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Torn on keeping Orbea Dakr and upgrading the fork or upgrading

2K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  AndrwSwitch 
#1 ·
So going to ride this through the winter but thought about saving up some cash and upgrading to a different bike.... (Second hand more than likely). I also bought this one second hand.
It has many upgrades which I post in a moment but the biggest one its lacking is a fork upgrade.

So here is the geometry and components before the upgrades.
2012 Orbea Dakar | Mountain Bike Components and Reviews

I know nothing about good and bad geometry so would love some thoughts on that. Mine is the 20"

Upgrades are
BB5 brakes (Older XT levers)
Sun Rhyno lite rims with XT hubs
SRAM X-9 rear derail
Truvativ fived cranks
9 speed XT cassette
X-7 twist shifters

So most things have been upgraded (I didn't upgrade it). Front derail is the stock Tourney still and then the fork.
Getting to the point where I feel like a fork upgrade would help a lot and pull 2lbs off the front.
Just wondering what more experienced people that have been here before think of this situation.
I don't love nor hate the bike. Seems to fit fine, it fun to ride (Wish it was lighter its around 30lbs), but I haven't ridden enough bikes recently to know what feels great and what I don't like.

Here is a pic of the bike and yes I adjusted the seat and height lol



Thanks for the insight :thumbsup:
 
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#2 ·
I have a Hardrock by my desk at work that I upgraded slowly over time. It's actually a pretty solid bike now and I enjoy riding it despite having something much nicer that I ride on weekends and sometimes after work.

In most of these threads, I'm down on the upgrade over time or throw an expensive part at a cheap bike strategy because everything else on the bike is still not very good and it's more expensive to replace every part with a nicer aftermarket part than just to buy s better bike in the first (or second, by the time people start those threads) place.

The way I read you, though, this is a little different. It sounds to me like someone else spent a bunch of money replacing a lot of parts on this bike. That's their problem. You now have something with a mostly solid build, except for the fork and front derailleur.

So wtf - how about a new fork? For $400-$600, you can make a huge impact in how that bike rides. You may or may not be able to get a used bike that has that fork already for $600, but this way, you get to start at the beginning of its service life and you can choose which fork, exactly, you want.

20" is pretty big. How tall are you? Have you ridden mountain bikes in a few sizes?

What's your budget like?

Is a 26" XC hardtail what you want to be riding long-term?
 
#4 ·
It seems like a small 20"...
I'm 5-10.5" 5'11"
Have almost two inches of stand over height on it. Have not ridden enough bikes to know the correct size for me. I know my wife's carbon Scott is way too small lol
I paid $250 for the bike. Reba is as high fork wise I'm interested in and an air suntour might be fine or I've eyeballed manitou r7 also.

The wheel size doesn't bother man... Ive ridden two 29ers and they were cool, but didn't make me want to buy one ASAP. If I did upgrade may as well go with the bigger wheel.
 
#7 ·
$800 isn't all that much and while I think something better than where your Dakar is sitting now would be par for that, sticking a nicer fork on the front and keeping your Dakar isn't a bad choice.

Sounds like nothing else is grabbing you. So, wtf.
 
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