"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.
