You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Following on from the other thread about kit you splash on - what kit do you not bother going flash on?
I'll start with:
Cassettes - cheap is obviously heavier but serious diminishing returns.
Waterproof jacket - my £100 jacket may not perform as well but I just can't justify £300 on staying dry.
Chains - all seem roughly the same to me.
Stems - lump of metal, simple job and reputable cheap ones often turn out marginally lighter.
1x10 I'd rather gurn up the hill than pay more than (old) XT prices.
BB, shimano XTR from Germany, £16, or at least they were, lasts 2000+ British miles, why pay more?
Cassettes - Not a lot of difference between the top and bottom ends really
Gloves and socks - the Aldi ones are a superb bargain.
Innertubes - the cheaper you can find them, the better.
BB - XT's for about £12 are fine.
Chains - cheapest SRAM 11 speed one I could find, was about £13. Seems to be lasting longer than the XX1 chain it replaced 🙂
Dropper post - £0 can't be bothered to spend any money on that and I stop at the top for a rest anyway, ditto at the bottom. My last xc ride with 300m climbing and descending I didn't move the seat at all.
Clothes - none of my stuff is top end, as above my waterproof jacket was £60 - if its really horible weather I ride in the trees or nor at all. In fact its gone missing and I haven't bought another. Also double up kit from other "sports"
Drivetrain - as above medium range stuff
Keeping stuff, I rarely replace something unless its totally worn out or broken
Cassettes, chain and chainrings are all around Deore level, can put up with a bit of extra weight there for the savings & having used silly expensive stuff in the past don't really notice a performance or lifespan difference.
Rear mech isn't the cheapest but isn't the privies the (x9 with xx shifters) as it's the most likely to be damaged part & again not much weight/performance difference.
Clothing in general. My reason is that I'm overweight now and I'm going to lose weight and therefore need new clothing so there's no point buying anything expensive yet.
I've been telling myself that for the last five years! 😳
Also, sunglasses - got some Aldi ones for £4 with 3 sets interchangeable lenses - why would you need anything more?
Bar tape.
About a tenner is my limit, even on the posh bikes.
When I have splashed out on "expensive stuff" it has been any better, and in some cases much worse.
The £27 lizard skin stuff was utter cack.
Riding glasses , Bolle safety glasses £9.99 .
Socks
Only on STW can buying XT/XTR be called going cheap 😀
By those standards everything of mine is cheap. Love my Aldi socks and Sperian Venom safety specs (1/2 the price of Bolle).
jackets as above, although £100 is still way too expensive for something you can rip in an off. With places like aldi chucking out reasonable soft shells and waterproofs, they're almost a disposable item now. never buy an expensive chain - would rather fit a cheaper one more often. brake pads are always bought from one of the usual suspects too
lol@ jambo, you don't just drop the seat at 'the top' mate. have you never been to a trail centre and had some technical parts requiring a lower saddle followed by some peddaly bits followed by some tech.
My contribution is lights. I've never had any better than the 20 odd quid lights from eBay and found them most satisfactory.
Waterproofs. There's not a breathable membrane in existence that lasts the test of UK winter riding. I'll spend no more than 80-100 max on last season's discounted gear and choose the most breathable, on the basis that after 2seasons at best the DWR will be crap,and reproofing will only be good for a week or two.
And riding glasses. £150 Oakley's scratch just as well as £2.50 safety jobbers from Amazon.
Lol at jekkyl
Have you ever been to a trail centre and just ridden it all without dropping your saddle up and down all day! Proper old skool me, got a flite saddle shaped rub mark on my sternum.....
Grips. Superstar foam jobs. Brilliant and cheap. Replace when too may thorns are stuck in them.
Oh and tyres. On One Smorgs kick arse for pittance.
Have you ever been to a trail centre and just ridden it all without dropping your saddle up and down all day! Proper old skool me, got a flite saddle shaped rub mark on my sternum.....
yes of course I have, I've only had a dropper post for a year or so. each to their own but I find it much better, easier and more fun with one, espicially at trail centres where you might be getting a little air here n there and technical sections aplenty.
Helmets, balk at the price of some of them. They all should comply with the same standard.
Bikes and frames, not sure the last time I spent rrp. I do like a good bargain.
Pretty much everything is cheapo now TBH! Gone from upgraded Revs/Hope/XT to Sektor RLs with mostly Deore.
It's all functional stuff, and your wallet doesn't have to shed a tear when you smash your rear mech up the first ride after fitting it.
In fact everything works better as if anything starts playing up I simply sell it as non-working on ebay and replace it with new rather than fart-arsing around trying to get it fixed.
Chains & bottom brackets. Not noticed much difference cheap or expensive.
Tyres. I buy decent brands & models, but never splash out on extortionate fancy compounds etc. Tyres wear out fast.
Saddles. All the Ti ones I've had have snapped their rails eventually, so I stick to trusty steel rails now.
Helmets. Can see no reason to pay more than 60 - 70 quid, tops.
To be honest, I buy as much as I can at cheap/reduced prices.
I'm happy to have last years colours if it means it's half the price & buy stuff from Aldi if the performance seems to be good enough.
I don't ride 'that' much though, so find it hard to justify the outlay. If/when I am riding more often and I have the money to spend I will probably splash out a bit more.
Take the dropper seat example above, even when I was riding a lot, it was only when we'd head for weekends away to the Peaks or trail centres, that I would perhaps think a dropper post would be worth having. But, it's a lot of money to spend on something that only gets used a few times a year & is more of a 'nice to have' than essential.
I keep telling myself that one day I will treat myself to a custom frame & build it up with carefully selected top of the range components to build my perfect bike. But, I know it'll never happen (unless I win the lottery).... 😆
Chains.
Cassettes (provided it has a carrier).
Grips.
BBs I suppose (XT ish, but it's still not as daft as spending £50 on a Hope thing no one will ever see and does the same job).
Tyres. I just can't bring myself to spend more than £20 on a tyre.
Definitely rear mechs and cassettes. I don't know what kind of person can tell the difference between an XTR and SLX mech in use, but regardless I don't see why I'd want to pay more for something about as exposed to damage as they come that is less durable (carbon cages don't bend back into shape all too well), just for a tiny weight saving.
And Sram will charge you more for a cassette that'll wear out quickly if you use that massive range (alu granny rings), which means you end up paying a fortune over the lifetime of a bike just to save a few grams.
Frame - On-One Codeine. Cheap and very very very heavy.
Grips. Superstar ones wear a little worse than the Lizard Skins I'm partial to.
Also, Buffs. I buy the knockoffs.
Oooh, and rear lights.
Um, everything comparatively.
I buy bike stuff like the experts say to on the programs about reducung your shopping bill. If it works well enough it'll do no matter how cheap.
I'm king of the own brand bikes round by me. My clothes come from Aldi, PX or Wiggle/dhb. Tyres I only change when I absolutely have too. The only thing I actually spend proper money on is helmets, but only then if I can get a decent price in the sale. Otherwise I get a hotter one (currently running a Met Sine Thesis - £90 paid and a Giro Feature - £35)
yes of course I have, I've only had a dropper post for a year or so. each to their own but I find it much better, easier and more fun with one, espicially at trail centres where you might be getting a little air here n there and technical sections aplenty.
In fairness, I have a dropper on one bike (the fatty) and a normal post on the other (the 29er SS). it means I ride them both completely differently. The fatty can only be described as like riding a motorbike without an engine, lots of moving around on top of it to keep it going where it should, whereas the SS is more about throwing the bike around under me with my legs/hips, so easier to move around the saddle. I don't think I'd be faster on the XC bike with a dropper, or slower on the fatty with a fixed post, I'd just ride them differently.
Only on STW can buying XT/XTR be called going cheap
Compared to even Superstar, £16 a pop is cheap!
Pretty much everything on my bike is as cheap as I can go without losing functionality. Or 2nd hand, my SS has a lot of Thompson/Easton/XTR kit on it as a result of buying bikes 2nd hand, then swapping the nicest kit onto whichever bike I'm keeping before selling the now downgraded old one.
Cranks! Why pay more than SLX? Sure, a spiderless design would be neater but you'll be paying 2x as much for the cranks and 3x as much for each chainring you wear out...
all of it. but I tend for 2nd hand or sales rather than budget kit.
Brake pads, tyres and chamois shorts.
Same as pictonroad. I try and buy stuff when it's cheap rather than when I need it. Best bike at the moment is a ti 456 frame from eBay, fox floats from a mate, hope wheels from eBay, 2nd hand gravity dropper, xt chainset from another mate. Total cost probably well under a grand but a lot of the parts have been on my old bike.
Grips - when I discovered that my favoured Sunline Mushroom grips were being discontinued, I found them at CRC for £3 each and bought ten pairs. Still got at least 5 in the packaging. I'm sorted for the next 10 years or so 😉
Aldi sunglasses, comfy to wear never mist up (in 2 yrs) maybe a little dark of off road. so cheap you don't care when you lose them.
Bikes - I usually buy second hand.
Aldi sunglasses - instore next Thursday (7th) coincidentally!
Same as the rest to be honest.
[b]Innertubes [/b]- I either go supermarket or Planet X, under £2 when on offer.
[b]Tops [/b]- I don't like the bright MTB clothing that they wear in magazines, I also think once you hit 25+ it starts looking a bit wrong unless you have the skills to carry them off (i'm 37 and I don't!) so I generally just get quick wicking tops from Primark or Sports Direct at about £10 a pop.
[b]Glasses [/b]- I've some interchangeable lense ones, again they were only a few quid.
Another skimper on waterproofs - not much value in high end stuff for me. Rarely wear them anyway (a soft shell deals with 90% of British miserableness IME), shorts get the aris ground out of them, hard-shell jackets aren't breathable for cycling, and decathlon etc knock half decent ones out cheap in any case.
Can see the value in a nice set if you're doing an event - like a serious all dayer where you're committed to being out in the rain.
Bottlecages
Love the cheapo Ali' ones
lol@ jambo, you don't just drop the seat at 'the top' mate. have you never been to a trail centre and had some technical parts requiring a lower saddle followed by some peddaly bits followed by some tech.
@jekyl 🙂 Last went to a trail centre in 2006. I don't like Swinley for that up/down reason. Most of the trails I rode regularly in Surrey Hills where all down, saddle half way up if required a bit of pedalling. Alps all down or if off-piste mixed then half way.
"Riding tops"
The cheapest ugliest coloured HH baselayer I can find on amazon instead!