Hello to the STW hive-mind,

I’ve recently fallen back into love with mountain biking and over the last few months I’ve been giving my current bike (2011 Orange Crush) a bit of a thrashing, and as such it’s starting to feel a bit knackered. The majority of my riding is local to Bristol with pretty frequent trail center visits thrown into the mix

As I see it I have two options:

A. Purchase Upgrades appropriate to transferring to a full-sus frame at a later date – Wheels & Forks (being a bigger lad I’m desperate to get rid of the noodle-like QR skewer on my current floats). I’m thinking Flow EX/ Pro2 for the wheels and Xfusion slant 160 (set to 140mm) for the forks – should i be considering anything else for similar money?

Also Brakes… Avid Elixir 5’s are a pain, would Shimano STX be a solid bet?

OR

B. Spunk my wad on a shiny new bike? I like the look of the Nukeproof Mega TR/Transition Bandit. I’m also blown away by the value of the YT Wicked range – particularly the 650b version, which I suspect maybe far more bike than i actually need but I’ve got no idea where I could try one out to make sure!

What I’m really after from a whole new bike would be something lively, and confidence inspiring – easy to manual and stable in the air also a bonus. Travel-wise, I’m thinking 120-150mm at the rear that will take a 150mm-ish fork up front, any thoughts on other bikes that would fit the bill?

Any help, opinion or constructive criticism greatly appreciated.

M Fist

Dont spend money on the bike, spend it on some coaching.

Tom Dowie / Jedi – both great.

When you can ride the wheels off your current bike its then time to upgrade it.

The Crush is an excellent bike, and it sounds like you could spend the money on skills courses or save the cash and go riding with more skilled people (and learn off them).

A coaching session is probably a great shout and something I have been looking into.

However I will actually “need” a new front wheel within the next couple of weeks (hub is truly knackered)… so any alternatives to the ever popular Flow/Pro 2 combo to consider around the £100 mark?

Buy a Pro2 with QR, then swap the adapters to make is QR15 or 20mm in the future. Save up for a 20mm fork 🙂

I have the same bike and swapped out the forks to some floats with 15QR, a burlier wheelset (Mavic XM319 on Superstar Evo Hubs) and would also like to get rid of the Elixir’s if thats any use to you.

if you go down the route of option a…yes a fork with a bolt through axle will make big improvements to the way the fork and bike behaves…you’d most likely be looking at something with a maxle type 15mm axle, unless you decide that you need something burlier like a 20mm…looks like your current frame uses a tapered headtube so your new forks will need to be the same…which is good news as most new frames now come in this size which makes any future frame upgrade easier…just make sure that you leave plenty of steerer tube on the fork so when it goes on a new frame it will fit…as an alternative fork i can recommend the marzocchi 55cr which has 170mm but can be dropped to 150mm…
whichever fork you go for you will need to change the front hub to accept the new axle so if you can get a good deal on a new wheelset then go for it…but bear in mind that your rear axle is 135x9mm but any frame you later upgrade to may not be the same so you might want to look at a rear hub that can be changed using adapters to fit different rear axle types like a hope pro…EDIT: pro2 are what you’re looking at so you’ve got that covered.. 😀
as for the brakes…avids are good but an absolute pain to bleed and the set up again…so it might be better to switch to slx’s which by all accounts are a very good brake

if you choose to go with option b…then you have a massive range of bikes available from all the main and some of the more exotic brands to choose from…it all depends on what you want and how much you want to spend…

i’ve always done option a…although it can work out a bit more expensive than option b, depending on what you go for…but its more fun when it comes to rebuilding everything onto a new frame…plus you learn more about your bike that way… 😆

Pro 2/flow is a good choice. Personally, I’d avoid falling into the upgrade trap. If you want a new bike, buy one (2nd hand is best value obviously). If you’re after a FS; the thing you need to know is this; DO NOT TRUST MAGAZINE REVIEWS.
Go out and ride as many as you can, find out what you do/don’t like.

My crush rides best at 120mm on the front. Just replaced the heavy pikes with some s/h air rebas. Pro2’s on dt 4.1’s keep things relatively light.

1×10 gearing to keep things simple. Pretty fun bike, not as fast DH as my five but faster up and along.

Yeah you’d be daft to even think about buying the bike of your dreams, you know the one you always lusted after as a kid, had pictures of on your wall etc etc, before you’ve got good enough to deserve it.

When I am king, everyone will be skills tested before they are allowed to buy any kind of bike. There will be a graded system whereby you’re only allowed to buy the bike you’re good enough to ride and allowed to upgrade once you’ve done a skills course and passed the requisite test.

What utter shy T.

Ignore the BS about having the buy coaching first. Yes coaching is brilliant, really it is, but for the love of the little donkey that carried the virgin mary since when did one day of coaching beat buying a new bike in terms of the thrill, excitement and years of pleasure from owning and riding a new bike?

I agree with the above. I’ve never had skills coaching, I just ride my bike, having fun with my mates, it’s fun, you learn from each other and it’s fun…

It’s a scientifically proven fact that buying a new bike makes you 67.5% radder and it’s a lovely feeling.

I don’t dismiss coaching of course, but this is about having fun. If your old bike is knacked, then get a decent one and learn from your mates.

There are some cracking bikes about these days. Best thing to do is get chatty with some folks when you visit those trail centres and ask for quick spins. Most people are only too glad to extol the virtues of their particular choice.

I await the customary flaming for suggesting that coaching isn’t the be all and end all.. 😀

Latest incarnation. Added a cheap dropper post yesterday.

He can buy all the new parts he wants, it won’t improve his skills 😉

(That comes from coaching or riding with more skilled people…)

Thanks for all of the constructive posts so far, some excellent points made and views expressed, keep them coming.

I’ll likely get the new wheels for the time being, so I can keep hitting the trails. I can get a good deal on hope hoops from my LBS, and with the adaptable hubs they’ll be pretty future-proof, it’ll be interesting to give tubeless a go too at some point down the line.

Tricky one this. Pay someone to tell you to look up the trail, adjust your brake levers and teach you to clean 6 foot doubles or buy a new bike…mmmm

The new Mega looks real nice.

Tricky one this. Pay someone to tell you to look up the trail, adjust your brake levers and teach you to clean 6 foot doubles or buy a new bike…mmmm

That’s a bit unfair. There is a lot more to coaching that what you tell someone to do. You have to be able to tell them in a way that they hear and can then apply. The person you’re alluding to is very good at that part of it.

I wasn’t alluding to anyone in particular, i just think recommending coaching to someone who wants to buy new bike bits a little patronising. If someone wanted advice on buying a new car would you* suggest their old car is fine, they just don’t know how to drive, so get more driving lessons?

* not you specifically, but you in general

Before someone upgrades from a Nissan Micra to a Porsche 911, would you suggest they had some expert tuition on how to drive the new car, to make the most of it? After all, they bought the new car as they wanted to progress their driving skills…

And the tuition would be a fraction of the cost of a new car.

However I will actually “need” a new front wheel within the next couple of weeks (hub is truly knackered)… so any alternatives to the ever popular Flow/Pro 2 combo to consider around the £100 mark?

Is the front hub really knackered or is it a case of needing some new cartridge bearings for instance. £20 for new cart bearings is much better than £100 for a new wheel(based on hope hoops). That £100 saved will go a long way to some coaching.

Before someone upgrades from a Nissan Micra to a Porsche 911, would you suggest they had some expert tuition on how to drive the new car, to make the most of it? After all, they bought the new car as they wanted to progress their driving skills…

Only if I knew they were a bad driver. Driving a micra doesn’t automatically mean you have no skills.

The OP rides an Orange Crush – are they only sold to people with no balance, spacial awareness and general bike handling skills? I’d say no, but a few seem to think he needs coaching despite not knowing him (unless you do know him, then i’m a d**k 😀 )

Unfortunately the hub is fully trashed, its ride-able but very obviously unsound, something was improperly aligned/readjusted last time they were serviced leading to exaggerated and uneven wear (as diagnosed by LBS – I’m mechanically clueless). So new wheels it is.

It’s amusing seeing the reactions when mentioning coaching 😀

Personally I’d never spend money on coaching – shiny new parts all the way!

Lets not carried away with suggesting coaching as some magical key to unlock your inner Steve Peat. Coaching will help you understand what you should be doing, but this theory can all be read from the plethora of mag articles on the subject – alot of them written by Steve Peat himself and many other pro’s. What coaching does give you is some feedback about what you’re actually doing so it is beneficial and worthwhile from that perspective. Coaching will not in itself make you a better rider. Only time in the saddle will do that no matter what bike you ride. So with that in mind upgrade your bike to your hearts and wallets content. Again it won’t make you a better rider, but what the hell. Its nice to have a better bike. Just like it would be nice to drive a Porsche over a Micra even if it will spend 99% of its life sat in traffic jams. It makes life just a little bit better and will make you get out a bit more.

OP – I’d be wary of buying something with too much travel (and therefore weight) than you really need. Lots of people seem to drag big burly bikes around relatively tame trails which IME takes the fun out of the climbs and descents. If you’re going to have one bike then make sure it suits the riding you do, not the riding you aspire to do.

I should declare an interest: I’m a detective inspector in the fun police. 😀

I wasn’t alluding to anyone in particular,

Fair enough. I retract. I happen to agree with your point anyway, which is that for some reason people seem very keen to bar bike upgrades until you’ve had a coaching session.

I’ve had one recently and I thought it was excellent enough to way to book another. I’m a big fan of coaching but I am as big a fan (if not bigger) of nice bikes.

Wow!

The micra vs 911 argument is ridiculous. I’ve never had any driving/riding tuition, yet managed to race cars, karts and motorcycles pretty respectfully without killing myself! I’m now applying the same thing to MTB, and have come on leaps and bounds in the past few months.

For me figuring out how to do it well is part of the fun! I’m not slating tuition in any way, I’m sure some find it very useful, my point is, the guy asked for upgrade advice, not alternative methods of spending his hard earned!

back on topic….

I have stans flows on superstar switch evo hubs, which have been great (after a rebuild, but factoring that into the cost they were still very cheap, and the hubs are excellent),
I also picked up some 20mm axle revelation RLT ti’s recently, and an axle for the rear. I’m now more confident, and the bike is way stiffer. Very glad I spent my money in those area’s!