Fully rigid MTB

It won't cost much to fix.
£20 to get the brakes bled. Im guessing they are Avid brakes which are crap and unreliable. £70 would replace them with Shimano Deore brakes which are brilliant. Other than new pads mine have needed no servicing in two years and my bikes don't get an easy life.
£30 at the absolute maximum will get your wheels straight and spokes replaced. Those Alex Rims are rubbish though. You could replace them with much lighter and stronger wheels from Superstar Components for £130.
So that's £200 as a worst case to get it sorted. Fitting is a DIY job. Servicing gears etc is simple DIY jobs that you're going to need to learn to keep any bike in order.

All the Avids I have had from basic Juicy 3's up to X0 Trail's have been terrible. They need so much more attention than any other brakes I have used.

2 years on avid x9 brakes without issue. I understand older ones could be problematic but the design has changed. No way I would change mine.

Anyway back to the point. The op has the basis of a perfectly adequate bike , he has the right to go rigid if he chooses ( I wouldn't but then I have ridden with a decent fork up front.) viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=12829771.........interesting thread on a cube rigid conversion.
learn basic maintenance to reduce outlay , , it's what I have done . Only been in a workshop to fit a new bottom bracket and that was £ 20.00 .

It is hard to tell but given the benefit of the doubt the op could be genuine, if so then there's good advice posted as well as some pointless points scoring going on.

Back in the day I managed to kill a set of cheap elastomer suspension forks ( snapped at break boss ) couldn't afford to replace so went rigid ( 1970's gt arrowhead ) the bike was still more than rideable and had v brakes .

I reckon I could fix the bike for about £40-50 at most (probably about £25), with Rigid forks as well I could probably fix it for sub £75.

Where are you Rubez? I'd hate to see you make the worst decision of your life (assumption!) for the sake of some easy to supply help!

I bleed brakes, I replace spokes, I swap forks (I have also built all 8 bikes in the family) ... all with a £20 Lidl toolkit and an Avid bleed kit and an old syringe (for the Shimano).

Which wheels?

rubez wrote:

The last ones were double wall, not sure what that is, or if it is significant?

Just looking for a cheap set, something like this?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mavic-crossride-ub-mtb-front-wheel-2014/rp-prod111103

I would happily go heavier if it meant stronger...

£67 for a front wheel? Not exactly budget and probably not the strongest with so few spokes. If weight isn't an issue you can pick up full sets for as little as £50 with more spokes (32/36). The best prices are always going to be on Ebay or from German sites such as Rose/Bike24 etc.

If you want new you could go for this set at £89 or these at £83 (if you don't mind silver spokes).

For forks, you could go for cheaper aluminium ones like these (which are probably the minimum height needed to replace a 100mm suspension fork) or something more along the lines of the chunkier Exotic forks (or a slightly longer version to replace 120mm forks).

Hell, you can even pick old mechanical disk brakes for £50 (or less) if you don't want to faff about with hydraulics.

Cookeh wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

All the Avids I have had from basic Juicy 3's up to X0 Trail's have been terrible. They need so much more attention than any other brakes I have used.

I have Elixir 1s, one of their more budget brakes. I bled it when I bought it 2nd hand just so I knew everything was up to scratch, and Ive had absolutely zero issues in the year since. Previous owner didn't touch them either in the year he had them.

Avids are also well reviewed, pretty much across the entire Elixir and X0 range. To make such a sweeping generalization across all Avid brakes is rather stupid.

It was a statement based on experience of owning Juicy 3 & 7, Elixir 1, 3 & 5 Codes and X0 Trail. All were hopeless compared to the Shimamo and Hope brakes I have also had.

If your suspension forks are 100mm travel then you need rigid forks that are 445mm axle to crown. This will drop the handle bar height a little. A better option is to go with 460mm IMO.

You'll need to cut the steerer down to size with a junior hacksaw, pull the crown race off your old forks and fit it on the new one (can be tricky to get off but a flat headed screwdriver or knife edge can be used to wiggle it free). If you've got a aluminium or carbon fibre steerer tube then it's probably a good idea to fit a expander bung in the top of it to allow you to preload the headset, rather than trying to fit the traditional star fangled nut. This is because these two materials tend to be thicker than a steel tube so that inside diameter of the tube is narrower, making it hard to press a star fangled nut down there. They are also softer material so a star fangled nut would gauge out material from the sides of the tube whereas a expander bung won't. They can be picked up for less than a tenner.

rubez wrote:

Pretty sure they are 100mm travel, but hacksaw? Is that necessary?

Your teeth probably aren't up to the job.

More seriously, yes it is necessary in nearly all cases - an uncut steerer is usually 265mm or thereabouts, and if you don't cut it you can end up with an odd extension on the top of your stem when you've got the handlebars at the height you want them. It's worth putting up with the odd extension for a couple of rides until you're sure of the height you want the bars, but then cut it down so you have no more than 20mm of spacers on top.

rubez wrote:

What is a steerer anyway? Are there any guides for this? I can't find any...

Seriously, read Parktools.

chrisw333 wrote:

Personally I wouldn't cut the steerer yourself or even fit the forks until you are far more confident / knowledgeable of the process. It really wont cost much for a shop to do it and getting it wrong is a very costly mistake.

What? Pay an LBS to do work? Pah!