Originally Posted by
mtnbud
My current mountain bike is an ancient 8 speed hardtail with a triple ring up front. I see many 29ers are going FS with a 1x gearing system. I also noticed some bikes can use both 29 and 27.5 rims. The widest tire I can fit on my bike is a 2.1. I would like to be able to use fairly wide tires. Maybe 3.0? I also think it'd be smart for me to go with disk brakes for the versatility it would allow in switching wheel sizes and widths.
Just because your bike is old doesn’t mean that it’s bad for what you want to do. If the size isn’t right, by all means change to a different bike but don’t change just because it’s not what the cool kids are riding. The bikes I posted above are from 1998, 2000 and 2003. They are still very good bikes. No, they can’t take a 3” tire but I don’t want to use 3” tires, especially not 622mm or 584mm rim size. Those get real weighty in a narrower tire. Add another inch of rubber and they become behemoths. Add 20 to 40 lbs of gear and the ride becomes much more difficult.