Benji is here to persuade you not to spend lots of money, except where you should.
Words: Benji
This feature is intended to be a helpful guide – or reminder – to invest in some things more than others. This often involves spending money on things that aren’t very exciting. Items that give you very little retail therapy thrill. Stuff that often you resent spending any money on at all.
I should at this point patronise you by coming out with something annoying and cutesy along the lines of: “The most important things are actually not on the bike at all.” Then I should blather on about the importance of bike set-up. Decent clothing. And fitness or attitude or some such yadda yadda.
I’m not going to do that. You either know all that already. Or you don’t want to hear it. So let’s get back to the point of this feature. Here is an ordered list of the stuff that needs to be decent on your mountain bike.
Are you ready?
Here goes.
1. Brakes.
2. Tyres.
3. Everything else.
The world’s greatest mountain bike is rendered rubbish if its brakes aren’t up to the job. You literally can’t ride a lot of trails if you don’t have good brakes.
This is almost the same case with tyres. But I’d argue that even without decent tyres – and a modicum of skill/luck/bravery – you can still ride pretty much most things if you have the brakes to back you up.
Or could you? Now I’ve written that ‘out loud’, I’m not so sure. There are certainly times when it’s better to stay off the brakes altogether and rely on a good set of tyres to get you through something, remaining upright.
Maybe brakes and tyres should be joint first place in The List Of Important Things?
Taken to extremes, if we removed The Thing altogether what would be the outcome? I think most of us would rather ride without tyres than ride without brakes. Unless you come from BMX. But brakeless BMX is closer to skateboarding than mountain biking so I’m just going to ignore it here.
For some reason, a lot of riders come at things from the perspective of ‘what’s the least good performing version of The Thing that I can get away with?’ This is especially true for brakes. Why anyone is riding around with anything less than 203mm rotors front and rear is beyond me? Saving weight? Really?
How much better people would be at riding if they had better brakes on their bike is vastly underrated. Less brake dragging. Less white-knuckle riding. Less fear.
Bigger, better brakes save you far, far, far more Watts on a ride than the extra (100g?) of weight they cost you. And you’ll be much less tired. And you’ll have had more fun.
And whilst you’re slapping on 203mm rotor 4-pot brakes onto your cross-country race bike, don’t skimp on brake pads. Brake pads vary shockingly widely in performance. An amazing disc brake fitted with ‘order-by-price-low-high’ pads from eBay will instantly be a crap brake.
Everyone in the bike braking world is trying to work out what’s in Trickstuff’s brake pads. They’re not concerned with the brake lever or calliper design of The Best Brakes In The World so much. They just want to know where they get their pads from.
Tyres. I’m not going to go into tyres too much here. Audible sigh of relief.
Just to say, it’s annoying how much more money good tyres cost these days. Please try to avoid the temptation of buying okay-ish nearly-spec tyres in the sale. Invest in an expensive front tyre at least. They don’t wear out as fast. And front tyres are way more important than rears.
After brakes and tyres then. I’d definitely big-up the influence of nice contact points. Yes, ‘nice’. The bits you use with your hands and sit on with your arse. Pedals could be included here, but the interaction there has a shoe between your foot and the pedal so the sensation is not so vital.
Arses then. Saddles put up with them. There is something of a snobbish myth among cyclists that a decent saddle doesn’t need padding, it just needs to be the correct shape to be comfortable. What a load of… arse. I have never ridden a racy-firm saddle that was comfortable. Saddles on mountain bikes should have a decent amount of padding to them. I’m not talking about those saddles that look like birthday cakes wrapped in PVC. But a proper mountain bike saddle should have a rear section that’s about an inch thick from top cover to underside of the shell. Thankfully, proper padded saddles cost less than racy-firm harsh saddles.
With contact points though, the bits your fingers, thumbs and palms interact with are far more important than bum and feet bits.
Grips. Tricky. What works for some, doesn’t work for others. Reviews are fairly useless. As with saddles, often the ‘industry favourite’ doesn’t work for me at all. You may love your Charge Spoon saddles and your DMR DeathGrips grips. I do not. Thankfully, I don’t think you actually need to ride a set of grips to know if they’ll work for you. Just grabbing hold of a pair (in a shop, on someone else’s bike) will tell you if they’re worth a shot.
Believe it or not, I don’t think brake lever shape is that important. Maybe it’s just me, but I get along with any and every lever I’ve encountered. Sure, I slightly prefer some to others but they’re all viable. I’d certainly prioritise general braking performance over lever ergonomics any day.
Perhaps the two most surprisingly influential items on a bike are the pair of dinky things that dangle under your handlebar. Dropper remote and rear mech shifter. A cheap dropper paired with a nice remote, is nice. A cheap rear mech paired with a nice shifter, is nice. A good dropper paired to a crap remote, is crap. A good rear mech paired with a crap shifter, is crap.
This kinda leads me on nicely to my next thing. What is not important on a bike. What should you stop spending unnecessary amounts of money on?
In the instances I’ve just mentioned, don’t bother with expensive dropper posts. They don’t work any better than cheaper ones. But do invest in an aftermarket dropper remote. They do work better. Brand-X dropper with a PNW remote? Yes please. Don’t bother with expensive rear mechs. They don’t work any better. They’re just lighter. But do bother with expensive shifters. They do actually work better. Deore rear mech with XTR shifter? Oh lord yes.
Seriously, the simple act of installing a Shimano XTR shifter on ANY bike will have an amazing effect on your experience of said bike. Especially if you’re being extra canny by buying an older pre-12-speed XTR shifter and combining it with a budget (10/11sp) drivetrain. That really feels like you’ve played the system and beaten The Man.
What else can you stop spending money on?
Anything carbon. Carbon is lighter than alloy. And worse in every other metric you can care to mention.
Also, don’t buy that suspension fork. Or that rear shock. Learn how to set up what you already have. Watch YouTube to learn how to service it twice a year. It’s not ‘free’ (especially if you’re a ‘time poor’ parent, etc.) but it is 99% cheaper. And more spiritually rewarding. [Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to patronise you with ‘importance of bike set-up’ stuff – sorry!]
I’d also not be that concerned with your cranks. If they work, leave them. Even if they’re heavy AF, they’re in the very best place for weight (low and central). And we’ve all seen the videos of shattering carbon cranks on The Internet.
Have I forgotten anything? Oh yes. Wheels. Dang wheels. I wish these weren’t important. But they are. And they’re expensive. Wheels are the one and only place that it is worth saving weight on. You heard me. The only place worth saving weight. A 15kg bike with light wheels will ride better than a 10kg bike with heavy wheels. Change my mind. Come at me bro. Etc.
With light wheels, not only will a bike feel better from an accelerative point of view but the suspension will also work better. It is not a myth. It is not a marginal gain that only Pea Plus Princess Pros can detect. Every rider can instantly experience the benefits of light wheels.
In summary: brakes then tyres then wheels then grips then dropper remote then shifter then saddle. Then everything else.
