As mountain biking has been my main hobby these last few months, Christmas arrived with perfect timing and the bulk of my gifts from the bearded fat man in a red suit centered around the mountain bike. As its snowed pretty heavily this week here in NOVA and everywhere remains covered in a layer of ice, this morning seemed the perfect time to change things out and fit the new upgrades to the Goblin.
I decided to attack the tire first and having already set the Maxxis Ardent up as tubeless on the front I wanted to set the conti mountain king up as tubeless on the back. I followed the same method as I had for the Ardent using Gorilla tape and using and inner tube to seat one side of the bead. I learnt a solid tubeless lesson today however in that I'd been able to seat both beads of the Ardent with just a floor pump and without adding any sealant to the tire. This just wasn't going to happen with the mountain king and after some serious frustration, I added sealant to the tire, and then got busy with the floor pump. This did the trick, and the sealant helped the bead snap into place, like many things with this bike its a learning curve and next time I'll add sealant before seating the second bead.
Once the tire was set up I swapped out the front and rear QR skewers for the Superstar ones and finished the job on the wheels.
The bars were next, a quick shot taken next to the old Race Face bars I had on show the extra width. Thankfully the bars were a straightforward swap just loosing a few bolts and lining things up.
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| Old Race Face Evolve bars (660mm) |
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| Old vs new |
With the new bars in place the grips were next, I'd read a few reviews etc saying the ESI Chunky grips could be a little troublesome to install however this couldn't be further from the truth, the intructions said to ensure the bars were clean and to dampen the bars before install. The moisture gave just enough lubrication to get the grips in place with minimal effort, and once dried they feel pretty solid.
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| Bars and grips all complete |
The final switch was for the seat post and I have to say the old one was looking pretty tired.
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| Old seat post |
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| Old vs new |
With the old post off the bike I also swapped out the hex bolt clamp for the Superstar QR
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| A much cleaner look (fresh paint) |
Overall I'm extremely pleased with the look and feel of the bike on the brief test ride round my garage and can't wait to get back out on the trails (subject to weather and my messed up knee healing).
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| The finished (for now) Goblin |
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