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Okay I have a stock trek 3500 and it has a 63mm Suspension fork, V-brakes, and 26×2.0 bontrager tires. Which should I upgrade first? If any? And what should I upgrade it to? I am almost 15 so I don’t have a lot of money.
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you should save your money and buy a newer bike. the amount of money you would put into that bike just doesn’t make sense. if you were to buy a bike to build up you would want a 3900 or better a 4500 anything youre going to upgrade on a 3500 is going to cost more than the bike…although you can grab a pair of Avid BB7’s from JensonUSA.com i just got a set on my Trek 3900Disc and they ROOOooOOCK. word to the wise if you get a 3900Disc then upgrade the promax garbage first. those brakes suck.
this is just my opinion tho…I only started ring about two years ago, but i did ride enduroCross prior to mountain biking, and i learned that waiting and buying the best is better than getting "ok" stuff now.
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I think bikes of that price range should not be upgraded, they are simply not worth it. By the time you buy a good fork, which will be 200+ dollars you will have almost doubled the price of the bike.
What I suggest doing is learning to work on that bike. Get a Park Tool Big Blue book and watch some Youtube.com videos and find out how to do stuff. Buy some bike tools, like Sette Torx, or Park Tool and do your own work. Take it apart and put it back together, if you like.
I do suggest if you really get into wanting to build/upgrade that you start with a frame. You could get a new frame with disc brake mounts for about 80 dollars and swap most of the parts on to it, then upgrade from there. Things to watch out for are seat post size, Bottom Bracket Size, Front Derailleur Type and mounting size, and how big the steerer tube is. If they are different than your new frame you will need to replace those items right away.
I made my bike buy using old parts and upgrading from there.
http://www.singletracks.com/forum2/view … highlight=That bike is a 80 dollar frame, and was made mostly with parts I swapped from a Rigid Single Speed Schwinn.
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Vtolds gave you some good advice. Learn to work on what you have keep all those parts functioning in tip top shape. If you want to change out parts, do it when something breaks. Then, buy something that you could also use on your next frame if you don’t end up simply buying a complete bike. If you learn how to work on your current ride, it’ll stay in good working condition AND you’ll figure out what items you actually NEED to upgrade (for lack of performance) rather than simply throwing money at the bike for sake of it. Trust me, you’ll learn to really love that ride even with some of its perceived downfalls.
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