OK, I have a confession to make. It’s been a LOOONNNNNNGGG time since my last kit purchase. Nearly all my bikes are 26″ (appart from the On-One I built out of curiosity about 7 years ago). The bike I am most sentimentally attached to is my 2002 Merlin Titanium Rock lobster. This is lovely, with a true excess of red annodised bits from X-lite and Hope and Pace and all the things that a biker of the 90’s would spec on a bike of the early 2000’s (yep hope brakes, flite saddle etc). Now to be honest this bike I still love, even if the saddle is 3″ higher than the bars. And flat bars with bar ends will make a comeback. So where do I need help? Well I spotted a PSA on bargin XT cranks, and it made me think that the one bit that is tired is the drivetrain. So speccing nice stuff and taking advantage of current deals, what would everyone fit to replace the existing 3×9 and LX Octalink setup? Tempted by 1xn, but all my mountain bikes are 3×9. Educate me with links as to what will fit a bog standard 2002 frame. CRC/Wiggle must have some good offers? Ta!

Go 1 X 9 with an 11-40 sunrace 9spd cassette

Doing the same and looking at an STX 11sp shifter and mech with XT 11-46 cassette for my Trailstar. Existing cranks can be used, the same site you are probably looking at has some Deores for £30 that would do, either that or get the SLX’s again.

Scrap that, there’s an SLX cassette to match. And all the cheaper cranksets are doubles which IIRC make life difficult.

1×10 or 2×10. Depends how much much you want to change or spend. Could go Hollowtech 2 crankset, deore 2×10 on chain reaction is £37 without BB (£14 deore), cassette 11-42 – £36 and chain around £15 for 10 speed. So about £100 for drivetrain

Widerer bars, shorter stem? For better control. Keep the bar ends 🙂

The other thing I noticed when looking last night is that much of the gearing is now 29er centric. I plan on running this bike with slicks for local canal blasts, so with sub 2″ tyres the gearing is already on the short side with 26″ wheels. I could go for 2″ slicks or semi slicks.
The bars, stem etc are perfect, so won’t be getting changed. 🙂

Maybe 1×11 – Shimano is the cheapest option I’d imagine. Slx mech and shifter and an 11-46 cassette. If you’re running 26” wheels then you can probably get away with a 36 tooth narrow wide chainring and still have a low enough gear for hills. If your triple has a 104bcd for the middle ring you should be able to run that narrow wide chainring in the middle position and have ok chainline. Minimal cost that way.

Either that or buy a complete Sram NX drivetrain from CRC – they had one including cranks (but not BB) for £210 the other day. That’s everything you’d need and the cassette fits a standard Shimano freehub. 12 speed!

I’ve got a nice 10 speed XTR rear mech and 11-36 cassette in the classifieds…