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Skaufma0
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Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
08/03/22 at 9:05am
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So I've got a 2000 Gary Fisher Sugar, and it's needing a little TLC, figure while I'm replacing parts anyway I might as well bring it up to date a bit.

The bottom bracket is cracking on every pedal stroke, so since I'm replacing that I want to upgrade the crankset, but I'm having a hell of a time figuring out what crankset I can upgrade to on this. It has a 3x Bontrager Race setup on it now, with the big ring removed since I never used it except for shaving off bits of logs when it would bottom out.

Since I'm upgrading the crankset, the rear cassette and derailleur might as well get an upgrade as well. But again, I'm having some difficulty figuring out what will actually be able to bolt on and be used. Currently it has the original Shimano Deore XT SGS, with a 9-speed, 11 - 32 cassette.

Any input or advice/information would be awesome. I'd take it to the shop near me, but I don't trust them or their work after the last time I brought it there. I'm not a weight weenie and I don't need the best of the best, just want to modernize it a bit so it's more enjoyable without breaking the bank.
  

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traildog
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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #1 - 08/03/22 at 10:25pm
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Sounds to me like you just need a bottom bracket and maybe a set of cables.  Probably more valuable with the original parts(crank, derailleur).  Cassette, yes but I would stay with the 9 speed to use the original shifters.  With the little ring still on, you don't need a pancake gear on the rear.  Bottom bracket shouldn't be a problem to fit the crank you have, new chain, cassette and cables would make it a lot more enjoyable.
  
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Skaufma0
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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #2 - 08/04/22 at 9:06am
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Finding the bottom bracket that fits has been a challenge, that's the main reason I was looking at upgrading the whole crankset. A lot of places SAY they carry the one I need, but then they're 'out of stock' with no word on when they'd have one again. It's the Shimano BB-UN52, which is ollllllllld. I'd really like to move to a single ring up front if I could.

Everything is getting old, and you can tell by how everything functions. It's perfectly fine as it sits, but it needs some love. I don't really care about keeping it original, I've already upgraded the fork, shock, front rim, and swapped the front brakes to disc from the original v-brakes, so the drivetrain was next in line.
« Last Edit: 08/04/22 at 9:28am by Skaufma0 »  

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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #3 - 08/04/22 at 6:24pm
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Understood about not being original.  As long as your width, axle and threads are the same, any brand will work.  Single out the front by dropping the inner ring.  You already dropped the outer.  Universal Cycles has the bottom brackets in stock, $16.  Your old bracket should have the measurements on the decal.
  
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Skaufma0
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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #4 - 08/05/22 at 8:23am
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Wouldn't I have an issue with chain retention just using the middle ring? I've read a lot about people having issues and mitigating them by a chain device or a NW ring.
  

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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #5 - 08/05/22 at 3:07pm
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Yes, chain retention has to be dealt with.  Upper chain guide or NW ring will work.  I used the MRP upper guide initially until the NW rings came out.  Currently run a Race Face NW ring.
  
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hudsontp
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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #6 - 08/05/22 at 8:24pm
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Narrow wide chainrings will work better with a narrower chain. Most work better with a 10 or 11 speed chain. The general rule of thumb is that you can go up by 1 speed with the chain and improve shifting and in this case, if you run a 10sp chain on your 9sp setup, you would get less chain drop using a narrow wide.

Many of the off brand eBay narrow wide rings can be had for $10-15 and I've used for years and had way better performance than race face rings... dekas,  snail, a few other brands. You can typically find sellers that ship from the US and get em pretty quick in a large variety of colors, assuming you have a normal 104bdc crank (so most older shimano except certain generations of xtr)

For the bottom bracket you should be able to find easily online,  eBay, jensonusa, maybe Amazon. Typically 3x setups for square taper are 118-122mm. But if you are planning on running a 1x then 113 width is probably ideal. You should measure the shell but I'd bet pretty safely that it's a 68mm shell, so likely looking for 68x113 size. If you want to shave a little weight you can get a Ti spindle off ebay/China for about $40 or so and they're somewhere around 150-200g lighter if memory serves (have one on my kids bike because he's super little and that's an easy way to shed weight cheaply)
« Last Edit: 08/05/22 at 8:25pm by hudsontp »  
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Skaufma0
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Re: Bringing a Sugar Up to Date
Reply #7 - 08/08/22 at 8:17am
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hudsontp wrote on 08/05/22 at 8:24pm:
Narrow wide chainrings will work better with a narrower chain. Most work better with a 10 or 11 speed chain. The general rule of thumb is that you can go up by 1 speed with the chain and improve shifting and in this case, if you run a 10sp chain on your 9sp setup, you would get less chain drop using a narrow wide.

Many of the off brand eBay narrow wide rings can be had for $10-15 and I've used for years and had way better performance than race face rings... dekas,  snail, a few other brands. You can typically find sellers that ship from the US and get em pretty quick in a large variety of colors, assuming you have a normal 104bdc crank (so most older shimano except certain generations of xtr)

For the bottom bracket you should be able to find easily online,  eBay, jensonusa, maybe Amazon. Typically 3x setups for square taper are 118-122mm. But if you are planning on running a 1x then 113 width is probably ideal. You should measure the shell but I'd bet pretty safely that it's a 68mm shell, so likely looking for 68x113 size. If you want to shave a little weight you can get a Ti spindle off ebay/China for about $40 or so and they're somewhere around 150-200g lighter if memory serves (have one on my kids bike because he's super little and that's an easy way to shed weight cheaply)


Awesome info, thanks! Next time I'm home I'll pull the old one and see what sizes we're working with. If I remember right I think it's a 104bdc...but it's been a few years since I've looked at it in any sort of way.
  

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