Staff Bike Check: Benji’s Calibre Bossnut (FFWD Upgrade Project)
Just how far can you upgrade a so-called budget bike? I put this £1,499* Bossnut through a time machine to find out.
*GoOutdoors Members’ price, RRP is £1,700
I’ve had the Bossnut for quite a long time now. I seem to recall it arriving sometime in August last year (before the official launch date in October). So it’s getting on for a whole year of Bossnutting about.
Spot the Photoshopping out of the Magic Stick (it’s not hard)It’s only been the last six months or so that I’ve begun to upgrade certain bits. Partly because things need testing but partly to see how far you can go with an affordable MTB before you should probably cut your losses.
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Turns out, you can go pretty darn far…
The frame
The bike has had something of a hard life but nothing over the top for a mountain bike that’s designed to be ridden on everything, every weekend. The paintwork is holding up fine. With the exception of the dented down tube (I sumped out on a rocky roll-in).
None of the pivots have required tightening yet. I appreciate the external cable routing (so much easier to work on) but I may put something like mastik tape around the cables where they pass through the forward shock mount, as I think they occasionally cause a clicking sound against each other on rough terrain. In general though the Bossnut is impressively quiet in terms of squeaks and such like.
On an aesthetic note, I think this is easily the nicest looking Bossnut from Calibre thus far. Partly due to the deep sea blue-green colour and partly due to the subtle-to-the-point-of-near-invisibilty of the decals (previous Bossnuts have been rather garish paint and decals).
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The drivetrain
In terms of shifting, the Shimano CUES stuff has been fine. Sure, it’s a bit baggy feeling and requires more thumb throw (compared to higher end gruppos) but it’s totally fine.
I have switched to a smaller chainring (30T from 32T) but I do still find the easiest gear not easy enough. I also have found myself ‘in-between’ gears quite a bit ie. one gear is too spinny and the adjacent gear is a tad too big. That’s 10-speed for you. I can live with it. However, I may try to source a wider range 10-speed cassette than the 11-48T that’s on currently. But I will probably just leave it until something breaks or wears out.
The brakes
Whilst I’ve kept the MT401 brake levers and calipers, I have swapped in some larger (and slightly thicker) Formula rotors. Mainly to increase the braking power but also partly to reduce the amount of dead-throw that the MT401 levers had. I don’t think I’ll do anything else in terms of braking upgrade. This setup is really good now.
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The wheels and tyres
The wheels were earmarked early on as ripe for upgrading. The OEM chunky rims, no-frills slow-pickup Shimano TC500 hubs and who-knows-what (plain gauge?) spokes all added up to a relatively lumped and uninspiring experience. In their place have gone some Halo Skelta MT wheels which are about as expensive as I think is worth going with alloy rims (SRP £530.00). I just seem to eventually dent alloy wheels so am not keen on spendy alu rimmed wheels.
Tyres are both from Kenda: Hellkat Pro front, Karma Pro rear. The Hellkat Pro has been great so far. And the low profile Karma Pro has done wonders for keeping things rolling along swiftly without feeling undergunned. Both are setup tubeless with whatever valves and sealant were at hand. About 24psi in the front and 22psi in the rear, which is pretty firm for me but anything softer different feel any grippier, so I went with 24/22psi.
The suspension
The other main item on the original build that was quickly marked for upgrading was the RockShox Recon suspension fork. As you can see, I’ve plugged in a Manitou Mattoc Pro into the headtube now. As well as being significantly more sophisticated in terms of air spring and damping than the Recon, it’s also a whopping 10mm longer travel. This does alter the geometry of the bike a little bit but I figured in a better way (slightly slacker head angle is nice and the raised BB and the seat angle is steep enough to warrant a smidge of slackening). So far, the Mattoc has been fantastic. It requires patient setup but it’s so worth it. Love me a bit of IRT. Full review in time.
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The rear shock is on my To Do List. I did attempt to swap in a Fox Float X that I had around that was the same eye-to-eye and stroke but it didn’t fit into the yoke rocker mouth (due to a lack of cutaway notch on the non-driveside). Which is something worth knowing about if you’re a Bossnut owner. So I am intending to upgrade the RockShox Deluxe Select R with an aftermarket RockShox air can. But… I haven’t done so yet. Sorry.
The finishing kit
Longer dropper: a fully slammed 200mm Tharsis from PRO just about fits my length length. I am tempted to upgrade the crankset (to run a 28T chainring size that’s not possible with Shimano BCD) so I may also go down in crank length (to 165mm) which will give me a little bit more dropper post breathing space.
On top the dropper is now a new WTB Rocket saddle. Slammed fully forward, as is the case on pretty much any bike I ride. Holding the dropper in the frame is a classic Thomson seat collar. Because they are so nice.
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What else? Short 32mm stem and higher rise 35mm bars, both from Gusset. In silver, which wasn’t actually my choice but happens to really work with this build. I’ve kept the original Calibre lock-on grips because they are very comfy and work well.
I’ve also robbed the under-top-tube mounted multi-tool from a passing Canyon Spectral. Super handy to have.
What’s next? Any questions?The aforementioned rear shock air can surgery needs to be down ASAP. And sourcing a suitable 10-speed wider-range cassette (SunRace?). And then I’m not sure. It may well be complete. We shall see.
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Originally posted on: https://singletrackworld.com/2025/07/staff-bike-check-benjis-calibre-bossnut-ffwd-upgrade-project/