Upgrading my mtb, where to begin??

jordz87

Hi everyone, I’ve been riding my mtb on very basic trails a mixture of thick sticky mud, tree roots and rocks for mainly exercise and commuting. It’s a very old mountain bike 2004 carrera vulcan that is made of pig iron and is very heavy! I honestly can not justify spending a lot of money in one lump sum to buys more upto date bike. If I’m honest I quiet like it’s ruggedness too! But my question is, id like to upgrade to lighter wheels, hydraulic discs better seat etc. How do you know what wheels fit? How do you know your sizes etc, can anyone recommend a decent set of lightweight disc spec wheels from the same sort of era? If anyone as similar for sale I’m interested. Thanks all for the time!!

jordz87

Thanks for the reply I was hoping that cost of 2nd hand parts that might of been good a few years after 2004 may be still available through here or places like ebay at a fraction of the cost they would of been bac in the day since it’s old tech. But even so how do you find out which axels, what would fit ?

billycool

You sort of have 2 choices:

As oxoman said - you can get another bike.

Or - you could pick up some bits and pieces and try to upgrade on a budget.

There should be loads of spares knocking around.

You bike should be 100mm QR front and 135 QR rear. Probably cup and cone axles. I've got a set of Mavic 319's that came off my old 2006 Stumpjumper that should fit.

mtb-idle

and wheels will be 26" diameter rather than 27.5"/650B or 29" that are common now.

Make sure you buy the correct size.

I agree that it's probably not worth upgrading but you could no doubt pick up a pair of 26" wheels for £50 to £100 and get quite a lot of benefit from that. Either re-use existing tyres or buy new ones.

I wouldn't worry about changing to discs on the existing bike. Save that for the next one.

Where are you based?

The Rookie

The Vulcan frame itself is far from pig iron, it's actually fairly light (see link in sig, my Kraken (same frame, different paint) got down to sub 10kg).
Biggest benefit would be decent tyres, lighter, faster rolling and grippier. Wheels are 26: and normal 110/135mm QR in 26" and you should be spoilt for choice. A Charge Spoon saddle would be lighter and i find to be a great perch.