Was given this bike a while back. My experience with mountain biking is a few trips up to Big Bear, really enjoyed it and was getting after blues almost immediately. I'd like to turn this into a more consistent hobby, get my son into it as well as we have plenty of locations to ride here in Socal. It'll give me a reason to get into the mountains during the winter off season. What I don't like is the bike rental costs up at these mountains.
Leads me to my question, is this bike worth putting money into and getting it ride ready? I know it's older, and it's pretty heavy compared to the rentals I've used. But I also know that at one point, 20 years back or whatever, someone was using this bike just fine and on some pretty advanced terrain I imagine.
Is this thing too outdated or is it perfectly within the realm of reason to rehab this thing versus the modern bikes?
by Wax005
17 Comments
Oh gawd no. Maybe for the street and some light trail use, but even then you could get a more capable bike for what it would take to fix.
Nope way too old
Nope
You already have the bike, might as well ride the hell out of it. Learn the most you can throw some clip less pedals to help with fatigue
BLAST FROM THE PAST! I rode one of those 20 years ago.
Definitely don’t put money into it.
Not a single cent!
That is a novelty/nostalgia bike now
Great bike in its day.
In its day. Had a lot of fun on them.
Don’t put any money into it that you expect to see back, or money that you would be better served putting into something more modern. If you have cash to burn and/or care more about retro cool than performance- go right ahead.
I would ride it, but I wouldn’t drop major coin on it. May be hard to get the shocks and forks serviced, I don’t know, but they’re pretty old. The forks have a straight steer tube, now they’re all tapered. At this point, any real money spent is better used towards a new bike. But this bike was a great bike and fun to ride in its day, you can still have a blast riding it.
Yeah no, just ride as is and save for a new one. The amount of bike you can get right now for $1200 is unreal.
Sure. But I’ve smoked many of you rich boys with my cheap wal mart bike.
I wouldn’t.
No
Where in socal do you live. We have tons of trail networks all over. Most likely you have some within a 20min drive. I say this because when you figure you have 100s of miles worth of trails that are free to ride on top of the pay-to-ride resorts spending a couple k on a solid mtb (it’s a different sort of fun to build up a dream bike but you don’t need to drop 6k+ to have the times of your life…with the kids too!)will feel like a crazy good value.
I had one of these circa 2002. Sweet nostalgia ride. Absolutely 23 years old and not worth it
Notice how a brigade of people commented “no” and didnt actually point out anything wrong with it? Thats how you know they are full of shit. I ride a very similar bike happily and have no need to upgrade. Those are good components. I cant imagine it needs much.
So, put a little money into it you enjoy fixing up old bikes and want some practice. It doesn’t cost much to grab a 1x and some new cables and whatever. Maybe a new cassette with a big ring for climbing hills, maybe a cheap new rear shock. If the tires are old, replace those and the tubes.
But, that bike is pretty outdated so it would really just be for blues and greens and kicking around town. I ride a similar bike and I enjoy updating it here or there, but I wouldn’t like go drop a $400 fork on it or whatever. No need.
If you end up having $500+ you want to spend you could find a decent hard tail.
Take it on a ride and see what breaks, if nothing then ride it a while tilll something does🤷♂️ I rode a GT that was about 25 years old for my first bike and used it for about 2 or 3 years when I didn’t have money to get another. Was it ideal? Hell no, but I have more good memories on that bike than any other bike I’ve had since.