Is my bike worth fixing? Will it be easy?

[Young Un]

The more and more you post about OB and your course the more and more jeleous of you I am getting, I wish I could skip gcse's and A-levels and go straight to uni.

Steve

 

[jon the student]

Ha ha thanks mate! It's not a brilliant time to be involved in motorsport really, it's seen as a bit of a luxury to some and as such there is less work etc when the economy has gone a little funny :/

Stay in school though it may seem boring now but you'll end up in a cool job someday.

 

[jon the student]

I did 12 miles today, 6 return to Wheatley Campus and back. Loaded up with 8 textbooks (3 dynamics, 5 design) and came home. Got a killer migraine when riding, so went for a sleep this avo when I was back. Really hoping to get the bike apart, and debating doing it this evening in the garage as it has flourescent lighting.

 

[jon the student]

At the risk of being flamed into ashes, I think I'm going to buy a new bike.

Here are the reasons:

I need a new chainset - £20
I would like a new crankset - £30ish? (I just don't feel confident in the current ones)
I want to get some city/urban tyres - £30 a pair (current ones are offroad and knobbly!)

So that's £80 on an old bike, which seems a lot to me, but then I'm ploughing hundreds into an old VW so maybe I'm a slight hypocrite(!)

Any opinions welcome, I have already read back over previous posts and come to this conclusion.

Dave5N, John the Monkey and Peanut amongst others have me almost convinced that I just need a chainset but I'm just a bit unsure about the gears too esp. as they've got new cables on and are still playing up a bit (even though the shop did the cables). I get my largest loans over the next couple of months so this is definitely the best time of year for a largeish spend on a bike for me.

Cheers for the ongoing help as always,

Jon.

p.s feel free to abuse / virtually slap some sense into me! ha ha.

 

[johnnyh]

hehehe sounds like someone has decided to buy a new bike and is looking for the mental green light

Cognitive dissonance, you got to love it

 

[John the Monkey]

A decent road going hybrid (assuming you want a flat bar commuter) is going to run you something like £200-£300 (Carerra Subway, EBC Courier etc). Much less is going to get you a bike that will be as much of a maintenance headache as your current one (imo - wheels that don't stay true, brakes and gears that are forever creeping out of proper adjustment).

If you like the frame &tc of your current bike, it might be worth spending the money on it, given that you could be spending twice that on a new 'un, but ultimately that's your choice.

 

[jon the student]

Thanks guys (johnny you're far too insightful!)

JTM, My brother has a Carrera Subway. It has hub gears (can change them on the spot!) and hub/disc brakes I think, does look like quite a good bike. I'll have a go on it sometime and see what I think.

You're right with my current bike. It's not past it, I just need to decide what I want from a bike and whether my 15y/o can deliver it. I think a handful of new parts may reignite my confidence in it.

 

[John the Monkey]

JTM, My brother has a Carrera Subway. It has hub gears (can change them on the spot!) and hub/disc brakes I think, does look like quite a good bike. I'll have a go on it sometime and see what I think.

They're always well reviewed - the variable is the setup Halfords do on it (varies from store to store, and it may be worth getting someone to check it over for you unless you've confidence in your local store). Your brother's bike sounds like the Subway 8 (has an internal hub gear rather than derailleurs).

 

[johnnyh]

jon ts, I have to say I was in much the same situation with my old Raleigh hard tail.

I went through the same thing as you and then went and bought a Giant Boulder, and fitted a rack/slick tyres. It has to be said it got me out on the bike straight away and it hasnt let me down - neither am I fearful it might.

I still have the Raleigh, and when I have a few hours on a nice summers day, who knows, I might fix it up.

Go for it and enjoy riding

 

[jon the student]

Yeah, I think it is a Subway 8, that's definitely ringing bells.

johnny I would like to fix the bike now, but i'm pushing two simultaneous killer deadlines for my engineering course (ever since October!) and I just can't find the time to get the spanners out. Perhaps I will do as you did, find something else for now and keep the old for a sunny day tinkering!

 

[swee'pea99]

My two bobs worth...ebay...with care...and patience. And a few emails to gauge your potential seller (having of course checked out his/her feedback). Choose carefully, off an old feller who's taken pride in it and cherished it for 20 years, and you could get a way better bike for the money.

But as others have said, the Carrera seems to get a consistent thumbs up, so I'm sure it wouldn't be a bust. It's just...you get so much better second hand, so long as you do it carefully.

 

[jon the student]

Thanks sweetpea, much appreciated. My bro is not using his Subway 8 at the mo, so I maybe be able to use it for a few weeks before I decide which bike I get. Being a student, I am keeping an eye on ebay too!

I'm going to measure my current bike frame to see if it's actually the right size for me, I think that would be a good start to see if it's worth me keeping it. I wear size 34 leg jeans, so I'm guessing my inside leg will be around 32", which means I should be on a 21/22" frame roughly?

Many thanks for the help.

 

[jon the student]

Ok, so after having a good look around at bikes the last few days, I have found a Carrera Vulcan (07 Spec), like this one (22" frame):

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/vulcan-07-27707

I did go to my local halfords and looked at the subway range, but the Subway 1 (£185 currently) seemed very cheapy (crankset looked like it was pressed from tin cans), it had twisty gears and even though Bike Radar gave it 4/5 stars I came away feeling a little confused that it was actually the same bike. Not having a frame size which fit me in stock didn't help much as I couldn't try the bike out.

The Vulcan I found has only been ridden a few times (so obviously 2nd hand), it has trigger gears which I find a lot easier to use than twistshift ones, it does have adjustable front fork but I don't think I will be using this at all, not on the road anyways. I didn't see any Vulcans in H when I went to have a look, perhaps Oxford branch doesn't carry them in stock or something.

 

[jon the student]

I managed to haggle the previous owner of the Vulcan down to £200, which included lights, tools, pump, lock, water bottle and holder, so I think I did ok.

I told him I'd be round to collect it within the week sometime (didn't have my bike stuff on me)

So, I'm looking forward to trying it out! Yeah it's a bit over-specced for a commuter, the shock/offroad innovas won't help on the road but it means I can take the alternate hilly route to uni which could be good fun!

:-)

 

[jon the student]

I didn't try the new bike out this morning. The -7 degrees didn't bother me massively, but the icy roads and slighty dodgy conditions did. I'll hopefully be able to try it out later this week should all be well.

Oh, and get some pics up too.