Mountain Biking - Game: Upgrade my bike with $200.

Let's see who's the best shopper/savvy bike part knower.

You have $200 USD to upgrade a Stock Kona Fire Mountain. Whoever makes the most drastic performance changes for the better wins.

You can also sell parts of the bike.

MZ-Comp Fork $70
Frame-$150
Grips-$7
Pedals and Cranks together-$30
Rear Der-$9
Front Der (This is an Acera not an Altus)-$5
Shifters-$20
Shifting Set-$40

Rules: You cannot use Ebay unless an auction has Buy it Now. You may use past auctions as long as they are not more than a week old.

Go! *Hopes thread is popular*

Let's see who's the best shopper/savvy bike part knower.

You have $200 USD to upgrade a Stock Kona Fire Mountain. Whoever makes the most drastic performance changes for the better wins.

You can also sell parts of the bike.

MZ-Comp Fork $70
Frame-$150
Grips-$7
Pedals and Cranks together-$30
Rear Der-$9
Front Der (This is an Acera not an Altus)-$5
Shifters-$20
Shifting Set-$40

Rules: You cannot use Ebay unless an auction has Buy it Now. You may use past auctions as long as they are not more than a week old.

Go! *Hopes thread is popular*

I think this is interesting, i think it will be interesting what people say :)

The fork might give the most obvious change, especially if you don't already have one.

35 LX rear
20 LX chain
64 LX crank
19 LX compatible bb
34 LX cassette
60 LX (not the hydraulic) shifter/break combo
-40 selling shifting set
30 XT front (because its a dollar cheaper than the LX on jenson, go figure)
-whatever pedals and cranks and rear..go swap some beaters pedals until you get more money
37 front/rear deore disc compatible hubs

Now you are swank in LX!

hmmm not too bad

What are BB? I've seen this term thrown around a lot and I have no idea what it means.

I have a fork; The Marzocchi MZ-Comp

Can anyone do better? Maybe some pinkbike, ebay, used forum place type things have some parts for sale?

:D

"What are BB? I've seen this term thrown around a lot and I have no idea what it means."

Are you ****ting me :D? Yunno, BB, Big Brother right?
No, Bo ttom bracket is what connects the two crank arms so that they can revolve. The BB cartridge is fitted through the bottom bracket shell of your frame, and it is also important to make sure your BB is compatible with your crankset otherwise it wont fit.

By the way, all the prices i listed were new from jensonusa. In that spec really your aren't NOT replacing much -- handlebars, stem, seatpost, fork, seat, frame. But upping the drivetrain like that would be a huge improvement, in my opinion, especially if you are moving from cheaper altus/acera parts. It'll be like night and day.

I win ;) :D

2005 Marzocchi DJ1-$520
RaceFace Diabolus Stem and Crankset $350 and $80
E.Thirteen SRS-$150
Mavic EX721 rims laced to Hope Bulbs $590
Hope Mono M6's $530
Michelin Comp24.1 softs $110
Stans No tubes setup-$110
BMW Shinburgers-$160
Thomson Elite Seatpost-$80
Selle Italia Karve saddle-$50
Easton Monkey Light Scandium Bars$90
ODI Rogue Lock ons.-$35
Chris King Steelset$149
Sram X.9/X.0 combo. $189
DT Swiss DT Ti's-54
Weiperman Connex 905 chain-$70
Goldtec Goldtec Ti Cassette- $180
Total cost: $3,297.00 USD.

just a tad bit overbudget there :p

You forgot the TI Campy chain......tag on another $300 :D

Fox F80x fork $775

Done.

Foes XTD fork.......good ole' $2500-$3k

so much for $200, eh? I say let's just swap out the frame with a Seven Cycles Olympic Edition Sola frame! And how about some Eggbeater triple ti pedals along with it?

Hm.....havent seen the OE Sola yet, sweet bikes though....love admiring the ones in my basement :D

Sevens are absolutely beautiful... but boy do you ever pay for them. But that just goes back to the "you get what you pay for" thing. I would absolutely love to have one myself. Definitely one of the nicest hardtails I've seen so far. Titanium makes me melt.

Nobody likes games eh?
:(

Well what dont you like most.....there has to be something. If it were me, id buy a new fork.....I really dont mind drivetrains much, XT deraileurs are nice though. If you got a used Fox Vanilla RL or something of the sort, im sure it would make a big difference.

Well what dont you like most.....there has to be something. If it were me, id buy a new fork.....I really dont mind drivetrains much, XT deraileurs are nice though. If you got a used Fox Vanilla RL or something of the sort, im sure it would make a big difference.

It wasn't asking for advice really. It was seeing who could trick out this bike the most with only $200.

Come on, trick it out with $200. You know you want to.

derailleurs are derailleurs, they won't make you faster or do anything to 'performance'. A nice fork will do the most for the bike. I've got a 10 year old steel bike with rusty alivo derailleurs and the darn things still work fine :p

The point is you can't trick a bike out with just $200.

wait...yes he can...give me the 200 dollars and I'll polish it up.

The point is you can't trick a bike out with just $200.


I was trying to use your trendy "mountain biker slang" :(

FINE!

WHO CAN GET THE MOST UPGRADED PARTS FOR THEIR MONEY WITH $200!? (Or biggest performance/parts/most stupendest bike increase)


OR, PICK A NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 1 MILLION AND I'LL TELL YOU IF YOU'RE RIGHT?

DON'T YOU LIKE GAMES?

:)

I was trying to use your trendy "mountain biker slang" :(

FINE!

WHO CAN GET THE MOST UPGRADED PARTS FOR THEIR MONEY WITH $200!? (Or biggest performance/parts/most stupendest bike increase)


OR, PICK A NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 1 MILLION AND I'LL TELL YOU IF YOU'RE RIGHT?

DON'T YOU LIKE GAMES?

:)Guess what kind of pie I'm thinking of.

this game sucks.

Pull my finger.

*pulls finger*

*barbershop quartet made out of wax starts baking*

I can trick your bike out for about 30 bucks.

1) Go to gift shop.
2) Buy "Motor bike posse upgrade"
3) Attach velcro fake motors and flame jobbed plastic motorcycle chassis to your bike!

Tricked out, pimped out (to pimp, add another 10 bucks for pink spray paint).

Put a baseball card on the real wheel. That'll pimp that thing out.

That's what I'm gonna do at DH races if I ever go to one.

Put a baseball card on the real wheel. That'll pimp that thing out.

That's what I'm gonna do at DH races if I ever go to one.
I used to do that in my front wheel... it rocked and it was pretty darn loud too.. I got bored of it rather quickly though.

This game is boring...we all play the same game every day with our own bikes and budgets.

Honestly... I'd just get a clean used fork, or buy an 04 fork towards the end of this year when they're blowing them out at low prices.

I bought a 2002 Marzocchi Z-3 Air for $189 from Price Point a while back for my Enduro when I owned it. That fork felt like absolute BUTTER, and at $189 was an absolute STEAL.

-Matt

we all play the same game every day with our own bikes and budgets.

AMEN, we certainly do that! however, it's not boring otherwise we wouldn't do it ourselves. :) Let's say we're maybe a tad dried up from shopping on slim budgets, that is not that fun online.

Now, a dream bike, now we're talkin'! :)

$200 worth of upgrade on deraileurs and shifters will improve "performance" considerably, in my opinion, unless you want to pay someone to ride it for you!

I'm in the process of playing "upgrade my bike with $1000" myself. I realize I could buy a whole new bike for that, but I like playing the upgrade game. :)

$1,000 could get you an AWESOME hardtail, or a pretty good full suspension. It all depends on what you are spending the $1,000 on. :)

Don't you ride a specialized HardRock, too? $1,000 is an amazing upgrade for one :)

Candy Cs ($48) and shoes ($30-$200 easy... we'll stick with $40 for now), WeirWolf 2.1s (or comparable, $56), M750 rear derailleur ($55). I'm under by $1, sorry. Oh, here we go... buy a few spare cable end caps... 20 for a buck.

Well honestly here would be my picks for $200. For $200 though you can really only get my first choice...

I would get Mavic 225 wheelset... I think its a good combination of light, strong and a good value.

Weir Wolf's 2.1?, M750? Erh?

lol

Yes the Mavic wheelsets are hawt but they cost more than half my bike :o

LOLS!

:(

So what? Unless the frame is absolute trash, I don't see anything wrong with spending the equivalent of the purchase price of your bike on upgrades. And to the other poster, yes I ride a Hardrock Pro Disc, which I'm fairly happy with. I just want nicer components on it, so I'm upgrading as I go along. I just ordered some new rotors for when I get my new wheels next week sometime. After that, I'll probably upgrade the fork to a lighter one with less travel... then maybe bar & stem.

I can identify with that. I ride a '04 Hardrock Sport, and I've been slowly swapping parts. The best swap I have done yet is toss out those crappy pedals and put on Time ATAC Z's. My first foray in clipless pedals. Took it out to ride for first time today..

WOW! Best change to my bike yet.

Next thing up I think I'm gonna focus on is finding the right fork. RST Gila's just don't cut it for a 6'2" 215# guy I am.

I've definately put in more money in parts and accessories than the bike :)

$1,000 would be a sweet upgrade for a hardrock. The frame seems very solid, no complaints from me.

Upgrading is fun. Same bike...but its a little different! Plus if you install the stuff yourself you learn that much more about your bike :)

You know... now that Discovery has invested in a pro cycling team, maybe they could air a show based on two people swapping bikes for a day and with a budget of $1000, upgrade each other's bike... call it Trading Spokes or something like that. :D Someone needs to pitch them the idea. ;)

My Discover Card has invested in my personal team (me) too! How funky.

I think Discover Card loves me :P

So what? Unless the frame is absolute trash, I don't see anything wrong with spending the equivalent of the purchase price of your bike on upgrades. And to the other poster, yes I ride a Hardrock Pro Disc, which I'm fairly happy with. I just want nicer components on it, so I'm upgrading as I go along. I just ordered some new rotors for when I get my new wheels next week sometime. After that, I'll probably upgrade the fork to a lighter one with less travel... then maybe bar & stem.


because comparatively to your parts, the frame is trash :D

Keep in mind comparatively.
My bike is kind of wierd like that though because the frame is the same all the way up to the $1000 Caldera.