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upgrade old parts ?

649 views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  momoe 
#1 ·
I have an older GT. it has the shimano. exage brakes and sprockets and stuff. would upgrading all of that to a better quality give me an easier ride? I mean for hills and more difficult rides, will it make it easier with a better set of gears? i may be using the wrong terms for some of this but hey, I'm new to the sport

thanks
 
#2 ·
Smaller gears in the front and Larger in the back will make it easier to pedal but it reach a point where the gearing is so low that you can't maintain balance at that speed.... To be honest it'd probably be best to save up for a newer bike rather than dump a whole lot into an older one. The cost to performance benefit wouldn't be worth it. For now I suggest toughing it out, ride it the best you can, replace what you break and most importantly have fun.
 
#3 ·
Upgrading derailleurs will give you minimal change.

I'm going to go ahead and say it, unless your racing and you NEED your derailleurs to perform at their best and give you weight savings anything above a deore is honestly in my opinion money pissed away. I have saint drive trains on my XC and (until it got stolen) DH bike. That's because I wanted the best weight/performance I could get. The price was high, but I felt like I NEEDED these things, and honestly they've proven quite useful for their given applications. My AM bike uses Deore XT and nothing above that. That's because it does what I need it to do and performs well for the price I paid and for what I ask of it.

If your stuff is working fine leave it be unless you have the cash to burn. Many people will tell you to upgrade, and you know what, if you NEED the benefits then do it. But to me it sounds like you're just having issues with strain on the drive going uphill base on personal fitness. No offense intended at all man, honestly. Personally, I advise you to stick with what you have and work more on your cardio vascular element of riding. You can set up a drivetrain to ease these issues if comfort riding is what you want, but in the end, I mean aren't we all hoping for at least slightly better health and overall fitness?

Again, to be redundant and reiterate a point I made before, stick with what you've got. It's not the slickest ride in town, but for what you seem to be doing it's working ok. I know you might want an easier ride, but to be honest, and I think a lot of other riders will agree, you'll want to stick with what you got. You could take the savings and invest in a lighter wheelset which, honestly, to me would make for an easier ride than changing your drive train.

Keep riding and enjoy the church of dirt. Again, this is just what I would do in your situation. If my advice is off kilter and you need a comfort ride as opposed to something that might challenge you a bit, then by all means upgrade to a smoother drive train. Just don't take any info you get here as god given law. We all ride for different reasons and needs, so we all have different specs for what we ride.
 
#4 ·
If you want to make things easier and do it cheaply, replace the chain rings with smaller ones and leave the rest of the drive train alone. One question to ask is where you are riding and what gearing you are using when you ride. If it's hilly and you're on the largest chain ring all of the time, then you're better off learning how to use your existing driveline better before dropping any money into it.
 
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