Thought Project - Best previous gen XC bike to upgrade

[ajnkzn]

Morning All

 

Curious to hear from the home mechanics, racers and bike shop owners - what is the previous gen XC bike with the most “modernization” potential?

 

There are some awesome deals on 2018-2022 or so XC bikes (Trance, Epic, Spark, Ninety Six, Scalpel etc). 
 

If you were to buy and modernize / build up a bike for stage racing, gravel races and non competitive trail riding what would you choose?

 

Off the top of my head things that I’d look for would be;

 

• Clearance for 2.35 - 2.4 tyres

• 1 x drivetrain

• Boost

• Modern geometry (reach, stack, head and seat tube angles) OR the ability to buy a size larger and drop in a headset angle adjust headset

• Proven and easily available pivot bearings 

• Proprietary stuff not an issue as long as the support is there 

• Possibly a preference for aluminium - as long as the bike weight could be down close to 12kg

• Dropper compatible - min 125mm

• Kinematics that allow no / removal of lockouts. I did this on a Scalpel Si and it still pedaled beautifully. I am a simple soul and can’t be bothered with fiddling with levers all the time. 
 

 

Thanks for any thoughts / recommendations / “stay aways” 🤘

Edited 3 hours ago by ajnkzn

[Danger Dassie]

Just off the bat, there's a Momsen Vipa around at a bargain with decent specs. Upgrade it with a 120mm for at the right offset, and you have a generally budget-friendly ripper for riding, racing etc.
One issue could be boost on the rear, however this could be remedied by a decent carbon/engineering co and even updated to UDH.  

[mecheng89]

48 minutes ago, Danger Dassie said:

Just off the bat, there's a Momsen Vipa around at a bargain with decent specs. Upgrade it with a 120mm for at the right offset, and you have a generally budget-friendly ripper for riding, racing etc.
One issue could be boost on the rear, however this could be remedied by a decent carbon/engineering co and even updated to UDH.  

Did you mean this one? Seems it's gone.