Bling Your Dated Ride. Or How to Put Some Lipstick on Your Pig.

Leaves and roots on Park City, Utah singletrack.
Photo: Max Whittaker

I see you out there on the trails. You’re proudly rocking your early to late 2000s mountain bike. You shake your head at my carbon frame and wheels. You’re disgusted at the $10k mountain bikes that the mags review and your local shop markets. Your bike still works just fine. Why buy something new? Practically speaking, I disagree with you. Today’s trail bikes are leagues better than your ten-year-old bike. But, I respect you. Money’s tight, you work hard for it, you’re still ripping the trails on your current rig, and you’re right—$10k mountain bikes are ridiculous. So how do you bridge the divide? It’s actually pretty easy. You just need to take advantage of some modern improvements with comparatively cheap component upgrades. In fact, if you ride regularly, a lot of this stuff will need to be replaced periodically anyway. Here’s what I recommend to update your old whip:



1. Dropper post

Every now and then, on a long road trip or waiting for that slow guy at the top of a climb, my riding crew will debate which modern component upgrade they would pick, if they could only pick one. I always pick the dropper post. Why? Because there’s no way you can descend properly without one, and mountain biking’s all about the descent. Yes, I hear you, yelling that you—and lots of people you know—descend really fucking fast with your high post. Yes, we all spent years slaying trails while awkwardly negotiating that high seat, but that doesn’t mean it was right, and it definitely wasn’t fast. High-posting means you’re always stuck with the devil’s choice of getting in front of or behind the seat. Sure you can hover right over it, but that means you can’t properly lean the bike in a corner without the seat hitting your inner thigh or a bump jamming the seat into your nether regions. This led most of us to get behind the seat which looked rad and allowed us to hit drops, but it also meant we couldn’t absorb hits cause our arms were already extended and the front wheel kept washing out since we didn’t have any weight on it (weight = traction). Dropping that seat at the flick of a lever allows you to assume a proper, neutral stance to attack whatever trail is unfurling in front of you. You can keep your elbows up and head over the bars to keep that front tire weighted and your legs are bent to absorb whatever chunder you’re charging over. It’s an even better upgrade to a hardtail, because now your legs can make up for the lack of rear suspension. Both of my personal mountain bikes have droppers on them and I can’t toss a leg over a mountain bike lacking one without feeling disgusted. There’s a ton of adequate dropper posts out there, but the RockShox Reverb is my favorite, although a current test bike with the Thomson Elite Covert Dropper is winning me over as well.

2. Tubeless tires

I really hope you’re already rolling sans tubes as it’s the cheapest way to increase your bike’s performance. Using a kit from Stan’s, you can convert almost any rim to tubeless and almost any tire sold today will work fine tubeless. This will allow you to run much lower pressures (most people will be able to run mid to upper 20s psi) than with tubes, delivering dramatically better traction in all conditions. On top of it, you’ll eliminate pinch flats. Live in a thorny area? Even better, as the Stan’s sealant will seal up those little pinpricks while you ride.

3. Wide bars and short stem

The cheapest way to modernize the handling of your older ride is to swap out your handlebar and stem combo for a set of wider bars and a shorter stem. This will offer much greater stability and confidence while descending with only a slight, if any, decrease in climbing performance. Trust me, the wider bars offset the shorter stem and you won’t feel cramped in the slightest. The first ride may feel slightly odd, but you’ll quickly get used to it. Think your trails are too tight for wide bars? Bullshit. I’ve only had a couple occurrences while riding a wide variety of trails where my bars were actually too wide to fit. Mostly it’s in your mind, and your riding style and line choice quickly adapt. How wide? I’m 5’10”, average build and rock 780mm Boobars. 720-800mm is the range to look at. Remember, you can always cut them down (yes, even carbon ones), but can’t make narrower ones grow. How short of stem? I run a 50mm Raceface Atlas stem, and think that’s the sweet spot of front end control, but your older frame may have too short of top tube to go that short. A 60 or 70mm stem might be more appropriate, but don’t go longer than that.

4. 1x drivetrain and clutch derailleur

SRAM’s 1×11 speed drivetrains hang on most new bikes over a certain price point, and for good reason. They’re simpler, lighter, more reliable, quieter, eliminate one whole component off your cluttered bars, and offer nearly the same range as a triple. The bummer? Even the low end cassette alone costs over $300, or about the same as I paid for my first mountain bike. That doesn’t include the $230 derailleur or $80 shifter, plus chainring you’ll need to retrofit your ride. I love carbon wheels and other stupidly expensive parts, but frankly I’m still running 10-speed on my personal rigs because that’s silly money. But you can take advantage of most of this technology for a fraction of the cost. First, pick up a clutch rear derailleur, either SRAM (called Type 2) or Shimano (called Shadow Plus). The clutch derailleur will help keep your chain on (more on that later), make your drivetrain nearly silent over rough terrain (amazing how much you’ll appreciate this), and as a side benefit will make it easier to remove your rear wheel and work on your drivetrain. Second, get one of the new thick/thin chainrings that you’ll mount in place of your middle chainring (with shorter chainring bolts) and ditch the big and small chainrings, along with your front derailleur and shifter. These thick/thin chainrings, developed initially by SRAM, when combined with a clutch derailleur will virtually eliminate chain drops. If you’re strong, this combo with an 11-36 cassette is all you need. If you’re hyperventilating at the thought of losing your granny ring, then you may need the added help of a 42 tooth cog on the rear. Hacks from OneUp or Wolftooth will allow you to modify your cassette and derailleur, and you’ll have nearly the range of that spendy SRAM 1×11 setup. You’ll need to pick your chainring carefully. There’s many options, although most riders tend to fall in the 32-36 tooth range, with or without the 42t cassette hack.

Have questions, added tips or want to call bullshit? Hit up the comments below and I’ll reply as quickly as I can.

ParkCity_01-2
Photo: Max Whittaker