Will this bike do?

[jpitcairn]

Hi there! I'm new to your community.

I've recently gotten back into cycling. Given our nice weather and the ever increasing price of petrol i figured i'm going to start cycling to the train station and back every day.

However my bike is an old mountain bike that I haven't been on in 4 years so everything has seized up. I managed to unseize the brakes and gears and took it for a run last week. Managed 23 miles! for my first time on a bike in a while I'd say thats not bad!

The bike was something I got as a teenager and I can't really find anything about it online. The tires are going bald. the brake pads are worn down. The cables are frayed and the gears don't work properly(keep trying to move up a gear on their own every rotation).

I've attached an image of the bike to the post. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this bike is just a waste of time trying to fix or if it's half decent and worth fixing? Also is this bike appropriate for a 4 mile round trip cycle every week day and the odd long cycle every now and then?

Thanks!

Jordan

 

[cyberknight]

Welcome to the forums !!

If you have had that bike for a long time and run it into the ground you will need to replace the brake pads,cables, chain, you gears on the back wheel along with a lot of oil+ grease to get parts going again.
To do all this is going to cost £70-80 in parts at a rough guess not including tyres, then you have the cost of labour at the shop i would say your bike is not worth repairing as ( do not take this the wrong way)your bike looks like a fairly entry level model and it would be better to put that money towards a nicer bike.
to get your gears to work in the meantime try this ...

[media]http://bicycletutor.com/adjust-rear-derailleur/[/media]


If you are cycling on the road you do not really need suspension as the tyres will give you enough comfort , lower end suspension systems tend to be heavy ans suck your power anyway.
What sort of budget would you spend on a new bike?
I can give a few standard recommendations that people on here have liked.

This is what i had to start, solid and you can stick a rack and mudgaurds on it to make commuting easy.

http://www.halfords....tegoryId_165534

http://www.decathlon...red-172073022/#

http://www.edinburgh...5c018333c018337

 

[biggs682]

what ever you buy just enjoy the cycling

 

[HovR]

I'd agree with what CyberKnight has said. The bike does look like a more entry level model, and full suspension bikes tend to be heavy (unless they are worth a fairly large sum of money) which will make cycling harder, and maybe less enjoyable.

You can get a nice aluminium flat bar bikes with slick tires and no suspension fairly cheap nowadays, which will work admirably if you perform routine maintenance on it - And you should also find it much less effort to ride!

Oh, and welcome to Cycle Chat!

 

[guitarpete247]

Hi and .

23 miles on a full sus bike, first time out is brilliant. How did you feel the next day . And how far is to your station?
If you do the work yourself you'll save a lot of money at your LBS while you save up for a better bike. But as others have said enjoy whatever you ride, and look around carefully for your N+1 .

 

[uphillstruggler]

Guitar Pete.

That's a bit out of order! The poor chap is looking for advice after getting back into cycling and you're already dropping the n+1 bomb on him.

Tut tut

 

[mcshroom]

Considering the OP posted in May and hasn't posted since, I'd guess any advice you give won't go very far

 

[jonathanw]

Considering the OP posted in May and hasn't posted since, I'd guess any advice you give won't go very far

Too busy cycling........hopefully!!