Looking to pick up a bargain Trek 970 on marketplace, how bad does this rust look? Partly looks like a ship anchor, but not sure if this is just general grime and a bit of rust of if it’s in real bad shape.
by Darlo_muay
Looking to pick up a bargain Trek 970 on marketplace, how bad does this rust look? Partly looks like a ship anchor, but not sure if this is just general grime and a bit of rust of if it’s in real bad shape.
by Darlo_muay
7 Comments
how cheap is it? worst case you can just salvage it for parts and get rid of the frame if the rust is too bad
My first thought; rust concentrated on the BB area, the extremity of the paint damage localized in that area as well. Someone used a lot of heat there at one point. I could be wrong, and I’m half stupid so take my opinion with the grain of salt; but, I’d be less concerned if the whole bike was rusty, this one is a grenade.
First Idea: that one is gone- BB probably permanently part of the frame.
As for value: I’d you need the parts and they are worth it to you, maybe
Bottom bracket removal gonna be nasty.
Unironically not that bad because the bike is in the same color.
Larger 970’s are rare….I’d be most concerned about water pooling in the lowest part of the chainstays and rusting through the thinner metal there. BB’s are thick metal.
I’d make a lower offer and still buy it, if it were me, make a cool ratbike out of it. Sand the rust back and treat it, ride it for a while, check for any rust pinholes every now and again. Then get a framebuilder to replace the BB and chainstays and give you some monster tyre clearance, add disc brake tabs, hydro disc cable routing
I’d just be honest with the seller and say that whole bottom bracket area could be a nightmare that might not be salvageable. It’s very likely the bike (as a bike) is on a rapid decline toward death.
It doesn’t represent any real value to anybody besides people in the know that can build their own bikes and may want other parts off of it, like you do with the fork or wheels. You don’t have to tell the seller a lot of details about all that though… If they aren’t a “bike person” they should see that the asking price they had, whatever it is, should be discarded as it isn’t good for anybody to use as a bike.
But that assumes the seller will be reasonable. Often times sellers on marketplace aren’t reasonable.
Maybe if they don’t know bikes you can get a cheap price for it. If they do know bikes, you’ll probably pay fair pricing for the wheels and fork.
If it had the original rigid fork and a rear wheel with an 8 speed hub and the wheels and fork were in good shape, I’d offer 20 bucks for the whole bike and would probably pay 40. (USD)