I have a “noob” question . Is it possible to make my xc hardtail (trek superfly 5 ) to a more trail oriented bike ?

What’s your problem with the way it is now?

Do you have a dropper post ? Tyre change, wider bars and shorter stem. And maybe then an angled headset

Works on hardtails.

sell it and buy a new bike!

iolo – Member
What’s your problem with the way it is now?

+1

What do you mean by trail oriented? To me trail bike just means heavy XC bike that may or may not be stronger but is otherwise an XC bike.
That said, you could put your XC bike on an uplift trailer. XC bikes tend to be ridden up the hills more 😉

Thanks for all of your quick responses. My bike is good for me now but i was thinking if im going to ride rougher trails this summer , if my bike would not be capable enough.

What is it, what components?

its a trek Superfly 5 2016

[url=https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/mountain-bikes/cross-country-mountain-bikes/superfly/superfly-5/p/205060

i was thinking if im going to ride rougher trails this summer , if my bike would not be capable enough.

It will be. You can ride almost anything on almost anything. I’ve done Cwmcarn DH trail on my XC race bike. It wasn’t quick but it was still fun.

You won’t be as fast as you would be on an enduro bike – but is that worth spending £3k on?

You could fit wider bars, shorter stem, bigger tyres easily enough. But I probably wouldn’t. Not much point. Just enjoy the ride 🙂

You could fit wider bars, shorter stem, bigger tyres easily enough. But I probably wouldn’t. Not much point. Just enjoy the ride

Like molgrips said ^ I’d be thinking along these lines.

Are you comfortable/confident on the bike?

Ride it how it is until you encounter a secific problem then fix it.

Grippier/wider tyres, maybe stronger/wider wheels. But it is what it is, putting a short stem on a bike not designed that way isnt always an upgrade. Anything more radical its probably just the wrong bike. But I’d say as you ride more youll start to work out what if anything is holding you back.

A skills course might be the best investment. ..

Thank you so much for the help , i think im not going to change anything until i really find the need to do so like pnik said.

Normal Man yes im pretty comfortable/confident

And good point to just enjoy the ride 😉

Tyres are something worthwhile at which to look though. Going from 2.1 to 2.3 helps when it’s rough.

Although, not a lot of clearance on my new Superfly FS so I am thinking of going back down from 2.3 to smaller 🙂

Just had a very similar conversation with my neighbour who has a nice Cube 100m Fox forked 29er. What I said to him I say to you.

1) Spend £200 on a days 1-1 coaching with Tony at UK Bike Skills. THE best money you will ever spend on your biking. It will make more difference than a lifetime of changing your bike / components.
2) reduce your tyre pressures to say 30 front, 35 rear (he was running 40 !)
3) Think about a fatter grippier front tyre (leave whatever you’ve got on the back)

Now go and ride those different trails for a summer, maybe demo a bike here and there, then sit back and decide what next.

Upgrade every possible component in red then it will be trail awesome

1. Get a dropper post.
2. The wheels are tubeless ready, so going tubeless should be a doddle. If nothing else you’ll avoid pinch flats but you can also run a lower pressure.
3. As others have said, a skills course would be good.

2) reduce your tyre pressures to say 30 front, 35 rear (he was running 40 !)

Go lower still if you’re tubeless.

Tyres depending on what is on there now. Simple change, can be a big difference. Something bigger and suited to the terrain – sort of depends what is on there now but I guess pretty racey where speed is preferred over grip. Something like a Continental mountain king would be a good one to look at. 2.4 on the front if you can get away with it, 2.2 on the back.

What trails do you ride now and what are you hoping to ride?

You can make quite big changes to how a bike feels and how much confidence t gives it’s rider with fairly small changes / a bit of tailoring imo!

I’d do the following at first (in order of cheap-ness)

1) Big volume, grippy tyres
2) 1.5deg Slack set to get a bit more stability
3) Cheap set of second hand wider bars (‘wide’ depends on your height, but think >750mm)
4) Dropper post

See how that goes, and if you like it, save up for a slightly longer travel / stiffer fork, again, look out for s/h fork etc (you can shorten a 29er Pike down to 120mm easily enough by swapping the shaft)

Pretty much agree with comments above. The bike is absolutely capable of taking on rough tasks. Sure it might not be the fastest to the bottom but it will handle it no problem.

For me personally I can’t do without a dropper post. I just love the way you can get the seat out the way and let the bike move under you with so much easier than with the saddle up. But even the cheap ones are a bit of an investment. So maybe start with tyres and your setup first.

Just wanted to say thank you ! again for the help , you guys have been amazing ! 😀

What trails do you ride now and what are you hoping to ride?

Melloy flat trails and going to ride more steap rocky trails