Going from 24 to 27speeds, its easier than you think!

One of our readers, Randall had recently bought some goods to upgrade his Specialized Rockhopper from 8spd to 9spd. He was able to purchase most of his parts from Pricepoint.com.

His current set up and new parts.

SRAM X-9 Front Derailleur (bottom pull)

SRAM X-9 Rear Derailleur

SRAM X-9 Trigger shifters

SRAM 990 9spd cassette (for MTB Wheelset)

SRAM 970 9spd cassette (for Road Wheelset – commuting purposes).

His old set up was around 28lbs.

First thing I did was remove his wheels, then his old parts like this Alivio rear derailleur. I also removed all his chain, cables and housing.

He bought some new SRAM X9 shifter pods and an older XTR brake lever, so that meant the old stuff came off.

Looks pretty bare. While the bike was stripped, I went ahead and cleaned it up. Degreased the chain rings, wiped down the frame and removed any dirt from the bike.

Then I started to install the new stuff along with the cables and housing.

Here’s the drive train looking sexy with its new SRAM goodness!

I then installed the rest of the cables, the new wheels and tuned up the bike. That included adjusting the derailleurs, the brakes as well as the angle of the levers and shifters on the bars. Here’s the final product.

Oooh its still nice and clean…

Like my cable job? I wanted to make sure that it was visually appealing by trying to get it as symmetrical as I could.

I installed new brake cables and housing on the bike, so basically this old rig felt like it was right out of the box.

Check out how much weight his bike lost…it now weighs 25.5lbs…not bad!

I’d like to thank Randall Robinson for letting us the project with his bike. And last time I checked with him and his bike, they are a happy couple!