help with new shocks, and brakes

Hi all,

I bought my mate's Clad Butler Rock in the summer. It's a fairly decent ride for whats on offer round my way but it needs improving in quite a few areas. The fork and brakes definately my 1st upgrade, so any ideas here would be a help. Its disc ready.
Budget around £150.00 forks, same for brakes.
I only ride XC and singletrack, a few jumps. unfortunately no mountains in Bromley !! lol

Cheers People

edit: cable or hydraulic disc brakes??? whats better for the uk?

 

Some ideas for you.... given your price points.

Personally, I'd recommend V-brakes(since your only doing X-country... not DH) ...... its less expensive + less weight You should be able to get a set of V-brakes(I'd recommend AVID 7's .... or something along those lines) .... for about $50 , or 75 pounds ... roughly.

In saving some money there on your brakes.... put that saved money into your fork So... maybe $250 usd. on a fork ???? !!! I'd keep a look out for a Marzocchi MX Pro with ETA- if its a X-country bike, you could go with the 105mm travel(they make a 85, 105, and 120mm travel MX Pro w/ETA). Its a bomb-proof(durable) ...... yet has some good adjustment features on it(external rebound + ETA- which allows you to set your fork ride height were you want it- perfect for doing a steep climb- and still gives you 25-30mm of travel while going up !!! )

Thats what I would do (actually..... just did similar to that, went with the Avid Ultimate V-brakes- bro deal , + Marzocchi Marathon XC- more adjustability then the MX Pro.... but was $130 more .... but I dont want to have to fool around with any "upgrading" forks for 5++ years

 

Cheers Adam, I've had a look at some of those v-brakes, theres some nice looking kits out there. I'm still not sure wether to fit discs though. But hopefully I'll get some more replies here and see what everyone else thinks.

Thanks again mate

 

I changed to cable discs a few years back and wouldn't go back to rim brakes. I changed to hydraulic this year and now would use nothing but on a mountain bike. Cable stretch is very annoying. I agree with Adam that V are cheaper and lighter and also good, dry V are similar quality to cable discs, but watch out when the rims get wet - as they will be most of the time in the UK

It's like anything though, once you upgrade you wouldn't go back, but if you've never tried them you don't miss what you've never had.

 

Thats kinda how i'm thinking. Ok so its a case of saving up and getting some discs. How much maintenance do hydraulic discs require? and is it worth the extra hassle over cable discs?

 

You say your bike is disk ready. So I take it you are currently running v's. Then from what I can see you will need to replace your hubs as you don't have hubs made for disk. In the event that you are looking at v's to disk you maybe only need to do this for the front.

What may be better is to replace your brake pads for Koolstop Salmons they make a huge difference to braking. Then put your money into upgrading forks.

I dont know your bike but might be better to look at trading in against a good second hand.

 

I have to do less maintenance on my hydro's than I did with the cables.
Motorhommer has a good point though - are your forks, frame and hubs disk ready? If you need new hubs I wouldn't have thought it would be worth you getting discs.

 

Ok i'm decided. gonna stick to V's for time being. Will save up and get a new bike instead next year!! !!
Thanks for the advice though guys