Hi there everyone.

I’ve got a ten year old Kona Roast, which has done me well. I’m thinking of whacking a disc brake set up on it, which should hopefully lighten the rotating weight too. I reckon this is doable for £200 – sound about right?

What I’m beginning to wonder is if I might be better off simply buying a new £500 hard-tail? Is this likely to be much better, especially as I don’t exactly do a lot of jumps any more? I’m not sure how much the tech has really come on in a decade, so enlighten me please!

tech come on over the decade, then price pushed it out of the room IMO, but that’s if were talking new, 2nd hand you can buy a lot for that
(just got a complete On One scandal for a m8, with SLX/LX kit & reba’s for £500 2nd hand – that not bad at all in my book).
£200 should easily cover the cost of the brakes, though it depends if the frame (I’m not familar with it) has a rear disc mount or you expect to have one added, and again 2nd hand it would go a lot further…. If were talking wheel and brakes, 2nd hand is possibly your only choice.

Doable not worth it.

Doing it on the cheap – i.e. do touch-up yourself (not Priest kind of touch-up you understand) way cheaper, powdercoat will be cheaper than argos etc.

Whether any of them are worth it is up to you – 10 year old frame…been abused or not? Attached to it?

You should be able to pick up a set of disc brakes from the classifieds here for around £100, I would have thought.
You’ll have mounts on the frame and forks if it’s a 2001 model and maybe disc hubs. If not, then you’ll have to factor in the cost of a pair of wheels but I don’t think that you’d have any problem finding a pair s/h.

Stick with some XT/XTR v-brakes!

How does a disc lighten the rotating weight of a wheel – or am I missing something??

If anything, it adds to rotational weight?

disk rims can be made lighter. thinner walls.

Ah, gotcha.

I still think V-brakes would be a sensible choice.

quite possibly especially if you can find some NOS xtr.

I have to say having recently built up my first disc hardtail, its a revelation in the sh!tty stuff. None of that V Brake grinding and general clogging up around the calipers, plus rims last so much longer with discs.

If the frame has a rear disc mount i’d say go for it, if it doesnt, its probably not worth the hassle.

I see I misunderstood previously…I’d say do it if you like the frame, unless you’ve just bought some new wheels…

TheBrick – Member
disk rims can be made lighter. thinner walls.

I’m not convinced that was ever established.

Advice to me a while ago was not to bother, but ride it as it is or hang it on the wall. This is for a 1992 Lava Dome.

If your frame doesn’t have any disc mounts, then you could always go for some forks with disc mounts, and have disc brakes at the front and V brakes at the back.

I’ve used this set-up on a Kona Explosif from circa 97-98, and it’s not too bad. Only real issue I’ve had with it is the forks changing the angles a bit, hence the steering.

NB The above method may be a load of bullshit fed to me by Mr Fluffykittens in order to avoid having me screaming “what the f*** are you taking me down this for? I’ve only got V-brakes you ****!” followed by me asking him to buy the Ti hardtail frame that I’d really like (it’ll be an investment, and we are both the same frame size… 🙂 )