I have a 2007 Specialized rock hopper FSR. I am in my first year riding and have ridden the crap out of it this season. It is mostly cross country with a little downhill.
Now after a season of riding I want an upgrade.
My bike was nearly new when I bought it(never used by the previous owner. The only thing it did not have is disc brakes. If I upgrade to them including wheels it would be about $600 cdn. I figure I can sell it for as is for about $400-450 which take me to the $1k range For another $500-$1000 I was thinking I could get a new bike. I was looking in the $1500-200 range
The problem is I am not sure that will get me much more than I have other than new.
My option is to ride it another year and take a big leap to the over $3-4K range.
If you are willing to try and buy used $1000 will take you a long way. I've bought a Santa Cruz Superlight (full suspension) with full XT for $700 on pinkbike.com. Check out their buy and sell section.
I have a 2007 Specialized rock hopper FSR. I am in my first year riding and have ridden the crap out of it this season. It is mostly cross country with a little downhill.
Now after a season of riding I want an upgrade.
My bike was nearly new when I bought it(never used by the previous owner. The only thing it did not have is disc brakes. If I upgrade to them including wheels it would be about $600 cdn. I figure I can sell it for as is for about $400-450 which take me to the $1k range For another $500-$1000 I was thinking I could get a new bike. I was looking in the $1500-200 range
The problem is I am not sure that will get me much more than I have other than new.
My option is to ride it another year and take a big leap to the over $3-4K range.
Well, in the end of the say it all comes down to your budget and how comfortable you are with spending that money now. I would personally wait 1 more year if I were you and buy a new $3-4k bike.
You could buy new XT hub and brakes for well under 600. Depends on how much you like the bike. I built up a 2006 trek liquid and love it, and it only cost me a few hundred buying stuff I found cheap on ebay here and there. I had another bike so it wasn't a big deal to do a slow budget build.
If you think that there is a chance you are going to want to upgrade more than just the brakes (which I would say there is since you mention leaping to a $3-4K bike), don't bother. The most expensive way to get a great bike is to start with a cheap bike and upgrade everything.
If that means "suffering" with v-brakes for a year, it is really not that big of a deal IMO. There are several things you can do to get more out of the v-brakes you already have that are cheap and will make big performance improvements.
1-Get good brake pads, something like Kool Stop. The pads that come with low end v's are usually crap, and the biggest difference (performance-wise) between low end v-brake calipers and high end ones are the pads. $20-30 should take care of front and back.
2-Cables. Something like Jagwire Ripcords make a huge difference over stock cable/housing in my experience. Much less flex in the system for a more solid feel and more power going to the calipers instead of flexing the cable housing. Ripcords run around $25-30 if you look around.
So that is ~$50-60 to hold you over until you can afford a higher end bike.
Also, if you find that you are getting much flex at the brake bosses (they get pushed apart when you use the brakes) then a v-brake booster can help in some cases. On more flexy brake bosses they make a huge difference, on stiffer ones not much. Some frames and forks they have done wonders for me, others I did not even notice a difference. You can find one for ~$10 and try it front and back to see if it makes a difference.
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