So, me and my limited tech knowledge on bikes!!!! After recent rides, I decided I need to upgrade the forks and brakes on the bike to get the best out of it, and found a cracking set of Manitou air forks on eBay for £60. Bargain........ or so I thought.....
They arrived on Friday, and i unpacked them with the vigour of a kid with a free pass in the sweet shop. Looked good, and had everything I wanted, air damped instead of crappy springs, lockout for those uphill bits, adjustable everything.......... great. Then went to do a rough measure before starting to take the old forks off...... and they are too bloody short!!! Now, I asked th guy about the steerer tube on eBay, to make sure that was ok, and sure enough, perfect. Lose a spacer and they would fit perfect. But, the actual lower legs themselves...... about 40mm shorter than my current forks. 40mm you cry, thats nothing!!! But, those of you who know trigonometry will know that 40mm will alter the angle at the head, and the ride will be affected significantly.
So, back to the drawing board!! And thats not all. To upgrade my brakes was going to be a nightmare. Research showed that my Shimano (curse them!!) hubs were centrelock, and incompatible with just about 95% of hydraulic brakes on the aftermarket scene today because they all use a 6 bolt rotor. To go a rotor size or two bigger on the front required an adapter, thats fine, but, to bthen find out I was going to have to shell out for two centrelock to 6-bolt adapters....... that was nearly 50 quid in adapters before buying the new brakes!!!
So, a look on eBay revealed what I suspected. I could spend £200 on forks, brakes, adapters, all used as new would increase the cost by a factor of three minimum, or, I could shell out £250 for a bike, again used, that already had the bits I wanted on it! No brainer really!! And I have the option of selling the Hardrock, or whacking some semi-slick tyres on and using it on the road for some cross training, though, to be honest, I'd prefer to buy a cheap road bike.
So, if you know anyone who fancies a decent entry level Specialized MTB........ drop me a line!
Easy upgrade is to a 180mm rotor on the front, which if you have Shimano brakes amounts to new rotor and adapter block. Great increase in braking, I run this set up on my single speed.
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