** let me now if i posted this in the wrong section...thx :eekster:
I have this 2002 Trek 9.8 Elite sitting in the garage, and I wanted to revive it. I had upgraded this bike years ago, but its in need of some work now. I already have an offroad rig (Kona Satori) that I have been riding alot, so i want to use the Trek primarily as a "ride around town" bike.
I would totally appreciate any suggestions/recommendations:
I want to swap out out the SID for a rigid fork.
I have XTR V-brakes on it, but want to replace those with something new. the fronts are broken, and i'd like to replace both front and rear brakes with something good.
the bike below is not my actual bike, but my frame and fork setup has always been stock just like the bike in the photo.
I plan on building a urban specific bike, but i don't mind putting a little money into the Trek and use it in the meantime.
I have converted 2 bikes with the shortest forks i could find, cromoto 425 long and now recently a surly 1x1 fork 413 long, both those bikes were supposed to run 4-5 inch suspension forks originally. It worked out good on both, you get used to the new angles and trail in about a week. both those forks comes with v-tabs and disc mounts. I recommend chopping those v-brake mounts off and running discs instead. I did that on both mine.
The surly fork placed the wheel off center since the dropouts are welded like 1mm to high on one side, so i had to file one of them. The cromoto was perfectly built.
i have heard good things about the surly 1x1. my best bet might be to just bypass the guessing game and just take the bike into my LBS. but i totally appreciate your comments.
the bike is 11 years old and i used it for XC riding. the brakes definately need to be replaced. Any good suggestions to swap out my XTR v-brakes? I don't want to buy new wheels because the Mavic Crossmax wheels are still in great condition.
I wanted to throw on some street/road tires and just beat this thing up around town...my mention about swapping out the SID is because i don't plan on taking this bike out on the trails anymore.
You want a suspension corrected fork, otherwise it will throw the geometry of the bike off. You can spend a little extra and go with something carbon or you can go with an aluminum or steel one for cheaper. Nashbar makes a few that are reasonably priced. Also, it looks like your bike doesn't have disc brake mounts in the rear. If you want to stick with the same brakes front and rear, you'll need to get a fork that has Cantilever/V-brake mounts we opposed to disc or caliper (road) brakes. You could go with a disc brake fork, but you'll likely need new wheels as well. Not many companies make much in terms of v-brakes nowadays, but you can get good cantilever brakes. Some people hate them some people like them. Not sure if anybody loves them. I have Avid Shorty 6's on my commuter, I didn't like them so much until I just got Kool Stop pads and readjusted them, now they stop great.
thanks for the response. yeah, my 9.8 elite didnt come with the rear disc brake mount, i think the year after mine did, but its still rare, i hardly saw anyone with disc brakes on the hardtail elite.
I definately need to replace the brakes as the XTRs on it now are really shady. I've been in a couple of hairy situations and the brakes let me down. If you have any good suggestions on some good brakes, let me know.
If the levers are in good shape you could get Avid bb7 disc calipers. I have that on my new bike and they have just as good modulation and power as my hydro formula megas did, but it takes some time to get them working really good. i run shimano slx rotors/discs on mine 180f/160r.
All i know is that my avalanche was a sluggish pos when it had its 125mm fork on, even on the 85mm setting. put the 425 cromoto on and turned into a rocket instead. the head angle became 72,5 and the mechanical trail somewhere around 57mm (iirc), as a rigid bike should be imo. For my latest build I went with an even shorter fork 413mm, but I haven't measured anything yet or made calculations, but its definitely stiffer (for/aft "judder") when braking ad this is what i wanted. The longer the fork the more its gonna flex.
If its a road/streetgoing bike I would go with a really short fork and aim for a specific trail. the headangle is the amount of steer per input unit, the trail affects stability and so does the wheelbase. and stability is a dualsided coin because it turns to the opposite when going fast/slow. stable at low speed is unstable at high speed. ut there are many factors to consider here. such as rotating mass of the wheels and stem length, handlebar length, weight distribution on the bike and height of the bottom bracket.
Awesome stretched out classic frame! I had a 2000 9.8 and loved it. Worth upgrading!!!
For a "ride around town" bike:
I assume you mean you're gonna run 1.9 or less tires. I also assume you still have the insane narrow stock rims. TRP CX-9 90mm linear pull brake on the rear and suspension corrected carbon fork to get the handling you want with BB-7 160mm disc up front. Get a set of Jagwire ripcord cables for these.
just to add my 2 cents on avid bbs (i have the 5) once nicely set, they stop you very well.
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