My bike is too good at everything, its stopping N+1

Yes, I know, unbelievable.

Trying to buy a “racier” FS do it all bike than my 26.5lb 26″ ASR5. £300 at XCracer would take approx 1lb off of it and leave with something very utilitarian for the weight(although I use an HT for short course racing) and not a bad weight for Solo endeavors.

So why would I spend the difference between selling that and £3k on a weighter 29er/650b 100mm bike (Anthem, Canyon Lux, Whyte 109CS)?

Whaaaaaa!

you need to up your budget for the 29er, obviously 🙂

Radon Skeen 10, 10.8kg, €2600. Mildly cynical on the weight of that one. Edit: it’s 26″, ignore that!

Or Canyon Lux CF 9.9, £3300, 10.8kg. Seems there are options out there!

Not quite sure why you think a cheaper bike with bigger wheels should be lighter though…?

Not quite sure why you think a cheaper bike with bigger wheels should be lighter though…?

I don’t necessarily, but I’m just trying to weigh up all the advantages and disadvantages. The Yeti was great at the Bonty with the shock pumped up to give 3.5″ of travel, and as mentioned could be lighter (did some maths on an XCracer shopping basket).

Spending £300 on the Yeti then gives me a 25.5lb utilitarian FS. Dropping the balance of the sold yeti/new bike – £1500? – gives me different sized wheels, different Geo, Carbon frame. Is that really worth £1500? Speed has much more to do with me than a new bike at the moment I reckon.

Buy another exactly the same just in a different colour. 🙂

Question is wider than just weight though innit. Would a 29er be faster, weight aside?

Whatever you do, just don’t buy a Spearfish. Thanks.

Carry on.

I don’t know NJEE, would it? And how much faster is worth £1500?

localhero94 – Member
Whatever you do, just don’t buy a Spearfish. Thanks.

I won’t I’ve heard they are accident prone.

And how much faster is worth £1500?

that’s for you to decide.

Get a demo bike and ride a route/lap you’re familiar with and compare with times on the Yeti?

I do rather like that racey Black Sin 29er. Sure you couldn’t replace the racey 26″ FS with a 29″ HT?

With a bigger budget, I wonder how light you could get the Yeti. Though may compromise the do it all bit.

Sounds like you don’t NEED a new bike, you are just tempted.

Spend the £300 then get a skills course in and go faster through being a better rider!

mrblobby, I potentially have a bigger budget. I could double it and get some A/C wheels to replace my hope/crests and save another 200g for instance.

Thing is, I have a decent 26″ HT for short course racing, but I like my comfort PLUS i want an everyday FS trail bike but really don’t have room/wife tolerance for another bike. So my thought was to replace the Yeti, later narrowed down to one of the three bikes mentioned above.

Thing is I really like the Yeti, and I’m never going to have the time or perhaps ability to be on podiums, so is the outlay worth it?

The carbon lux looks nice, got a good review in WMB this month too. I’m thinking of replacing my bizango with one, they’re the same colour scheme, I doubt the mrs would suspect anything 8) 😕

I’m never going to have the time or perhaps ability to be on podiums, so is the outlay worth it?

Nope.

There, you can spend the £300 and keep a bike you already enjoy riding.

I think you are right wwaswas.

What’s wrong with a Spearfish ?

weeksy – Member
What’s wrong with a Spearfish ?

Its an in-joke. Localhero94 & I are known for accidently owning the same of everything, until he semi-retired his Yeti for a Spearfish recently…

I think you are right wwaswas.

the law of averages said it was bound to happen sooner or later 😉

Set of posh wheels for racing sounds like an interesting alternative to a whole bike though!

Set of posh wheels for racing sounds like an interesting alternative to a whole bike though!

Thats what the crests were – I have some Sun Ringle black flags which go on for trail centres – one of which I busted at the weekend so perhaps I could use the Crests for that and buy the AC’s for events.

I should point out my spend is actually double with the exception of wheels, as the “bits” I’d buy from xcracer are x2 for the other bikes as well (Rotors, Stems, QR’s, Seatclamps, cable outers/hoses, a bar and ti bolts basically).

Not sure incremental weight loss is worth it, things don’t feel much different in my experience.

Big wheels seem to overcome slight weight penalty but how much is something no one wants to answer (and I’ve asked) but I’m seriously considering a 24.5lb Spearfish over my 21.5lb Merida 96.

you need to decide how much faster you were between the Black Flags and the Crests on the same course. If it’s a matter of seconds is going lighter on wheels going to really make you enjoy the racing anymore or affect your results in any significant way?

Probably not wwaswas, hence I hadn’t originally included new wheels in my first few posts, and hence:

Speed has much more to do with me than a new bike at the moment I reckon

stop over-thinking it all and enjoy riding then 🙂

Fit and function, thats what I always think before spending more £’s.

If the Yeti fits and functions well in the playground you prance about in then just upgrade some bits to keep the love alive. If it’s struggling to inspire and the proportional spend on upgrades doesn’t seem worth it then get rid and spend more on another bike.

It would be hard making the Yeti into an XC whippet though, not really designed for it either is it. What it does excel in is offering you more “whoop” options than say an XC bike would.

You could of course buy my NinerSS rigid off me if you want something flat out fast.. 😉

It would be hard making the Yeti into an XC whippet though, not really designed for it either is it. What it does excel in is offering you more “whoop” options than say an XC bike would.

No, but bear in mind I have a 24lb Enigma Ego 26 / XT / Sid/ AC’s chained up next to it:

Enigma cropped

I was expecting this thread to mention a tripster in it….

That radon looks lovely. I was completely satisfied with my scale till I saw that.

Just get a new bike, if you have the cash….you don’t need to justify it by claiming a few second lap improvements.

CRC ASRc frame?

Ahh, nioce..

Sell the Yeti then and spend the money on a pair of Assos Shades 😆

TBH, sounds like you’d be better off just keeping what you’ve got, finishing this seasons racing, and using them for some serious training over the winter, then re-evaluate for next season. What with the road racing too it sounds like you’re just enjoying competing on a bike rather than being serious about being as competitive as you can be.

Quick edit… what I mean above is what’s your goal? What do you want to be good at? E.g. if it’s road racing and moving up a cat (or being competitive in current cat) then what mtb you have doesn’t really matter as long as you can do the training you need to do.

If you genuinely want to get faster then a power meter, decent book/ coach and hard work must be a better investment for speed than dropping a lb or two from either bike or changing wheel size… Even riding consistently seems to work wonders for most people. Sorry daft idea 😀 Riding is hard, buying stuff is easy.

DanW (from similar threads a month or two ago)- I’ve been feeling similar… I’m sucking in races and ride a 26 … therefore the only reason I suck is because of the wheel size. Actually, no, I just suck compared to the other guys I think it is much better to invest the time, energy and potentially money in actually riding the damn bike and trying to improve myself rather than the bike

Just get a new bike, if you have the cash….you don’t need to justify it by claiming a few second lap improvements.

stop over-thinking it all and enjoy riding then

Totally agree, if you have n+1 fever the just go and buy something. Don’t look for daft justification.

if you want racier i.e faster then forget the bike…make yourself faster
have another phall before a ride then zoom round the course to make it back in time before all hell breaks loose!!
😆

DanW I am training / following a program based on road which has helped me significantly on MTB.

I think you and ‘blobby are right. When and more likely if I start getting consistent top tier finishes or think about biking as being racing rather than the other way around then perhaps I should think about a dedicated race bike.

In my last race, last month, the chap who won in my age category rode a real old school steel frame with steel forks, straight alu bars and cantis. Just saying like.

Nerve CF.

Thank me later.

With all this hand-wringing, just forget about the bike and get a subscription to the Guardian 😉

There are only two reasons to buy a new bike

1> because you broke your bike
2> becasue you want to <– this is a perfectly valid reason!

Trying to justify it with speed gains, capability etc. is all in your head, unless you’re doing something stupid like riding a SingleSpeed downhill bike in an XC race, or you are already coming 2nd every time and the only reason the guy coming first is winning is because he has a 80g lighter bike than you, then it’s you that makes the bigger difference.

So basically, buy a new bike if you want to, but don’t kid yourself it will magically catapult you several places up the ranking, in fact until you’ve got your setup dialled in on the new bike you may go slower 😉

magically catapult you several places up the ranking

We may have the answer.

I give you the trebuchet bicycle:

clearly there’s a lot of room for weight saving but it might just work.

curiousyellow – Member
Nerve CF.

Thank me later.

For buying practically what I’ve got yet throwing away some cash?

Blimey Kryton, I didn’t think there was anyone less decisive than me about buying a bike – the only excuse is that we are thinking along the same lines!!

beware the sales adverts. Just went to cycleworks in London and super discounted camber evo gone (hmmmm…) and anthem 29er still at original price??????

It’s nearly 2lbs lighter!

Claimed weight anyway.

If you start with that logic then most bikes are “practically” what you’ve already got. Just buy what you like if you can afford it.