In classic man style, I took a light hearted quip made by my wife seriously and may have £500 to spend on a bike in the near future. Nothing sorted yet, but a boy can dream eh?

So here's the situation…£500 cash, a 2001 Stinky and a 2006 Gary Fisher Tass hardtail in the shed.
Stinky is in good riding order, with lots of original parts but is obviously abit tatty. Doesn't come out much cos it weighs so much.
Tass is a neat little budget hardtail in good order.

The options I'm thinking of are…
Sell both bikes, get maybe £300 in total for them, add it to the £500 and spend £800 on an off the shelf bike.
OR sell the Stinky and strip the Tass, buy new frame and forks for about £500-600 and use the Tass parts to build up.

I'd like the new bike to be steel, british if poss and be a good allrounder. I'd like a Soul if I could stretch that far…

Any ideas, real world valuations, or advice?
Ta

For valuations we'd need to see pics really, cos without them it's hard to say what an old bike is worth. If the Stinky is in good order though, it might be worth a bit more than you think.

If you can stretch your budget to £1000 in total (when the 2 current bikes are sold, I'd suggest this as the best bet to be honest), then you can pick yourself up a Genesis Altitude 10. It's all but identical in ride feel to a Cotic Soul (I've got the 853 version of the Genesis), the Geometry being bang on the same barring a 5mm difference in the top tube length (wow, a whole 5mm!)… And it's British, and it's steel, and it's a very good allrounder and the Altitude keeps getting very high praise every time a magazine tests it in whatever guise!

Pics of my custom one (that cost a bit more than £1k sadly) here…

Dont know what a Tass is but I'd sell both and get a soul 2nd hand. Bet you could get more than £300 for both.

£900 could get you a 2nd hand soul very easily

Yeah if they Stinky is in good working order, a well listed ebay auction with decent pics might surprise you…

Here they are in all their glory…

THe genesis does look nice, still not convinced I can raise £1000 in total though.

The GF has cable discs now…wow, that'll swing things up in the price dept 😉

Looking at the 2 bikes you've got, I'd be surprised if you couldn't raise near enough £450-500 by selling them either on here, or on ebay… Which means with your £500 you could then afford £1k on a bike!

As said above though, you might be lucky and find a 2nd hand Soul in your size too… Always worth a go if buying a new bike is financially not feasible.

To be honest, as it'll be my first new bike in a few years I'd like to be a tart and get a new one.

I KNOW second hand is a bargain…but that new bike feeling is SO good…so maybe a 456 inbred might be an option, if i'm hazy about the british thing 😉

How are you getting on with raising funds? I have a brand new Altitude for sale, a mix of the kit from an Altitude 10 but on an Altitude 20 frame so it is Reynolds 853. I am looking for £800 for it.

buy Mister P's bike – the stuff he sells is always immaculate…

http://www.bikemagic.com/classifieds/advert.asp?c=19279&t=Charge+DUSTER+CUSTOM&sp=&v=2

job done…. not mine I hasten to add… I I rekon youd get a two'er each for those bikes… with which you could buy this…

http://www.bikemagic.com/classifieds/advert.asp?c=19176&t=Specialized+Enduro+Expert&sp=&v=2

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