Entry-Level Hardtail Upgrades!

Table of Contents

Introduction
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So, I recently picked up a Marin Bobcat Trail 3 to get into mountain biking. I’ve been having a blast, so I decided to give it a few upgrades. Here’s what it originally looked like stock:

Contact Points
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I started by upgrading the seat post to a dropper, as well as contact points such pedals and grips. I quite liked the stock saddle however and think it fit me well, so I decided it didn’t need upgrading. Here’s how it looked after all that:

Dropper Post
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I went with a 200mm travel PNW Rainier Gen 3 for the dropper, however I didn’t realize that the dropper wouldn’t go all the way to the bottom of the seat tube thanks to the bottle cage mounting points. The Rainiers travel adjust feature saved me though, and after knocking off 30mm I was at the perfect position. I also went with the Burgtec Bartender grips since I quite liked how the ‘Playdough’ color had a bunch of different colors mixed. For the peddles I went with the Dabomb double cross alloy, since they were only $50 for the pair, and they’re great especially for the price – and they look nice in person thanks to the blue-colored alloy. The dropper post was a nightmare to install though, it took literal hours to get the cable through the frame, and quite a white to take the bike’s rubber cable ports out since they were in pretty tight.

Maxxis Tires
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Soon after that, I decided that the tires were next:

The bike’s stock tires didn’t have much grip – not the mention the tan sidewalls which I personally don’t really like. I went with the 2.5 Minion DHF at the front, and the 2.3 Minion DHR on the rear. However, they are the dual compounds since I picked them up for a good price. I think the bike overall looks really clean and nice looking with the Maxxis tires on. Here’s a comparison of the old and new tires: