noob with some most likely dumb questions

[paigeo]

first off, is it worth spending lots of money on conponents, or should a new bike be purchased instead? I have a 04 specialized women's specific rockhopper, and I would like to improve upon the conponents, but i dont know what to improve. Also, is there any place i can look to find out EVERYTHING i need to know about matnencing my own bike? I appreciate any help I can get. Here's the specs sheet for my bike:
http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?arc=2004&spid=6014&JServSessionIdroot=t6db88jaac.j27012&bikeTab=techspec

 

[jaz]

http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/FAQindex.shtml
Theres guides to pretty much every repair on the site above.

You could upgrade the components if your happy with the frame or buy a new bike if not.
Whilst the Alivio range your bike is specced with is good it's not in the same class as the more expensive Shimano group sets like LX, XT & XTR.
Depending on your budget LX & XT are worth buying & arent too expensive, you could start with getting rid of the heavier parts like the cranks & buy some lighter hand built wheels as weight lost in these areas is easily noticed & will make the bike more responsive & more fun to ride.
Depends whether your happy with the bike & what style you like to ride, if its XC type riding it's good to have a light bike but the components will take less abuse which is no good if you like jumping or downhilling, I've assumed you prefer XC though.
I would upgrade the drive train next (gears/shifters/cassette etc) & move to a newer LX/XT 9 speed setup & then start on the details like lighter bars & stem etc as funds allow, if you want to do all the upgrades at once it might pay to just buy a higher specced bike now, look for deals on higher range models from last year to make good savings.

 

[moparchris]

if you want to get a book on maintenance the 'big blue book' by park is good, its to the point and reasonably simple, only thing is all the tools you need

i think in general alot of the time your better off getting a new bike, considering you could probably sell what you have 2nd hand for a bit.. otherwise add up prices ona groupset, tools if you do it yourself or labour if you get a shop to do it and also in the end your frame isnt going to be as good as if you went straight to a bike with something like LX upwards

in the end if you upgrade you probably will spend similar ammounts compared to if you just went for a new bike, depnends on prices you can get a groupset for

at the moment here alot of the brands are getting their '05 bikes out and the '06 will be coming soon (some already here) so you can get a whole bike cheaper than you can a groupset