Upgrades - what to buy?! Dropper post, tyres etc.

nbuuifx

I've got a mountain bike which is OK.

It is a hard tail, I went round a local trail the other day in the wet and it got round doing the various small drops etc.

One of my biggest annoyances was seat height. I was with a couple of more experienced riders who were giving me advice and to get my weight in the right place for the steep downhills and the drops I had to move my seat down, however that made pedalling uphill rather hard, so I then had to shift the seat back up. To make matters worse it isn't quick release so the multi tool had to come out for every change. I'm quite tall and normally have my seat quite high up, but the low seat certainly made a great difference to the stability when going down the drops.

The second issue I had was grip, I started off and I was sliding all over the place (over large wet pebbles) - it was at the point of dangerous. The more experienced riders told me to let some air out (they were at 45psi - so they were too high) - we didn't have a gauge on the trail so just let some out. I continued and they still slid a bit but were better so we let some more out. They gripped pretty well after that but felt too flat to me, I could feel rocks on the back wheel when riding uphill (when going down I'd taken my weight off the seat). I managed 15 miles of up and downhill with them like this but it was extremely tiring and I was worried about damaging the rear rim or the tyre sliding off but neither of these seemed to happen. I checked the pressure when I got home and the front was 10psi, the rear was 8psi! :shock: I was glad of the extra grip though Obviously I'll be riding at more like 25psi next time.

So my bike is a Boardman, Large Frame, It has a RockShox Recon 351 U-turn coil fork at the front. I've had it a good few years now. I can't remember what year it is, but it was one of the earlier ones.

The current tyres for off road are Continental Vapour 26x2.1

I'm wondering if it is worth putting some 2.3" tyres on instead. If so what would be good and grippy?

Also I'm wondering if it is worth getting some kind of dropper post? I don't have holes for internal routing so I guess that would limit me, are the ones with the controls on the post worth the bother? Or would I be better just to get a quick release collar to let me drop it manually quicker? The post diameter is just over 27mm.

The Rookie

There are a few 27.2mm droppers out there, it would certainly help!

As for tyres, OE tyres until you get to very expensive bikes tend to be nasty plasticky compounds, you want a decent quality tyre and may as well go folding and save some weight as well. Something like a Nobby Nic in evo compound, trail star front and pace star rear would be a good combo, run at around 28psi unless you go tubeless.

t0ffeeman

Hi,

For dropper posts look here :-

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/bra ... prod159176

These get good reviews and in the world of dropper posts are cheap. Although they might not have your post size by the looks of it.

As for tyres, well, that's a can of worms as to which people consider to be 'good and grippy'.
I use Schwalbe Nobby Nics and have found them to be an excellent 'all round' tyre for summer & winter, i've used Maxxis tyres and didn't like them, but other people love them. Another brand is Continental, which i have never used, but again, get good reviews from people, ensure you get the 'black chilli' compound if you go Continental.
Then you've got tubes vs tubeless which is another even bigger can of worms, but personally it's tubeless for me.

Do some forum searches as all these topics have been covered multiple times, also YouTube has loads of info as well.

billycool

You've asked some good questions.

If you ride terrain where you need to regularly adjust saddle height, then a dropper is a real Godsend. I love mine on my FS bike and it does make a big difference to riding style and comfort levels. I'm going to add a dropper to my HT as well as it would be nice to have one (the HT generally stays away from anything too knarly, so the need to adjust on the fly is less likely). Both are external Reverbs.

As for tyres - I run mine tubeless and I'm not a big fan of 'lower is better`. You can arguably get more grip but for me, my tyres feels too soft and like they want to come off the rim. I use `better` tyres that offer more grip and can be run at 28-35 psi quite happily. On my FS I use 26x2.2 Conti Trail Kings (Black Chilli) - they grip really well and I've never felt like they didn't have enough grip for what I ride. Wet roots and rocks will test any tyre, but the stickier/softer compount tyres tend to do better. In winter, they do struggle with lots of mud, but so would most `all-round` tyres. My tyres have done BPW, Peaks, Afan etc and never missed a beat.

The good news with 26" wheels is that you can get some good deals on tyres. My TK's were £35k each.

My HT uses 26 x 2.1 Panaracer Fire XC Pro's - also good all-round tyres. Quite an older model but still really effective and good on 26" bikes that may struggle to fit in the 2.3 and upwards tyre sizes (check your frame clearance before you get anything too wide).

Adding a dropper and decent tyres should help a lot.

The Rookie

27.2 mm dropper
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/bra ... prod159175

KS Lev do one as do X-fusion I believe.

There is the very budget T-mars (via ebay) as well.

nbuuifx

Thanks for the advice, I'm half tempted to buy a used FS bike and sell the hard tail. It probably wouldn't cost a huge amount difference. I'm looking at tyres and for the ones mentioned above, I'm looking at at least £60-£70 for a pair. I could put that money towards the upgrade to FS.

I currently use the hard tail on the trails (where I'm not great but getting better slowly!). I also use it with hybrid tyres on family bike rides with the kids etc. I have also been using it a bit with hybrid tyres on, to ride on the roads in winter. I have a road bike which I use for long rides in nice weather on the roads.

Obviously I'd say the FS would be better on the trails than the HT. I reckon I can keep up with a 7 year old and an 11 year old on the family rides on a FS. So really it is just the fact that I wouldn't fancy using it as a winter hybrid like I do with the HT.

Do you reckon it is worth the extra to upgrade? I've seen one which is the FS version of the Boardman, it has decent tyres and is local. It would cost more than I'd get for the HT, but then if I factor in the tyres the difference is small and moves me to a newer bike too. It won't be top of the range but the Boardman FS should be a decent starting point.

billycool

Hard to say.

I rode HT's for 20+ years and never thought I'd need a FS bike (combinatoin of age and type of terrain I ride). After riding BPW and cwmcarn on my HT (hard work but fun) and thern trying a FS, I was converted.

A FS is great in the right environment. I still have my HT as my winter hack as I ride a bit more tarmac/farm trails due to the fact that a lot of our local trails just turn to mush.

I'm also a big fan of learning your trade on a HT and then moving to a FS, if that's what you want to do.

I'm lucky because I have both (n+1 is the law you know) so I can swap bikes.

Based on what you've said, I think a HT might suit you better for now. HT's are great fun on fast, flowing trails but aren't so much fun on anything too knarly, drop offs, jumps etc. I still love my HT and the cost/time/effort with winter maintanance is far easier than a FS.

You might find that once you get more capable on your HT and maybe more adventurous, that you move more towards a FS (and keep the HT) :-)