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Best bang-for-the-buck upgrade?

5K views 50 replies 26 participants last post by  Leopold Porkstacker 
#1 ·
Say you've got 3-500 bucks to spend on upgrades for a pugsley. Say you've already replaced everything but the front derailleur, the wheels and tires, and the fork.

Do you go with better/lighter tires? Never had a problem with the stock tires, but some of the new tire options do look pretty sweet...

Lighter wheels/rims? A set of Marge lites would be pretty nice.

Carver O'beast fork? Because carbon.

Or is there something I've missed?

Drivetrain is pretty much where I want it, bars, shifters, brake levers, saddle, post, etc, all good. Thought about upgrading to hydraulic brakes but can't see any major benefit.
 
#7 ·
Number 1 for me would be going to lighter and/or wider rims. Holy Rolling Ds are what i put on my Pugsley, but my heart belongs to the 100mm rims.
Number 2 would be tires. Although i don't hate the endomorphs or larry's like some folks do, i like other tires better. On my pugsley i had big fat larrys but if it had an Alfine 8 speed so it cleared the wider tires.
Number 3 would be an alfine hub. I really like the alfine when things get slushy or salty.
 
#15 ·
I've been wondering same thing for my Muk 3. I don't have Buck's budget at the moment, but am considering drilling my RD's and installing DH tubes. Based on what I've read on MTBR threads, as well as using tube weights published on fatbikes.com, I figure:

Drilling RD's: saves roughly 150 grams/wheel = 300g
Switching to Bonti DH tubes: saves about 160/wheel = 320g

total savings = about 1.4lbs rolling weight

1) Does this sound right?
2) I've not tried DH tubes...if I run my Muk at between 7-10 psi with standard fat tubes, will the DH tubes serve me well? (e.g. sufficient size to hold my weight?...I'm 210 or so).

Thanks
 
#16 ·
Hopefully the spokes are still the right length it could be an easy swap to Marge Lites, if not they are only $80 from jenson's for Revo's.
BTW Jenson price matched the cheapest price for Marge lites i could find at the time at $136us.

Going this way and even possibly with lighter spokes will save the the most weight in the best place possible.
 
#17 ·
Put your bucks in a sock untill you now what you want???

Marge lites are nice, but if it's for trail riding the 47 mm trial tech rims might be better?
But maybe you need more float? or a 29'er set??

You might profit more from a front suspension? A seat dropper, other brakes,..

In 2 years time bud and lou on 100 mm rims might seem tiny, and you'll want to go 32" and 6" wide, but you spended your budget on a few upgrades on your old bike!
 
#18 ·
Put your bucks in a sock untill you now what you want???

Marge lites are nice, but if it's for trail riding the 47 mm trial tech rims might be better?
But maybe you need more float? or a 29'er set??

You might profit more from a front suspension? A seat dropper, other brakes,..

In 2 years time bud and lou on 100 mm rims might seem tiny, and you'll want to go 32" and 6" wide, but you spended your budget on a few upgrades on your old bike!
I'm totally happy with the width of the large marge rims- they seem like a really good balance for what I do with the bike. I just want the bike to weigh less.

Have had no need for a front suspension, seat dropper or brakes. THe trails around me aren't that vertical.

I pretty much know what i want- a lighter pugsley. That's why I'm looking at trying to get rid of weight. Lighter wheels, fork and tires are about all that's left for me to lighten up. Doubt it will make earth-shatteringly huge differences in the way the bike rides, but that's OK because I like the way my pugsley rides. Just wish it was a few pounds less.
 
#19 ·
I'm totally happy with the width of the large marge rims- they seem like a really good balance for what I do with the bike. I just want the bike to weigh less.
Hey Buck, for what it's worth, the weight difference between my winter wheelset (stock Mukluk wheelset w/holy rolling darryls, salsa hubs, 27tpi nates, tubeless) and my summer wheelset (marge lites, ultralight nate/husker du, hope hubs, dt supercomp spokes) is almost 3.5lbs. The only problem I can see is realistically getting there for $500 even lacing them up yourself (I did), all those parts add up in a hurry. Maybe with some dedicated deal searching you could get close but might have to skip the hubs/spokes...
 
#20 ·
Totally understand- figure I can re-rim my current wheels or build up a new set for 3-500 depending on the quality of hubs I can find at the swap in january, then get new tires next spring when they'll make a difference- the stock tire combo is heavy, but it's not bad.

I kinda figured I could do one thing- fork, tires or rims, but only one.
 
#21 ·
I think one of the best upgrades for your dollar is the cassette. Not many people talk about this. I think I saved close to a pound of rotating mass when I swapped out the "boat anchor" of a cassette that came stock on my Mukluk 2. :)
 
#23 ·
Lighter tubes and holey rims. Get a hacksaw and cut off the surplus on your seatpost - anything more than the minimum insertion is surplus. Foam grips instead of lockons. So far, cost next to nothing, and major weight saving.

Next lighter tyres.

Then lots of money on shiny bits because they look nice and save 10 grams all up.

Rest to be spent on a barrel of beer.... :)




Oh, and you can save another 40gms by bonding your seatpost into place and dumping the seatclamp. :thumbsup:
 
#32 ·
C'mon guys, I'm not a moeron.

Tubes, replaced. Cassette? cast iron monstrosity replaced with a Ti XTR cassette. xt shadow derailleur. Carbon seatpost, WTB silverado saddle. Boat anchor crank replaced with a much lighter race face crank. Big ring replaced with a lightweight bashguard. horrible deore shifters replaced with super awesome pauls thumbies. Bars, replaced and cut down to fit through trees.Stem, replaced with something lighter.

I've gotten all the easy stuff.
 
#33 ·
I've done it all, Lighter tubes, Carver fork, Lighter rims w/ light gauge spokes and lighter hubs.
Even with heavy tubes and heavy wheels I punctured the tires, surprisingly enough light tubes and light tires have had less punctures!

By far the lighter complete wheel had the most effect, I ran the same HuDu on the heavier wheel and the difference is remarkable. I never had the front end lift up like it does now. My front wheel built up is 1000g, All in, including HuDu tire was close to your target amount, it's not a cheap fix.
If you have the skills, smthngfishy's suggestion involving buying and selling and tearing apart old wheels to build new ones seems to be the only way to spread the dough around effectively.
 
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