Hope this is allowed here. I recently moved into a new apartment and a bike was left in the backyard from a previous tenant and they don’t want it.
I’m a casual rider and have a commuter bike that gets me around town but have been looking at getting into gravel/bikepacking and would need a new bike as mine is not cut out for that unfortunately. It would be cool if this bike could do that for me.
The backyard bike is a muddy fox courier comp, from what I can tell by the remaining lettering. It’s a 7×3 speed. It’s got some rust, so I know it would take some cash and work to get back up and running, and I’m wondering if it’s worth it? I don’t know anything about this brand and model, and couldn’t find a lot via Google.
I’d love to take advantage of this free bike but I also don’t want to put a lot of time and money into rehabbing it if it’s not worth it.
If it’s more of a hassle than is worth it, I’ll donate it and keep looking for a cheapish used gravel bike.
by heyilikeyoursocks
2 Comments
That’s a great frame and it doesn’t look to be in terrible shape. Maybe clean it up with some WD40 then re-grease all the moving parts and see how it rides if the tires hold air. If it’s been sitting for a long period it could very well need cables and brake pads as well. Just looking at pictures I can’t say for sure but you could probably get this running for less than $100, maybe even less $50 if all you need is the cables and pads for the brakes
Shouldn’t take much to get it running. Little lube, maybe new tubes and cables. Looks like a pretty basic budget mountain bike and it might not cut it for your goal of bikepacking/gravel, but I’d say tune that sucker up and give it a shot. Even if the bike doesn’t work for your needs, you’ll get some valuable experience in bike maintenance out of it (which you will definitely need if you want to get into bikepacking) and it’s more ethical to donate a functional bike than a busted ass one.