Hey everyone, im not much of a cycler, but I am going back to university and will not have a vehicle. This is an old bike I own. I have not touched it in about 8 years.
Both tires are flat (look rotting too), but brakes and chain appear functional; although could use some care.
Is this bike worth repairing and servicing? Or will it cost more than what’s its worth?
Vintage Aluminum Trek 1100 USA Edition
Kma_all_day on
Definitely worth it
oafcmad09 on
I’d take that to a local cycling shop and pay for a service – or you can try it yourself, but that’s time consuming and tricky if you don’t have time to learn. Looks like it just needs some TLC.
GatePresent1300 on
If its just the tires and you need a cheap way to get around its quite a good candidate, as you might be golden just for the price of a set tire. Yes it’d probably help to regrease the hubs, its not “life-threatening” unless they clearly stick or grind. Clearly it needs new handlebar wrap too, but if you dont look for anything fancy is dirt cheap. If you dont mind from Ali you can get a pair for 4-5$, and i’d 100% clean the drivetrain, and relube the chain.
But also everything is relative. I do my own stuff so obviously i calculate everything based on part cost, without labour. However what are immediately visible / clearly needed are not very special tasks. If you plan to use it to get around, you’d need to learn to repair a flat (unmount and remount tires) the very least anyways, and cleaning the drivetrain is mainly elbow grease. The trickiest and most specialty task would be the handlebar rewrap, but if you dont care too much about the end results, you can get an OK result even without experience after you educated yourself on the topic. There are great guides on YT. Park tool’s instruction videos are one of the best out there.
4 Comments
Hey everyone, im not much of a cycler, but I am going back to university and will not have a vehicle. This is an old bike I own. I have not touched it in about 8 years.
Both tires are flat (look rotting too), but brakes and chain appear functional; although could use some care.
Is this bike worth repairing and servicing? Or will it cost more than what’s its worth?
Vintage Aluminum Trek 1100 USA Edition
Definitely worth it
I’d take that to a local cycling shop and pay for a service – or you can try it yourself, but that’s time consuming and tricky if you don’t have time to learn. Looks like it just needs some TLC.
If its just the tires and you need a cheap way to get around its quite a good candidate, as you might be golden just for the price of a set tire. Yes it’d probably help to regrease the hubs, its not “life-threatening” unless they clearly stick or grind. Clearly it needs new handlebar wrap too, but if you dont look for anything fancy is dirt cheap. If you dont mind from Ali you can get a pair for 4-5$, and i’d 100% clean the drivetrain, and relube the chain.
But also everything is relative. I do my own stuff so obviously i calculate everything based on part cost, without labour. However what are immediately visible / clearly needed are not very special tasks. If you plan to use it to get around, you’d need to learn to repair a flat (unmount and remount tires) the very least anyways, and cleaning the drivetrain is mainly elbow grease. The trickiest and most specialty task would be the handlebar rewrap, but if you dont care too much about the end results, you can get an OK result even without experience after you educated yourself on the topic. There are great guides on YT. Park tool’s instruction videos are one of the best out there.