Originally Posted by
grumpus
But the main one is that you're a bike snob, and you can't help trying to upsell someone who came here for advice fixing/modifying his bike. Bicycle shaped objects are a problem for mechanics, but this is not one of those it's an entry level hardtail. So it's not going to win any races, but it's perfectly adequate for fitness and fun riding on or off road. Yes cheap Shimano hydraulic calipers work fine, and cost less than alternatives, but if you lose confidence in a bike it ceases to be fun, and that seems to be what happened here - give the guy some alternatives, and maybe some prices, and let him decide, don't just tell him he's doing it all wrong.
Who is upselling? I sold nothing I suggested keeping the same brakes and saving up money there was no sale transacted or pushing for a particular product or anything like that. I also said nothing snobbish just truth about the bike. It has a cheap coil fork and cheap parts on it not designed around mountain biking that is not snobbery just facts about the parts. Also facts that a rim brake won't work on a bike like that.
The only thing one needs to do is just replace the broken parts and move forward. The alternatives are expensive or worse than the MT200s so why would anyone suggest something different than just fixing what is broken or getting a replacement set of MT-200s? That seems silly and counter-productive.