Upgrade or buy new

[asoe209]

Hi all hope this is the right thread for this post, hoping for a little advise really.

I have just bought a new mountin bike, only a cheap thing mainley for getting to work wichnis about 3 miles so would do 6 miles 3 days a week. But also I prob plan to use it on the weekend for some extra cardio and help with some weight loss.

I wanted to go with a hybrid but with money I just opted for a mountin bike which was £120. I was not exspecting any thing fancy as you mnow you get what you pay for.

I took the bike out today for the 1st time, and I feel its not the best few thing felt funny on it. This includes hard seat, small handles weak feeling peddles. Also there were some annoying bits like gears not feeling right when changed and with it being a grip shif I often changed gear not wanting to.

My question is it worth just getting another bike and spending a bit more say ariund the £200. Or just trying to upgrade this one, with new seat and peddles and road tiers.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Since you already have the bike I'd suggest going for the few changes to improve it for what you need. You can then research what bike to replace it with at your leisure.

Budget bikes like this can be turned into something better but you need to do it for the pleasure of tinkering with the bike because it will not increase the value. This is my knockabout bike, bought for £100 new and now much modified and very well travelled:

With yours, perhaps limit it to the change of tyres, saddle and pedals as you've already mentioned.

The gear shifting can be improved by getting them properly set up, however grip shifters at the cheap end of the market can be quite vague even when well adjusted. This video may help:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzvfCaIbyQ

 

[tribanjules]

I've got a canull hybrid for sale - on gumtree for £200, 1 year old but only been out once in that time due to n+1 ....
24spd with "proper" shifters, 27x 40 tyres, lock-out forks, suspension seat post, ally frame etc
run out of shed space !