I’m a new biker, and I’ve been looking for a good beginner bike on Marketplace to start a new weekend hobby. I found a bike priced at $200. Is this a good option?Any insights!
Pros and Cons?
This is a vintage style bike. That’s all I can tell you because like everybody else on marketplace, they put a picture of the wrong side of the bike.
~~I wouldn’t call it a good starter bike though. The shifters are on the downtube which is a very obsolete technology. It’s difficult to shift gears in that location. This is basically the equivalent of a 1970s carbureted manual transmission car. It’s cool, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is getting their first adult bike.~~
wiggywiggywiggy on
I had one of those.
I put riser handlebars on it
With trigger shifters
One limitation is rear hub spacing is 126 mm I think which means you can’t get past 7 gears
I actually bent the frame out like 1mm on each side, even though they say aluminum doesn’t like that but it was fine and ride that bike for at least 5 years like that
In hindsight 7 speed is totally fine and also way cheaper to replace chain and cassette
I also upgraded wheels to fulcrum racing wheels from the local bike kitchen and put Shimano 105 crank on it with hollow tech
But after many many great miles the one complaint with that bike is it’s stuck on skinny tires. Skinny tires roll damn fast and really fun but if you have to ride in areas that have a lot of cracks and potholes the skinny tires are too hard.
A 90s mountain bike with 26x 2 inch tires, esp with good tires that aren’t too heavy feel really nice on a less than perfect street.
I’m really glad I had that bike and def miss it but would guess for most ppl a 90s mtn bike is a more natural up right position and more of an everyday bike
wiggywiggywiggy on
Id offer $ 100
That is a totally stock build and not in demand at all
Whoever owns that bike has done nothing to it to make it better and id be surprised if they actually rode it at all with those toe clip pedals
4 Comments
Does it fit you? If so great bike
This is a vintage style bike. That’s all I can tell you because like everybody else on marketplace, they put a picture of the wrong side of the bike.
~~I wouldn’t call it a good starter bike though. The shifters are on the downtube which is a very obsolete technology. It’s difficult to shift gears in that location. This is basically the equivalent of a 1970s carbureted manual transmission car. It’s cool, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is getting their first adult bike.~~
I had one of those.
I put riser handlebars on it
With trigger shifters
One limitation is rear hub spacing is 126 mm I think which means you can’t get past 7 gears
I actually bent the frame out like 1mm on each side, even though they say aluminum doesn’t like that but it was fine and ride that bike for at least 5 years like that
In hindsight 7 speed is totally fine and also way cheaper to replace chain and cassette
I also upgraded wheels to fulcrum racing wheels from the local bike kitchen and put Shimano 105 crank on it with hollow tech
But after many many great miles the one complaint with that bike is it’s stuck on skinny tires. Skinny tires roll damn fast and really fun but if you have to ride in areas that have a lot of cracks and potholes the skinny tires are too hard.
A 90s mountain bike with 26x 2 inch tires, esp with good tires that aren’t too heavy feel really nice on a less than perfect street.
I’m really glad I had that bike and def miss it but would guess for most ppl a 90s mtn bike is a more natural up right position and more of an everyday bike
Id offer $ 100
That is a totally stock build and not in demand at all
Whoever owns that bike has done nothing to it to make it better and id be surprised if they actually rode it at all with those toe clip pedals