New (to me) bike day!

[rivers]

I have just acquired a new to me bike from a friend. It's a bit of an older bike, but seems to be in good nick. It's a 2011 Cube AMS mountain bike, a full sus XC bike. It seems to be in good all around nick, but does need some new gear cables, and potentially a brake bleed and some new brake pads. She dropped it off this evening, in the cover of darkness, as I live in a slightly sketchy area with some slightly sketchy characters about. Once I finish work tomorrow, I'll probably pop it in the house and give it a once over and have a go at indexing the gears, and give it a little TLC. I'm mostly a roadie, but I do enjoy a bit of single track on my gravel bike, so now I can hit a bit more gnarly terrain. The eventual plan is to convert it to 1x, and maybe put some longer travel forks on the front. It should be an interesting upgrade experiment.

 

[Cycleops]

If your area is as ‘sketchy’ as that I wouldn’t wait until tomorro to get it in the house.

 

[rivers]

If your area is as ‘sketchy’ as that I wouldn’t wait until tomorro to get it in the house.

Back garden and shed are secure. But the kids in my neighbourhood are "inquisitive" shall we say. But my mate is a copper and knows the reputation of the area I live in, and has had her own issues where she used live. So she is bit careful with these things. To be honest, I'm more worried about waking up to find a bunch of knobs spray painted on the side of my car (which has happened to my work van).

 

[I like Skol]

The eventual plan is to convert it to 1x, and maybe put some longer travel forks on the front. It should be an interesting upgrade experiment.

Why? Just ride the damn thing! Sound like change for change's sake to me and is unlikely to make the bike anymore capable, enjoyable or more reliable.

 

[fossyant]

Just ride it. No need for 1x. Perfectly happy with my 2 x 10 and as an ex-roadie, I don't have so many teeth jumps that you get on a 1x setup - I hate big gaps. I'd be wary of adding more travel on a full sus, it's designed for the 100mm or so and you'll mess up the geometry.

TBH 100mm is fine, more than enough for trail centres.

 

[rivers]

The change to 1x would be just because I fancy giving the conversion a go. As it is, I want to change the cranks out to 165mm as that is the length I like, and run across the rest of my fleet. If I'm changing the cranks, I might as well go 1x.
Photo of the new to me bike. Rear shifts okay, little bit delayed shifting to higher gears, but that is an easy fix. The front shifting isn't so great. Front and rear suspension seem to be in good condition and work as they should. Brakes also seem to be in working order. I don't think they will need a bleed and will check the condition of the pads after I finish work tonight when I pop it on the work stand. Will take it out through some local fields and trails on Wednesday I think.

 

[fossyant]

Looks nice.

To keep costs down then stick with 1x just on the front. You might need a much larger cassette, then you are looking at a wolf tooth adapter for the rear mech.

I go 175 on the MTB's and 170 on road bikes !

Buy some brake cleaner and also silicon lube - regularly wipe/spray the seals with silicon lube, and to keep the disks in good condition, brake cleaner can remove any oil deposits when you are busy maintaining the bike.