fjyang

I have an older 98 Trek Y bike and its is a basket case that most of the parts are worn and need replacement. As Shimano seem to come out with new a generation of bike parts every year or two and claim to improve the strength and weight reduction with every generation of XTR, XT, LX and Deore. My question is that if I replace a 10 year old 98 Shimano LX crank with 06 Deore crank, could 9 year of progress make the 06 Deore crank actually lighter and stronger than the 98 LX crank?

How many generations of refinement does it take before the lower level part comes on par or equal with the older generation of higher level parts? I'm not just talking about cranks but shifters, hubs, cassettes etc. Your comments and thoughts are appreciated.

dinos_gr

Sometime that is not a rule. I've noticed that my 1999 XT cranks were wuch more trailworthy and lighter than my 2007 XTR crankset!!! I think that the best value for money (strenght/operation) is the XT series. Of course it all depends what kind of mtb you do...trailbanging, small jumps and drops or just riding around enjoying nature in which case I would go for the LX or even Deore!

born2bahick

Instinct made me want to say yes, a new deore would be lighter/stronger than a 98 LX. However weight weenies says that an 04 Deore was still heavier than a 98 LX. Don't know about strength.

Raiyn

Time for a new bike. The Y bikes were awful when they were new (lousy URT) and they aren't worth sinking money into. Best thing I ever saw done with one is the was a guy who sent a pic into Dirt Rag with his converted into an electric guitar.

fjyang

The Trek Y-11 is my first dull suspension mountain bike and most feedback I got is either you hate it or love it. I was out of biking scene for about 15 years, I got the Trek Y less than a year ago while I'm shopping for my first dual suspension mountain bike (only hard tails 15 years ago). To make a long story short, I see nothing that was available in the current market that catch my eyes as unique, every bike look the same to me and they just rehash the double diamond design to death and all suspension front and rear are similar in term of design at least to my untrain eyes. What happen to bikes like the Klein Mantra, AMP Research, GT LTS/STS, Whyte PRST-1, Proflex/K2, Slingshot and Trek Y's off course? to me those bike show real innovation and unique design solutions. Is the traditional telescopic fork and a 4-bar rear link the holly grail of full suspension design or its driven by marketing?

misterC

Those designs all sucked, with the trek y being one of the worst.. thats why you don't see them anymore. Those bikes were essentially experiments in suspension design. New suspensions look "the same" because the biking industry has refined their designs to ones that actually perform well and it turns out there are only a couple designs worth building.

Raiyn

Years of research and development has gone into today's designs. I remember all the bikes you've mentioned and all of today's designs blow them out of the water.

fjyang

I think the biggest progress are made in suspensions druing the past 10 years. If you put a Fox RP23 and Talas fork on a older bike design like the older trek Y or Klein I think most of the complaints about them will diminish greatly like bob or handling. It take a while for the suspension tech to catch up with frame design. I rode my trek Y with stock rear shock and then upgraded to a fox float R and the difference is like day and night. That's why I'm thinking of updating the bikes part to modern one's.

If you put a 10 year old fork and rear shock on a 07 bike, would it perform just as well? The other thing are weight, It seem like everytime a bike gain an inch of travel it gain 10lbs. The market probably is just too segmented...like I need five bikes just to do mountain biking from XC, Trail, freedrid, black diamond, down hill, etc etc...

Cannondale is still sticking with single pivot rear suspensions and they got their own lefty fork that I respect for going their own way. I guess if you're as big a Trek or Cannondale you don't have to follow the trend or herd and set your own trends or do whatever you like just because you can.

I come back to biking 15 years later and the biggest advance since slice bread is suspension lock-out? To me that's not even a solution but a cop-out compromise, meaning we can't eliminate bob so we're just going to ignor it! Can one imagine car or motorcycle maker to provide that kind of solution to a suspension problem? I remember K2 use to have something like smart shock that use electronics to sense the terrain and adjust the susepension accordingly.

Anyway, I just wish more innovations in frame and fork designs. IF telescopic fork and 4 bar linkage rear is the best mountain biker can wish for then I think half of today's bike manufacture would go out of business soon...why have 20 company keep rehashing the same tech. There only need to be the big four like Trek, Cannondale, Giant...whatever is the next biggest like care or motorcycle company evolutions