RSP-Plummet-Rem ... _70234.htm

Giant's own droppers seem ok.

https://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/prod ... oCyxvw_wcB

Otherwise the obvious choice is a Reverb. I got the new model (Gold RS writing on top of stanchion) for £180, but you have to search.

Uber_Pod

There's a new version of the plummet which is 125mm drop rather than 100mm.
I'm very tempted by one of them too. Just need to measure the seatpost so I get the right size!

adowling92

Is anybody able to tell whether I can fit a remote lock out on my fork suspensiom?
They're RockShox 30 Gold TK Solo Air forks. Currently they lockout is on the actual fork.

JBA

Why do you want remote lock out? It's not difficult to simply reach down and flick the switch.

adowling92

JBA wrote:

Why do you want remote lock out? It's not difficult to simply reach down and flick the switch.

I know it's not difficult, but it'd still be better to have remote lockout on faster trails where it's not always a great idea to reach down.

mattyfez

adowling92 wrote:

JBA wrote:

Why do you want remote lock out? It's not difficult to simply reach down and flick the switch.

I know it's not difficult, but it'd still be better to have remote lockout on faster trails where it's not always a great idea to reach down.

You should be unlocked anyway in that scenario?
I only ever lock mine if I'm on tarmac. Or on reasonably smooth surface.

adowling92

mattyfez wrote:

adowling92 wrote:

JBA wrote:

Why do you want remote lock out? It's not difficult to simply reach down and flick the switch.

I know it's not difficult, but it'd still be better to have remote lockout on faster trails where it's not always a great idea to reach down.

You should be unlocked anyway in that scenario?
I only ever lock mine if I'm on tarmac. Or on reasonably smooth surface.

That's good for you, but no help to me to getting an answer to my question.

whyamihere

adowling92 wrote:

Is anybody able to tell whether I can fit a remote lock out on my fork suspensiom?
They're RockShox 30 Gold TK Solo Air forks. Currently they lockout is on the actual fork.

Technically it's possible. The 30 Gold is available with a remote lockout (I have one), but you need to change the damper unit, and getting spares for the lower end forks is always a bit tricky. You probably want to get in touch with the Rockshox distributor (http://www.zyrofisher.co.uk/) or TF Tuned (https://www.tftuned.com/) and see if either of them can source the part.

apreading

RSP Plummet seems to get the vote for externally routed. £79 at Tredz.

I just switched from a Rockhopper hardtail to an Anthem Full Suss and the biggest improvement is the dropper post. Dont know why they took so long to come out - must be the best thing in mountain biking EVER.

I got a Plummet for my son's hardtail a few days ago.

The Rookie

Sorry but I'd put disc brakes and proper suspension (low hysteresis springs and hydraulic dampers) ahead of a dropper as biggest improvement, dropper maybe the biggest in the last 5 years.

apreading

The Rookie wrote:

Sorry but I'd put disc brakes and proper suspension (low hysteresis springs and hydraulic dampers) ahead of a dropper as biggest improvement, dropper maybe the biggest in the last 5 years.

I will give you that. I guess that I only got into mountain biking in 2010 and those things were obviously already sorted by then so I dont have any experience of life before them.

Dropper posts are a game changer though. No longer do you need to destroy your knees with a poor pedalling position to have the saddle low enough for descending, or descent too high to move around the bike - or what most of us did, a compromise of the two which wasnt perfect for either.