Better to upgrade than buy new...

[Love Walrus]

I am no way a bike expert but I thought I would share the continuing story of my trusty Diamondback DBX Race. I picked it up in the sales from my local Halfords about 5 years ago. It has been an fantastic bike but it now in need of some TLC and upgrades. Rather than spend around £600 on a reasonable new hardtail I wanted to keep my DBX and make it a bit special for me.

The first job I have done is scrap the Suntour XCR forks which were totally useless and put on a 2012 Rockshox XC-32 with pop lock. The improvement was like night and day but there is more to come. Also I have put a pair of Maxxis Larsen TT tires on which are great on the road and hard packed but can send you sliding in the mud and gravel. Also I have replaced the saddle with a Gusset black union jack but I think that will be going in the future as I am not finding it as comfortable anymore.

The stock running gear is SRAM TRX with a unnamed crankset and a set of Formula B4 pro hydraulic brakes with 160mm rotors. I have replaced the pads with sinthered ones and swapped the front rotor for a 180mm but the brakes are still lacking in stopping power. The gears are worn out and despite constant adjustment tweaks they still ghost shift and slip constantly. So have had enough today as my ride was ruined by worn out components playing up.

I have been chatting to the tech guys down at TriUK which is just down the road and a Shimano SLX almost complete (no need for hubs) groupset and XT disc brakes will be finding it's way onto my bike on the 23rd for about £450 all in. Expensive but when you look at the cost of bikes with SLX running gear your are into the £1000+ region and even then you might want to tweak the bike.

I will put a few photos up when I get a chance.

 

[Cycleops]

Upgrading would be a sensible route to go but you might not get your money back come sale time. Alternatively you could sell the Diamondback and put the money to the four fifty and see what that gets you. Buying secondhand would give you more bangs for your bucks. I'm very fond of nineties bikes without the suspension, you an pick them up very cheap here but you need to search to find a good example. Here's a great Trek I picked up recently, great ride and weighs nearly nothing.

 

[Jody]

I have been chatting to the tech guys down at TriUK which is just down the road and a Shimano SLX almost complete (no need for hubs) groupset and XT disc brakes will be finding it's way onto my bike on the 23rd for about £450 all in. Expensive but when you look at the cost of bikes with SLX running gear your are into the £1000+ region and even then you might want to tweak the bike.

Depends what you want out of the bike and how much you enjoy it. Not sure why you would opt for XT/SLX unless you were chasing weight.. SLX or Deore brakes and then Deore groupset would be way more cost effective.

£450 + what you could get back from yours would buy you a nice lightly used 12 month old bike with a decent spec. My Anthem f/s cost about that region with full SLX/XT kit, Fox float front and rear and weights sub 27lb

Each person will probably have a different answer but I wouldn't blow £450 on it.

 

[Love Walrus]

The bike as it stands need work doing to the gears and brakes. I have done some digging and £450 is a good price for it all fitted. But I can see where you are coming from for the secondhand bike option but there is nothing down my neck of the woods that I can find that will suit me. I love the old DBX but I don't know how to fit a groupset or even what to setup to go for. I did tinker with buying a cheaper groupset and have a go at fitting it but I was unsure of what was required to properly install it and set it up.

 

[Love Walrus]

Well last night the job begun. After thinking about it I decided to go the self fit option with some help of a friend, this drops the price down to £300 even with the XT brakes with ice-tech rotors and pads.

The old Suntour SR cranks where so stuck on the bottom bracket that when I used the extraction tool it stripped the thread out of the soft alloy crank. Not wanting to be beaten I took drastic measures and used a angle grinder to slice up the crank to get access to the bottom bracket. When I got the bottom bracket off I found the bearings where knackered so that went in the scrap bin also but the new group set comes with a new bottom bracket so no real problem. Everything else was fairly simple until I came to the rotors, the bolts were so tight and so much thread lock was used that my trox driver begun chewing up the heads. I did eventually get them out but it has cost my knuckles most of their skin. I removed the old cassette and cleaned up my wheels, they are is good condition so I wont be replacing them until I have to. I have also decided to remove the old shabby Diamondback stickers from the frame and give the frame a clean up.

My group set and brakes should arrive Monday so I can start the job of rebuilding it, I cannot wait........

 

[gedphones]

You should have stuck some old pre refurb pics up. Would have been good to see what you done.

 

[Love Walrus]

I know I should have but my bike was the same as this (photo borrowed from another site).

I received the first of my bits today, so the new bottom bracket, crack, cassette, front derailleur and rear derailleur are fitted. But my shifters are going back as I ordered I-spec shifters and they were not the ones that arrived. Also I ordered 180mm front rotor and associated adaptor but no adaptor arrived, plus the rear XT brakes are post mount and my rear frame is IS mount and no adaptor in the box despite me asking for one......

But on the bright side I did find in the bargain bin in the shop a Giant Contact SLR carbon riser handlebar, a lovely light alloy Boardman Elite stem and some rather nice lock on grips.....so much for the tight budget...