My most neglected bike, by far, is my mountain bike. I ride it slightly more often than my CX bike, but for shorter distances, and I hardly ever take care of it. It's always covered in mud, it's the only bike that doesn't live in my house, and I rarely do maintenance unless something is broken. That changed last month.
I went for a ride in DE with my friend Mike and within the first 10 minutes I got the only flat I've ever had on my MTB. There was no sealant in the tires because I hadn't added more in 3 months and what was in there was dry. When I was finished changing the flat I was in such a hurry to start riding again that my ham-fisted mitts mashed the rotor in between the brake pad and the pad spring, completely ruining the spring. After another ten minutes of trail side engineering, I had a functioningish brake. The plus side to this fiasco is that I noticed that my rear pads were completely worn down. I told you, neglect.
So, after killing a tire and brake in one afternoon, I decided to be nice to my mountain bike. I cleaned it, I changed both the front and rear tires, I replaced the pads and I changed the cable and housing, and I dialed in the rear shifting (it's a 1x) until it was perfect. All I can say is that a little TLC goes a long way.
The shifting on my bike is now perfect. It goes up and down without being clunky or making much noise. The shifting is surprisingly smooth as well. I had always wanted to replace my X.7 shifter with an XO one because I thought the shifter was kind of notchy, but now I have zero complaints. An Added bonus is aesthetic appeal. The bike originally came with Jagwire's braided housing. The yellowish/grey housing was the one thing that looked completely out of place on the all black bike. Now it has black housing, and sometimes, it's the little things.
The tires I've had for almost a year now, just sitting in a box, waiting for the original tires to die. The Purgatory front tire is a beast and refuses to die. It grips for days, but all of the robustness comes at a weight penalty. I replaced it with an S-WORKS Ground Control tire. The rear tire was a Ground Control Control. That's not a typo, it's just shitty naming on Specialized's part. That tire took a beating and you could see the cords on the sidewall, so I wasn't surprised when it finally gave up. It was replaced with an S-WORKS Fast Trak. It, too, is a lighter tire than its predecessor, and the combination took off a full pound of weight. Since it's rotating weight and at the furthest point from the hub, it's really noticeable. Add in how much faster this combination rolls and the bike feels really fast. The soft rubber of the S-WORKS tires means there's plenty of grip, even with the slightly narrower tires. The only downside is that they have little puncture protection, but I'm running tubeless (with sealant) and I always carry a tube incase of disaster. I'm not expecting much in the longevity department, but at the moment, the thrill of speed has me blinded to any durability concerns.
All of that speed is no good if you can't slow yourself in time. While all of the changed I made above are fantastic, and I am really glad I made them, the pad change is the thing that has me jazzed the most. The original pads were Avid semi-metallic, and the only complaint I had about them was the amount of noise they would make, sometimes. The only pads we had at the shop for my brakes were organic, so I just threw them in out of necessity. I'm never going back. The increase in braking power and modulation completely blew my mind. I had no idea that my brakes were that good. The semi-metallics are a touch grabbier so the initial bite is there, but once you're past that, they grab almost too much, making it easier to lock the wheels. A locked wheel makes for longer stopping distances but will also cause a high pucker factor when you can't afford to have longer stopping distances. The organic pads lack a tiny bit in initial bite, but after that it's consistent power and modulation for days. I can still lock the wheel if I want to, but It's when I want, no surprises. I found myself braking later, carrying more speed and coming out of turns faster because I had so much more confidence. And they're silly quit. There were a couple of times were I really leaned on them and I could hear the rotors making noise, but it was like someone had put a pillow over a squealing brake. I haven't ridden them in the wet yet, so I'm sure they'll make noise then, but at the moment, it's just whispers.
As a whole, my bike was almost eerily quite. No chain slap, no squealing brakes, no cables hitting the frame; just the sound of my tires rolling over the ground. I really enjoyed it. The new found silence, smooth shifting, faster moving, and better stopping have completely transformed my bike. I used to like my mountain bike but now I'm starting to love it.
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