Found this 26″ 21 speed Magna dual suspension bike tossed out with the garbage near my folks house last year. A lot of surface rust on the stem and chainring, but the wheels still turned freely. Brought it home and started cleaning it up.
Surprisingly despite the rust the front fork still turned smoothly, so I didn’t bother pulling it apart there, but I did pull the bottom bearing and clean and regrease it before reassembling. The wheel bearings were also surprisingly in good shape. Rear derailleur was pretty dirty and took a bit of cleaning to start turning smoothly again.
All of the accessories were write-offs though. Seat was trashed, grip shifters broken, and it had center-pull brakes that didn’t fit any shoes I could find, so I upgraded to V-brakes instead. Had the seat lying around from upgrading another bike. Cleaned out the tires, put new rim strips and tubes. Replaced the shifters, brake levers and handle grips, then finally added front and rear fenders (front is plastic, rear was for a beach cruiser) and a rear rack with basket, although I had to fabricate extensions for the forward mount since it wasn’t designed for a rear suspension setup.
I think the total cost was just under $100 in parts.
TheKib on
This is great – the job you’ve done on the rear rack is really smart. Always good to see an unwanted bike being given a second lease on life.
I did a similar refurb to an unwanted bike I found. I spent ages chasing gear indexing problems – turned out the frame was ever so slightly bent, I’m guessing from a crash. Still, a free bike is a free bike.
2 Comments
Found this 26″ 21 speed Magna dual suspension bike tossed out with the garbage near my folks house last year. A lot of surface rust on the stem and chainring, but the wheels still turned freely. Brought it home and started cleaning it up.
Surprisingly despite the rust the front fork still turned smoothly, so I didn’t bother pulling it apart there, but I did pull the bottom bearing and clean and regrease it before reassembling. The wheel bearings were also surprisingly in good shape. Rear derailleur was pretty dirty and took a bit of cleaning to start turning smoothly again.
All of the accessories were write-offs though. Seat was trashed, grip shifters broken, and it had center-pull brakes that didn’t fit any shoes I could find, so I upgraded to V-brakes instead. Had the seat lying around from upgrading another bike. Cleaned out the tires, put new rim strips and tubes. Replaced the shifters, brake levers and handle grips, then finally added front and rear fenders (front is plastic, rear was for a beach cruiser) and a rear rack with basket, although I had to fabricate extensions for the forward mount since it wasn’t designed for a rear suspension setup.
I think the total cost was just under $100 in parts.
This is great – the job you’ve done on the rear rack is really smart. Always good to see an unwanted bike being given a second lease on life.
I did a similar refurb to an unwanted bike I found. I spent ages chasing gear indexing problems – turned out the frame was ever so slightly bent, I’m guessing from a crash. Still, a free bike is a free bike.