"ch5" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Hi fellow bikers,
Do any of you have advice/experience on the following
question:
I have an old (about 10 years) specialised rockhopper. I
have recently started doing offroad riding on quite rugged
terrain, and feel that putting front suspension on the
bike would make riding a lot easier. But I have heard that
it is not worth spending the money to upgrade an old bike
in this way. I have upgraded many other bits (gear
shifters, brakes, etc.) over the years. Is it a bad idea
to put front shocks on this bike?. And is it true that I
may as well not bother as buy cheap shocks (i.e. anything
less than around £200/$300). I would love a new rockhopper
but they start at around £1000 in the UK which I can't
afford at present! (and am pretty attached to the old bike
anyway).
thanks, Claire.
Well since no-one else has answered this I'll give it a
go.Your rockhopper is a fine machine, and should still ride
well I imagine in its present state. Unfortunately 10 years
is a fairly long time in mountain bike development, a lot
has happened since your bike was born. Around this time
suspension forks were just starting to be widely used, but
travel was limited to around 2". Your bikes geometry may be
corrected for these short travel forks, but maybe not :-(.
If not, then adding a suspension fork will slacken the
intended geometry of the bike to a point that you may not
like. Ahead stems were also introduced around this time, if
your frame uses an ahead-style stem (stem clamps to outside
of steerer instead of using a quill to clamp the inside)
then you will find your choice of forks is greater.
Marzocchi and Pace still do threaded (non-ahead) forks iirc
but have to be specially ordererd. Your frame should have a
1.125" headset unless it a few years older than you
remembered, worth checking though as again if it is 1" this
will restrict the choice of available forks. Your next
hurdle is with your brakes. If they are cantilever type
brakes i.e. not 'V' brakes the you will have trouble fitting
them to a suspension fork. Cantilever brakes require a cable
hanger on the lower part of the fork, usually the leg brace,
modern suspension forks do not have these :-(. This means
you will either have to try and source an older fork to use,
or 'upgrade' your front brakes to 'V' brakes which don't
require a hanger. Or you could bodge your own cable hanger,
which is perfectly feasible :-). If you plan on upgrading
your brakes then unfortunately V brakes require levers with
longer cable pull, so you'll need new levers too :-( If your
shifters are attached to your brake levers then you'll be
needing new shifters too. If your bike uses a seven speed
cassette then you'll have to look hard to find 7 speed
shifters. If you can't then you'll be needing a new 8/9
speed rear wheel, cassette, and chain.
So to summarise, check how many of thsese
possibilities are going to be problems, and then
decide whether it is feasible. It doesn't look too
hopeful from where I'm sitting.
As for how much money to spend on shocks, £180 will buy you
some nice Marzocchi MX comps.
Steve.
