Firstly, this is definitely going to be a TL;DR for a fair few people but … anyone sticking with it to the end would be doing me a solid (as Jessie would say). I’m all googled out and now seeking some advice about what to do with my cheap but much loved bike – a Dawes Watoga which is about 8 years old, but has only been used on about 500 decent rides of about 30 miles each. In short, the dilemma is about whether I’m wasting money on buying quite a few bike parts when I should instead be putting it towards a new bike. It should be clear at this point I’m definitely in budget territory.

Details about the bike, what I intend to buy and a couple of questions:

DAWES WATOGA

Frame: 7005-T6

Forks: MZ Comp (coils)

Chain set: Trushift Truvativ Isoflow 22-36-44 (V3-2000)

Wheels: Mavic XM117

Hubs: Quando (sealed)

Cassette: Shimano HG50 11-32

Derailleur: Shimano Deore Mega Drive Train

Headset (?): Kore

Disc Brakes: Anchor Diatech (hydraulic)

The bike has been fine for what I do with it (in fact I love it and have the fitness/strength to do some decent climbs even though it isn’t light). I mostly XC in hilly/mountainous terrain, no jumping as such but some pretty fast descents (not like Downhill stuff though) and drop offs of a couple of feet at most. However, I’ve never really done any maintenance on the bike and rarely cleaned it (thats all going to change now :D).

I now notice that I need a new rear wheel, because its seriously buckled and I thought I might as well change the front wheel at the same time, plus I need new cassette, chain, maybe small and medium chain ring, disc rotors, disc pads, tyres, jockey wheels, and I thought I better get new hubs with the wheels while I’m at it.

For the wheels, I was thinking about getting either Mavic XM317 on LX or XT hubs or Shimano MT15 on Deore hubs. I can get the Mavics for about £100 or the Shimanos for about £90. I’m loathe to spend more and I’m not really sure if they are a step-up or suitable for what I want to do. I eventually wrecked the rear XM117 but it did take a while to do it.

So, the bike cost me about £500 at the time, and I reckon I could easily spend £200 or more to keep it going. I know these items are consumables and need replacing all the time but I was thinking that I get all these things on a new bike anyway. My preference is to keep the bike going, mainly because I don’t want to spend the money getting a new bike for another 3 years or so, but because I also like the old war-horse. BUT, if I was told by most of you that its not sensible to spend so much to keep it going, I’d then be thinking about how to explain to the wife that I need a new one (at which point I’d be looking for some good excuses along the lines of health and safety, risk of death from riding it, etc). I’m a bit clueless about bike parts and working out what to do, despite spending dozens of hours looking at parts, which is why I’m asking here.

Should I be trying to get my knackered wheels trued ? Can any wheel be saved ? It looks pretty warped to me and bikeshop labour costs a fortune where I am in France to get stuff done. Needless to say, I don’t have a truing stand thingy and I tried doing it by adjusting the spokes and I made it worse. One shop did do something to make it slightly better and it lasted a while but is now worse than ever.

Are the wheels I’m thinking about buying suitable for what I need ? Should I be getting even more expensive ones for my type of rides ?

Can I straighten out my disc rotors to save a few quid – they are only slightly warped ? Apart from that, my brakes work really well.

Can I file off the tiny burrs on the chain rings, to save buying a new one ? They are only slightly worn, compared to the sharks teeth on the cassette.

Do I need to replace the cables on the gears ? I haven’t done them ever.

Thanks very much for any advice.

If you love it… continue.

If not get a new bike 🙂

Sack it and buy a new one. Plenty of cheap ones out there. Doesn’t have to be new either.

I’ve got a set of wheels on XT hubs with Mavic 717 rims. Could do for £70 posted? [edit] just saw ypou’re in France, this may not work :(]

One way to do it is to buy ‘upgraded’ kit a bit at a time, fit to existing bike and then you can just buy a new frame at some point in the future and transfer the kit across?

Update with used gear from the classifieds.

I had a bike like that, was a real Trigger’s Brush.
I bought new shiney bits for the race bike every year (chain, cassette, rings etc) and occasional upgrades. Old bits from that went onto the hardtail and the stuff from that to the DH bike and the stuff from that to the old bike.
It ended up with a set of old XT wheels, Magura HS33s, FSA cranks etc all on a mid-1990s Claud Butler steel frame. Once the rear shifter packed up and it became a single speed stuff seemed to last for ever, chains and chainrings etc.
My advice is to bodge an SS, middle ring, one sprocket from the cassette spaced with a bit of plastic plumbing pipe, shortened chain, use the rear mech with the limit screws set appropriately as a tensioner and Robert is a sibling of your mother. This will be great as a winter bike and will be much easier to look after. If you fancing somehting new and shiney in the spring go for it then but I bet this one will still be running.
Had to get rid of mine a couple of years ago when the frame finally snapped (again) at 13yrs old. First time was welded up but the second time there was too much rust 🙁

I’d bin it and get new. You’re in France you say, Decathlon have some great bikes.

You’ll certainly struggle to get a decent transmission, rotors and wheels for £200.

APF

Decathlon have some great crap bikes

FTFY.

First price for a REAL mtb is around 430€ (LBS prices). Something a bit better will cost you around 499€ if you buy them know as most will try to get rid of their 2012 bikes.
Where in France are you based.

Forks: MZ Comp (coils)

THE most appalling forks that Suntour ever put Marzocchi’s name on. Just a spring in a tube. I’d bin the bike just because of these.

You can get a perfectly good rear wheel for £50-60 from chain reaction, merline and probably elsewhere. An equivalent cassette and chain is £30 at most. Add a bit for disk brake pads if really needed and you should be able to keep it going for £100.

Jockey Wheels will work even if in a shocking state, I have replaced some but it is pretty rare and on such a bike I would just get a cheap mech.

Tyres are they really worn, if so you can probably pick some out a parts bin at a bike shop which have been replaced on purchase for peanuts.

Keep it going. I have two MTBs that are considerably older than yours and they are still good fun.

A bit of judicious work with an adjustable spanner will sort the rotors.

Chainset is probably ok – see how it reacts to a new chain, worse case is pick up a new one – often cheaper than rings.

I had a dawes watoga. It is a really harsh/stiff frame. I suggest selling it and getting a good second hand lighter bike instead. It smashes your back end in constantly!

I’d be interested in wheels? I’ve tried to email wwaswas but its not letting me?

Should be ok on that hotmail address in my profile?

I’ve tried .com instead?

I’ve managed wwaswas , you have mail. Cheers

Cheers for all of the replies so far, even for the guy who slated my MZ Comp forks 😀 (I’m sure they should be ditched but as I’ve never been on a decent bike with decent forks, I don’t know the difference).

@juan – I’m in central France, not too far from Clermont Ferrand. Do you know of any online forums where people sell stuff like in the classifieds here on SingleTrack ? Or anywhere else for that matter – Leboncoin is a bit rubbish and prices are stupid over here.

@wwaswas – cheers for the offer. Emailed.

@andrewh – cheers for the suggestions there too, and I’ll remember that one about Robert being a sibling of your mother 😛

@mefty – thanks for the encouragement on being thrifty. Going along with the other suggestions, maybe I should be looking to upgrade by finding decent quality stuff second-hand.

Still interested in any other comments by the way. Cheers

Not sure its worth resurrecting this but just to say thanks again and quick update. Hope this inspires any cheapass frugal MTB’ers – managed to get my bike back feeling like new by spending just over £100. Picked up a couple of secondhand Mavic 717 wheels (thanks wwaswas – excellent classifieds transaction, what a gent). Also did a routine replacement of cassette, chain, bottom bracket.

When I gouged out the concrete consistency mud from the derailleurs, chainset and jockey wheels, decided I didn’t need to replace anything else. Bent my disc brakes back in to shape by hand. Took everything apart and gave it a proper clean. Found that my frame is slightly off at the rear drop-outs but a washer at the QR gets the wheel back to centre (which is why my old badly buckled rear wheel threatened to rub through the frame).

Basically, I just did a bit of maintenance which I’d neglected to do for the last 8 years 😳 I spent probably as much on basic tools as I did on bike parts so I can look after my bike properly now – resisted that for too long and now realise that was a false economy. Why didn’t I do this a long time ago ? Now I’m feeling pleased with myself I can see money starting to flood out of my pocket – maybe 😛

There’s a Klein on here with Air forks & 1×10 for £120. Sling the Dawes in the canal and get it bought. In fact buy it before I do!

Thanks for the update, always interesting to hear how these stories play out

Picked up a couple of secondhand Mavic 717 wheels (thanks wwaswas – excellent classifieds transaction, what a gent

I was reading the thread and thought those wheels looked good value and I could use them !