[undertheradar]

My wife just inherited a decent condition 7 year old or so Giant "Acapulco" 9 speed rigid frame mt bike. Overall the bike has been barely used, so other than getting it cleaned up/tuned up, I want to upgrade a few things First would be to replace that old style headest and stem (not sure what it's called, but it's the one where it's real skinny and has a single allen head bolt set into it) where I could use a new riser bar abd hopefully a used suspension fork. What do I need to determine and will it work?

Also I want to upgrade the brakes, being that the current ones are a weird cable setup that I think a cheap set of v brakes would be an improvement upon.

Everything else I want to do is just basic, but I would greatly appreciate some help on these more advance items.


Thanks!

here are some of the specs I could find on it:
http://www.epinions.com/bike-Bicycles-All-70058-Giant_Acapulco__1998/display_~full_specs

 

[Wordbiker]

There are a good number of reasons to avoid upgrading this bike:

For starters, the frame is not chromoly steel, but hi-ten. These frames tend to be either very heavy and/or very weak. This bike is also not a mountain bike, it's a hybrid. Same 700c wheel size as the very popular "29er" bikes...without the tire clearance for the 29er tires, limiting you to very few narrow tire choices. Also because it is a hybrid, the fork choices will be limited, even more so that the headtube is the outdated 1" size. You would have to do a good amount of searching to find a 1" threadless stem and fork to fit (the stock stem is a "quill" and the fork is threaded, as is the headset), as many modern road bikes have adopted the 1-1/8" threadless standard, and they carried the 1" standard the longest.

While the V-brakes would certainly be an improvement over cantilevers, the swap would also require new V-brake compatable levers, and given the original purchase price of the bike, could be more than what the entire bike is worth for the parts.

I bought a hybrid for my wife once upon a time, and I found them to be sorely lacking in a few critical areas: The skinny tires are squirrely for inexperienced riders. Even if you keep to the streets, the shoulder can be a harrowing experience if it has a bit of gravel on it. The particular model I purchased also had some pedal overlap, where if you weren't paying attention, your foot would hit the front tire...also very scary for a new rider, and nothing I wanted my wife subjected to.

My advice is to rather than invest more money in this bike that will never be anything more than a pavement-only transportation, clean it up and sell it, and buy an inexpensive mountain bike at a local shop that already has shocks, 26" tires, V-brakes and a much more robust frame. I think your wife would feel safer, and you can be sure you're not entrusting her to an unsafe design.