The time has come- bought a new bike!

[northwind]

Goodbye old bike... It was showing its age, and I weighed up the costs of fixing all the little niggles, then looked at doing the upgrades I wanted to do, and it didn't make any sense to keep the old one, so, I just picked up a newer model...

No, not the SV! It's still ace. This:





Nice Gumtree find, £220 for a 50-mile and 6-month old bike that sells for £400 new. It's an 08 model Carrera Kraken, fairly weighty but overall pretty nice. It's barely even run in, and in lovely condition, I've put more marks and mud on it in the last 2 days than the last owner managed.

It's a world away from my 1992 Carrera Krakatoa! Weighs less too despite the suspension, and I'm just realising just how worn out some parts of the old one were. And these brakes! I know Tektro are a budget brand but compared to my knackered old deore v brakes it's incredible, stoppy machine... Never ridden a bike with pneumatic disc brakes before. And the fork is good enough, seems a wee bit overdamped but overall good- it's got a remote lockout too. I'm having to relearn how to ride offroad a bit, because the old one was really unforgiving and had to be carefully managed, while this one is a bit less precise but will bounce over anything with a bit of pace.

Smiley face! Spent hours this last week in the local park and up and down a nearby eroded dirt trail, rediscovering old spots, loving it. My leg's not really quite up to it but it's coming along nicely, I don't have the power or coordination for steep climbs but I'm hoping that'll come back with time.

Plans for the bike... Well, you know there'll be mod plans. I don't have much to spend, but it's very front-endy, I've nearly been over the front twice when it's decided to dive on a branch instead of going over, where I know my antique rigid would have just gone over. And the handlebars are a bit weird, they look upside down in fact but they're not. I think the previous owner might have swapped them left-right. So I think a shorter new stem and a set of monkeybars will be the first mod, and a bit more mud protection. Don't like the pedals much, I like non-binding toeclips (not spuds, I fall off too much) And I might have to inflict road tyres on the poor thing

Now to fit an engine and a GSXR front end! Loving this thing, it's very much entry-level but to me it's like a bike from the future

you're missing an engine

You want to watch it you know - your hip will wear out!

Something I don't understand, why is a light bike with good bearings a good thing? Surely a knackered heavy bike will make you work harder?!

[dizzyblonde]

needs a front end conversion....lol

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Something I don't understand, why is a light bike with good bearings a good thing? Surely a knackered heavy bike will make you work harder?!

Depends what you're doing... On the road, I'm riding partly to get fit so as long as the bike actually works that's fine- that's why I've got a big daft mountain bike not a road bike made of coathangers with slick tyres on. But the chainset on my old one is knackered so it skips out of gear, and that's not safe when you're riding hard, and the brakes are poor too. If I ride this one but on the knobbly tyres, it's probably just about as much work at speed on the road because of the high rolling resistance. Maybe a wee bit harder on the flat actually.

But, you can do things on a better bike that you can't on a knackered one, fast off road riding on a rigid needs a lot of skill and accuracy which I don't have. If I'd done some of the riding I did this weekend on the old one, I'd have hurt myself I reckon.

[Viney]

The brakes are more than likely Hydraulic if not cable.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by northwind

Never ridden a bike with pneumatic disc brakes before.

Originally Posted by Viney

The brakes are more than likely Hydraulic if not cable.

Schoolboy error

Definately Hydraulic lines , cable ones would have a visible cable sticking out where they are nipped up , If you want less rolling resistance then fit a pair of Maxxis Holy Roller`s . I have these on my Orange Patriot and pump them up to 90 PSI for fast road work when I get my training going on , the roadies hate it when they see a great big hairy lummox grinning behind them on a Freeride Rig

Your rear brake rotor looks a little fried too , has a nice Straw colour to it , if you need more braking power you can fit a bigger rotor like a 180mm or a 203mm and fit an adaptor to bring the calipers out to the right height , I run a 203 on the front and a 180 on the rear and it1s more than enough to haul my Mass and bike to a halt on the scarier runs .

[northwind]

Hydraulic, oops Pneumatic tyres though

The disc's just catching the light there I think, it's nice and shiny in the flesh. I've got a set of almost-new Marathons which I might stick on it for winter, not sure... Seems to be asking a lot to get a tyre that'll work in mud and also have low resistance and good tarmac grip. And things are already a bit muddy up here So I might just deal with them being slow on the road, I'm only doing 6 miles a day so that's no big deal.

The most important thing is, it's very black. Only downer is, I need to keep the seat fairly low because I can't pedal properly close to full extension with my right leg, and that with the high-ish front from the long forks gives it the general impression that I'm riding my older brother's bike...