[Access_Rhoads]

I figure graduation is coming up soon, and I'm due for some good payback from my parents for all those years of good grades I worked hard to earn(seriously)....in other words, it's upgrade time this spring!

I only have one bike right now, a Norco Drop(2001). Its a great frame but the discs, fork, and shock are not so great. The fork is a Marzocchi Z5 QR-20, shock is fox vanilla, 5 inches on both of those, and I have Hayes mechanical discs which don't like to work right or are just set up wrong, they are actually weaker than vee's now.

I'd like to do one of either two things with this anticipated reward $$$.
1)Beef up the Drop in all three areas(not sure in what order though, thats why I'm writing this)
2)Get a HT for DJ's and urban/park

If I go with 1, I would like to stay with a single crown because it keeps the bike versatile(you can probably see it in some of the dirt jumping pics in a minichase thread). So maybe a Mar. DJ 1 or 2 in there. I have no idea what shock or new discs I should be looking at.

If decide to get a HT frame to build up, I'd be able to use the Drop mainly for DH and free-ride stuff. I'm only looking at the Evil Imperial now and it looks pretty nice to me, but I haven't looked into any other HT frames. I'll admit that I don't know much at all about any other frames out there, so I'm looking for help there too.

So I'm looking for opinions in what direction I should go...and stuff on frames and direction I should take the Drop if that is the way you think I should go.

To whoever can't bear to read this, thanks for putting up with me. I'm new within the year to free-riding and I don't read up too much on parts so..yeah, I'll learn eventually.

 

[oly]

If your looking for beefy HT's go checkout www.unrealcycles.com. The le toy III and evil are both insane hardtails.

Are you looking to build up another complet HT along with your drop? The question to ask then would be do you want 2 ok spec'ed bikes or one sick spec'ed bike. I used to have a bunch of bikes thinking more was better, Now im realizing that fewer with better parts is best. Also how much do you have to spend, or forsee spending?

I have a DJ1 on a hardtail, and i have a Z1 MCR on a FS bike. Both are sick forks. It depends on your intent. If is going to be urban/jumping only id reccomend the DJ1, If your going to do some XC the Z1mcr w/ecc is a great choice. I sometimes with i got the z1 for mu HT since i XC on it alot.

hope this helped.
d

 

[mtbiac]

if you are able to afford it I would definetly get the HT. That way you could always ride the FS when you feel the need. You wont notice much difference changing out the fork, and braking is for losers .

either way you are gonna be a happy man. Just do what feels best for you, its your money afterall...