Voodoo Bantu – worth upgrading parts or buy new bike?

Hi folks, I’m new to mtb and I hope someone could give me some advice. I bought a voodoo bantu this summer as a starter bike, see if I took to mtb-ing. It turns out I ruddy love it. As I get [slowly] better and push the bike harder, I think I might be getting to it’s limits. Tyres slip, brake levers are a bit iffy, chain rattle is horrendous, and it pings off on hard landings, & fork clunks. I also fancy a dropper post. Question is this – is the bantu a worthy platform for upgrading? Or should I look for a whole new bike? Thanks!

If you can afford it, i’d get a new one mate and flog the Bantu.

Chain rattle – wrap the chainstay with self amalgamating tape or an old inner tube.

Brand X dropper is about £100 and well worthwhile.
Specialized tyres are cheap and good and about £30 an end.

If you can get a cheap, decent, second hand fork that will be the biggest single improvement.

You’ll end up spending quite a lot more if you go for a new bike e.g. Sonder Transmitter £1000 but it’ll be a lot better.

It looks like it’s got a basic Suntour fork / 2x drivetrain with no clutch / budget wheels and fairly long seat tube heights vs the size (reach measurement not quoted on Halfords that I can see).

I’d be inclined to sell and buy a better one but it depends on budget. It’d probably be worth throwing on a Rockshox Recon air fork on that frame and do a budget 1×11 deore drivetrain, but you might be limited on dropper length by the tall seat tube and it looks like it has qr wheels at both ends so that’s not great from an upgrade potential.

What might your budget be if you sold the Voodoo? Stock of new bikes might be your issue.

With some careful buying of parts from different places I built the below bike for my nephew for £850. It’s not massively long or slack but the frame is probably an upgrade on the Bantu – better fork (Recon Gold 130mm Soloair with 15×110 axle), 1×11 Drivetrain with Deore Mech / SLX shifter / Sram chain / Sram crank and ring / Sunrace 11-46 cassette, Clarks M4 4pot brakes, Specialized tubeless tyres and custom wheels I built (Alex rims / Sapim spokes / Xt rear hub / Superstar V6 front hub). No dropper though in that budget.

He loves it and asking for a dropper for Christmas.

@biskoss I have a Voodoo bike (Bizango) and they are good value bikes. It sounds like you are throwing it around and jumping a lot and pushing it to the limits. It is a relatively cheap bike and OK for the type of riding I do – cross country along rough trails with both wheels firmly on the ground. But I would suggest you look for a new bike probably at twice the cost. Others here could advise better than me. Glad you are enjoying the riding.

Thanks folks. Appreciate the thoughts. The consensus seems to be get a new bike. So that just begs the question what bike?! I guess the could be the subject of another post, but ant recommendations welcomed. I reckon budget would be 1k-ish. Poss more if I really threw the boat out.

If you could get a Vitus Sentier in either 660b or 29er with the red Z2 fork I think that’s £1000 or maybe £1099. Hard to eBay for that money – haven’t looked recently but it was out is stock every time I looked over the summer. It’s why I built the above bike as I could get stock of components but not a whole bike.

I do like the look of the Sentier. And the one you built too!! I’d love to build my own like that, but tbh I think that might be beyond my skill level at the mo. Time to set up some stock alerts on CRC or wiggle!

My nephew loves the bike above that I built – it’s about the only thing that gets him off the Xbox he’s otherwise permanently glued to. He’s only been going to Ashton Court mostly, although I also took him to Leigh Woods last time and he loved that. He just can’t remember the route for LE it seems unless I go. I need to sort out a dropper and take him to Forest of Dean next for the blue there. That’ll blow his mind (and probably his fitness)!

It wasn’t that hard to build up the above bike (apart from the wheels which take a bit of patience / practice to build) – it’s more having enough of the basic tools and knowing what is compatible with each other.

I had a Sentier not long ago (self build from a frame as well) and it was a really decent bike. Mine had pikes, Sram GX / Code R brakes / DT Swiss E1900 wheels and it took everything in its stride.

Just a shame so many bikes are out of stock / hard to get hold of!

If you can up your budget a little then you mind find some of the smaller U.K. brands can come up with something – like the Sonder Transmitter / Bird Zero AM or 29 etc.

But Vitus is almost impossible to beat for value for money at the £500-£1000 sort of area.

I do like the idea of buying British. I like the look of nukeproof scout, whyte 905 or orange crush. A bit above my price range perhaps, and also low on stock too. I love that covid has got everyone riding but its a bugger for buying a bike!

The Scout is decent for sure – or an Orange Clockwork 137 / Evo or indeed a Whyte. Maybe people might start to sell things secondhand as the winter bites and they aren’t using them…..