Just wondering what percentage of your gear is new/old, expensive vs cheap.

My bike’s reached that age where everything is starting to break/wear out all at the same time and I haven’t the money to replace like for like – got into MTBing when single and earning ok money…

Just wondered what type of gear you buy, what percentage is new/ 2nd hand and where you areas you think it is important to spend money on (for me tyres and cables) and what areas you can skimp on.

bla bla bla

(…TBH am just a materialistic git and want some reasurrance that deore works just as well as XT /R, that it doesn’t matter what I ride, just that I ride etc and that I don’t need to spend 70quid buying a set of sticky, UST tyres to ride around the woods on)

buy only quality parts second hand, classifieds is your best here, ask for pictures, check the number of posts the sellers made (are they “known” users), you’ll do fine. Learn to love a bargain!

i buy what i want when i want, and i swap and change often.
i will however not buy bling stuff, like say xtr,xo, mavic wheelsets, carbon stuff.
i buy deore, lx, thomson, handbuilt £200 wheelset, i.e stuff that works.
jus tcos it is bling does not make it better, imho…

Always buy new, used to stick with the one bling XC hardtail, about £3.5k worth but this year I’m going for a more modest SLX range hardtail, a new CX er and a jumpy type bike, I figure it’s beter having 3 bikes rather than one do it all bike.

Although I’m an LBS bloke so get them on the cheap.

I tend to wait until what I’m looking for in general comes up in a sale or second hand at a knock down price. I can’t afford RRP with a wife, 2 kids and a massive mortgage to pay for 😯

All my bikes have been either second hand or in a big sale, the whyte I have at the min was 50% off

Last two frames have been second hand but most of the bling on them new. But then you can get away with that if you get good frame cheap. I now have 5 spot frame with new hope brakes and wheels. New 5 spoy £1,800 plus, second hand one £550. Bit of a saving.

Generally I ride reasonably expensive 2nd or 3rd hand kit bought from people that I know.
so that would be:
Forks – fox rl80s – 2nd hand
Frame – trek topfuel 9 – 2nd hand
Handlebars – carbon monkeylite things – 2nd hand
Wheels – mavic crossmax sl’s – 3rd hand going strong and super quick.

old bike was a bit of a keep it going on as little as possible job, but now I’m getting into it again and have been splashing the credit card a bit.

New stuff generally off the crc, wiggle or merlin or edin bike co-op

LBS keeps the old 70’s track frame singlespeed on the road.

frame £170 down from £299
forks £170 down from £400
wheels SH £110, new £190
Brakes SH £110, new £230
everythig else tends to be bought new , but in sale/cheepest pirces.

I tend to buy expensive when theres a significant advantage, so an XT cassette weighs a lot less, but a £10 chain isnt functional any different to a £30 chain.

I bought my Pikes new
2nd hand 06 hecker frame with float R shock
New drivetrain (Old bike 50miles on)
New cables
wheels (old bike)
2nd hand bars
2nd hand shifters + Mechs
New brakes (well 2 bikes old) but bought new
New tyres

Whole build cost me £650 ish initially after buying little bits to finish it off but in the end it cost me **** all and i made profit by selling my 07 Stumpy Comp frame (which new build replaced) and Float RL forks for £750, They went up on the high side on e-bay and someone bought the pair, couldnt believe it 😯

Built my Handjob with ’08 parts bought in sales at the end of last year, saved loads a money on forks, crankset, seat post, bars, stem and shifters/mechs so I could put posher stuff like Race Face Deus XC bits on where I would only be able to afford cheaper stuff like EA30 if I’d bouth new to market bits.

On my Pitch I got the Sunline V2 bars for nowt after swapping them for some tyres, got the Pike Spring 2nd hand for half price, got the new rear shock from Mojo’s clearance.

SO all top notch parts for much less cash as I rarely buy new to market bits (unless they’re on special offer), other than the Hope Headset I’ve just put in 8)

Almost all second hand kit bar consumables. Canondale tandem, raleigh titanium solo, marin from the 90’s and an on one between us. Many bits from here for much cheapness

I’d reccomend buying good tyres. If need super tackys then buy them (they dont cost £70 though). If you wonder why people use them then you dont need them.

errmm… if you need reassurance about your bike/components/tyres etc then your starting from a bad position really. If however, you buy and ride what you want (and can afford without compromising other maybe rather more important things) then that’s fine in my eyes.
All products are in the end, well, just products and do a job. Some aren’t fit for purpose, some are very similar (pragmatically) to those costing 2 or 3 times as much but maybe look a bit nicer or are lighter or have more expensive materials. In the end though they’re tools and do the job that they’re intended to do.
Personally, I like nice things and when I want to, have some of them, but I don’t stress about having the best (or not).

My race bike is a 14 year old DBR Axis ti. Rebuilt with all new XT, Thomson, Fox etc. Only 2nd hand part were Crossmax SLs.
So old but fairly expensive for me.

I don’t bother with bling, buy mostly sh or in sales, have decent frames and forks and reasonably light kit to keep the ride nice.

My first bike had Shimano Alivio components and they wore out pretty quickly, over the years I found that with the type and amount of riding I do XT/XTR lasted the longest and worked out more cost effective. I can afford XTR so thats what I use, BUT I’d never pay full RRP.

Deore stuff is very good, to answer your original question. It might even perform better than your older high-end kit.

I find the shifting action of the ’08 Deore better than ’07 XT, for example.