Bike rebuild or replacement?

Can your derailleurs and go singlespeed. How bad can the wheels be?

I don't know if they even distribute Tourney separately, much less the real cheapies. Have you checked if you can buy it separately?

I had to get an Aldi special once. My idea was to go simple. I picked up a coaster brake cruiser and it worked pretty well. Just a thought.

DrBorque said:

I am looking for a bargain basement, cheap and nasty groupset i can use to rebuild my 2003 Giant XTC SE4. The SE4 needs new forks and wheels as well, and disc hubs as i'd want to recycle my old hydraulic disc brakes. I've been looking into this and i've found that the lowest groupset Shimano offer is Tourney which is still relatively expensive. I'd want to rebuild it for no more than £150. Does anyone know what groupset/components they have on those £50 Aldi specials? Should i just accept i wont be able to rebuild it for £150, bite the bullet and get an "Aldi special"? I plan to use it to commute to work so it would need to be reliable and stand up to the elements without rusting over. Weight is not a problem, low speed is not a problem, clunky gear shifts are not a problem, MONEY IS! I'd rather rebuild my old SE4 so it's [censored] rather than replace it with something shockingly [censored]. If i got a new bike i wouldn't be willing to spend £150 on it, £80 tops.

You've got a really restrictive budget ... WHAT COMPONENTS ARE CURRENTLY ON YOUR BIKE?

Shifters DO wear out ... or, break. A new pair of DEORE shifters + a new DEORE rear derailleur shouldn't set you back more than £40+ if you can get them off of eBay ... some patience might be required in "shopping" for the right auction ...

SOMETIMES, shifting problems are due to the cable & housing being gunked up ...

You probably don't need to change the front derailleur ... OIL goes a long way to keeping the pivots moving smoothly.

You can probably repack the bearings on the rear hub and make it good-to-go ...

THE WEIGHT & FINISH OF SHIMANO'S LEAST EXPENSIVE COMPONENTS IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE "CHEAP" STUFF AND THEIR MOST EXPENSIVE COMPONENTS ...

MAINTENANCE GOES A LONG WAY TOWARD KEEPING EVEN THE LEAST EXPENSIVE SHIMANO COMPONENT WORKING WELL.

If you're only using your bike to get to work, you can probably get EITHER a solid fork for under £20 via eBay OR a cheap replacement suspension fork (e.g., RST) for only a little more (maybe, less) ... you should be able to a USED Manitou/Marzocchi/RockShox in good-to-very-good condition for between £50-to-£100 (some people upgrade to NEW forks when they buy their bikes, some people change their forks regularly, etc.) on eBay if you are patient ...

BTW. Of those three fork brand, apparently Manitou CANNOT be rebuilt to original factory spec FOR UNKNOWN REASONS according to those who have tried, so stick with Marzocchi or RockShox if you can. I recommend Marzocchi (they also make forks for motorcycles ... you could infer that if they know how to make a fork which can handle 250+ kilograms that they can make a fork to handle 1/2 that amount of weight).

I don't know what to tell you about your brakes, PARTICULARLY if you aren't going off road with your bike ... why bother changing them?

I don't have the wheels or hubs anymore, for some reason my rear wheel went through so many spokes it's untrue, i tried replacing them, my friends tried replacing them, i even took it down to my local bike shop and he tried and yet they still seemed to fail with alarming frequency. I do have the shifters and the rear derailleur still, as well as handlebar, seat post, brakes and saddle, and the frame of course. I don't want to install any deore or LX stuff as per original spec, too high spec for plodding to work everyday. I was going to replace the entire groupset because i thought it would be cheaper buying the whole thing as a package than to buy every component individually with the exception of the shifters and the rear derailleur (kind of like buying an entire car would be cheaper than buying all of the components individually with the exception of a clutch and front seats or whatever). It is a restrictive budget, but if you can buy a mountain bike for £50-70, surely you can build one up for £150. I could live with a solid fork i think IF i can get one with a brake calliper mount, i'll have to look into that. I'd never considered single speed, i might look into that as well, certainly much less to go wrong so it should be much more reliable, and cheaper of course. Thanks for your suggestions guys, much appreciated.

DRB

The spokes had reached the end of their fatigue life. The weakest one failed first but they were all probabaly pretty fatigued. Once two or three go, you know the wheel needs new spokes if the brake is on the hub.

A wheel with a hub brake will always be harder on spokes than one with a rim brake. The brake force all comes through the hub and gets to the rim via the spokes.

I had to respoke a coaster brake 3 speed after three years of use. Four spokes went within a few months of each other.

P.S. you really should brake with the front, it works much better.😄

garage sale GT said:

The spokes had reached the end of their fatigue life. The weakest one failed first but they were all probabaly pretty fatigued. Once two or three go, you know the wheel needs new spokes if the brake is on the hub.

A wheel with a hub brake will always be harder on spokes than one with a rim brake. The brake force all comes through the hub and gets to the rim via the spokes.

I had to respoke a coaster brake 3 speed after three years of use. Four spokes went within a few months of each other.

P.S. you really should brake with the front, it works much better.😄

I had never noticed that before but what you're saying makes perfect sense. I should look into getting smaller wheels with more steeply inclined spokes then i suppose. Surely it should be the front wheel that goes though, the rear brake was seldom used, because under heavy braking the rear end goes light anyway and just locks up if you try to brake too hard, the front brake is doing all the work. That's another thing to look out for then, rotor compatible hubs AND wheels! I might just go for an "Aldi special" methinks.

DRB

DrBorque said:

I had never noticed that before but what you're saying makes perfect sense. I should look into getting smaller wheels with more steeply inclined spokes then i suppose. Surely it should be the front wheel that goes though, the rear brake was seldom used, because under heavy braking the rear end goes light anyway and just locks up if you try to brake too hard, the front brake is doing all the work. That's another thing to look out for then, rotor compatible hubs AND wheels! I might just go for an "Aldi special" methinks.

FWIW. A subjectively stronger wheel will be be laced 36x4 than 36x1 or 36x2 or 36x3 ... so, you don't want "more steeply inclined spokes."

Or, in other words, the more tangential the spokes are "pulling" the better ...

Other people MAY have a different opinion on the matter.