Hello good people of reddit, last week i helped my dad clean the garage and he handed me this bike. It had 10,000 ugly accessories which i took off. It still has some on, but they are handy. I like sleek designs, i like the red color and decals but i dont love the chrome colors, wheels, tires and fork. I will be using the bike for commuting to work, 100% pavement road, but i want to keep the option of taking it off road so i thought about changing to some wider hybrid tires. The brakes are bad, old rim brakes. Should i upgrade to disc brakes or will it ruin the aesethics since it has all the rim brake mounts? Is haudrolic rim
brakes even a thing? It has click on pedals with those plastic one side click on foot pedal to use when using regular shoe, i think im
gonna change to regular big thick pedals, no click on. I like jumping up and down from sidewalks, skidding and bunny jumping. I want it to be a more sleek fun playful simple bike to toss around.
by denzern
17 Comments
Handlebar grips would go a long way
Hey man, thats a really nice bike. It looks like retro mtb with 26″ wheels.
I dont think there is something like hydraulic rim brakes, but for 95% of your use, except riding through mountains in high speeds, they are sufficient enough.
Check the pads and maybe buy ones with 3 types of composit (3 colors on the pad) for wet braking and check if they are tight enough and wheels are trued.
Many people love the clean and minimal look rim brakes have.
Switch the bedals if you like. Regarding coolness, I am a bit older and found that the more adventures you had with the bike, the cooler it seems to get.
Some sick tires can make it look cooler too tho.
It would instantly be 40% cooler if you spray paint that fender white.
Orange and red clash. White and red is 🔥
For safety get grips and bar end plugs to protect the grips, handlebar and yourself in a crash or laying th ebike down.
As it’s gonna be used for commuting keep the rim brake set up, it’s easy to work on.
If the pads aren’t biting well, it might be that pads and rim might be contaminated if so degrease it. If rim is glazed it has to be roughed up look up rim brake resurfacing. There are blocks to do this some used sandpaper some grind the rim down, trails rider do it. I’ve not tried it.
Bu 5if it’s just grease and oil removing tha twill fix it also if the pads are half rotted change them, I find Shimano and Jagwire pads to do well.
I don’t know your exact issue with the brakes, but v-brakes are really easy to work on. Perfect for commuting.
But if wire an d housing is worn there will be friction, and lever will stick or require horribly much force to pull.
If so change housing and wires, it’s not expensive.
And is a easy fix.
Lube up the wire with light grease, I use Sram bugger as I have a big jar of it.
Magura makes hydraulic rim brakes. Though I think a properly tuned set of cantilever brakes will do just fine for you. Disc brake conversions aren’t really feasible on frames that weren’t build to mount those calipers.
That front fork may could do with a replacement depending on how long it’s been without service. Though it looks like it has spring preload caps so you may be able to just wind those suckers back up. I personally would replace it with a black or red rigid fork for a 26” wheel.
If you’ve got a bike co-op anywhere close to you, they might have some spare parts and spare knowledge kicking around. Check out r/xbiking for some inspiration.
Hydraulic rim brakes are a tying, Magura has it, they have trails and commuter versions.
But the con with Magura is no spare parts, have to send it to Germany for service. 🤦The brake syou got you can fix yourself in a few minutes.
Disc brakes means new hubs or wheels, but I wouldn’t bother if what you got works.
Once the drivetrian wears out you can buy a 1x rear derailleur and shifter to simplify the drovetrian add oval chain ring. Buy if it’s fine riding a sis do that. That’s jus tan opote til upgrade for later.
The quick release lever is at a bad position at the rear you should make it point back for better leverage when opening it.
Iy should start to firmly tighten when it’s straight out/ level, you should feel it stop, then you close it, I thsould not rotate afterwards.
It will leave a light mark in your palm that’s fine.
The front is positioned correctly but I don’t know if it’s tight enough, but it’s the trickier style lever, go by trail and error until it doesn’t rotate. I prefer the classic Shimano skewer levers which you have in the rear.
Tip: don’t lean bike against the frame, it wills scratch it, use the saddle.
The bike got a tall stem, which is good as this bike is has oldschool geometry.
Seems to already have a wider handlebar.
Just ride it!
Getting on it and riding makes any bike cooler!
r/xbiking for inspiration
Have you tried putting a baseball card in the spokes so it sounds like a motorcycle? That’s pretty cool imho
The fender looks goofy, the orange clashes. Put some ODI locking grips on. And just ride it. Its a Red Specialized. Thats either cool or it isn’t.
https://preview.redd.it/typbpkfadikd1.png?width=380&format=png&auto=webp&s=73c46975175a45dfc3e35c48eecfd532dbb9c6c7
Spray some of this stuff on there, that should make it look pretty cold.
Take the mudguard off and maybe put on a black one if you want to have one on the bike. Get yourself some grips (I recommend ergon), some pedals (raceface Chester is what it’d recommend since they are very affordable but still really good for the price, they also come in a bunch of colors and are pretty durable even though they’re made of plastic)
So, you want this older MTB to be kinda like a BMX, but that you can cruise around on more easily? Most BMX bikes have small wheels (20″ or 24″ is common, though the big 26″ BMXs are a lot of fun if you ask me) for quick acceleration, but they’re not good for riding very far.
Get rid of that fender or paint it black. I like contrasting accessories, but that safety orange doesn’t do it next to the red frame. Speaking of the frame, I think the color is fine, but the graphics are dated. Still, those decals are probably under the clear coat & not worth doing anything about. Painting over it well is expensive & not worth it. Painting over it badly will look mediocre. Still, I’ve used spray paint on plenty of old bikes. It is what it is. Also, a badly painted bike is *sometimes* its own theft deterrent.
I remember when most bikes had rim brakes. I only got a bike with disc brakes less than a year ago. Rim brakes feel super sketchy now, but that’s all we had for a long time! Actually, TBH, they were only really sketchy in the rain. They work fine in most dry conditions & especially on the street. You’ll get better brakes with a conversion. But the brake posts will still be there on the frame & fork.
The only thing I’d really see that would change the “look” on this very much (without being too invasive) is maybe the stem & bar combo. I think it would look pretty cool if you swapped to a BMX style stem with some low rise BMX bars like these Surly [Sunrise](https://surlybikes.com/parts/sunrise_handlebar) or [Sunset](https://surlybikes.com/parts/sunset_bar) bars. Someone else mentioned you need grips. I put these [Oury grip](https://www.lizardskins.com/product/cycling/categories/collections/models?vendor=Oury)s on every bicycle & motorcycle I owned until I found these [ODI grips](https://www.odigrips.com/products/vans-cult-vtwin-grips) that have the same tread pattern as Vans shoes – lol.
I zoomed in, but I still wasn’t sure if you had a double or triple chainring on the front. Depending on how hilly your rides are, reducing to a single or double chainring in the front could make your bike seem a little sleeker & also loose some weight. Especially if you can go with a single front chainring, since that would get rid of the front derailleur too. Be aware that if the bike wasn’t designed for a single chainring, the chain might have a tendency to jump gears or even fall off the chainring if you’re at the highest or lowest gear in the back due to its angle.
Edit to add: One last thing. I saw you mentioned that you might swap to standard pedals. Again, look at BMX gear. You can pretty easily find some nice flat pedals in all sorts of colors ranging from plain black to dark green to neon pink to color combos that make a Bad Dragon dildo look subtle.