Hi guys,

I’m a completely new to bikes and would like some advice.

My misses has bought herself a cheap halfords hybrid bike and now wants me to join her of a 10mile ride 3/4 times a week.

I know nothing about bikes, but a guy at work has offered me his 2003/4 specialized hardrock sport for £80.

Apparently it could do with new tyres due to cracking, but that’s not an issue as I’d want to replace them with road tyres anyway.

Also in an emergency he had to fit a new chain which is a bit small, apparently you can’t use both large gear cogs at the same time.

My question is, should I pay £80 for a 10 year old bike?

Many thanks

Ben.

If it’s only to be used on the road then I wouldn’t buy what will be a very heavy mountain bike, but £80 doesn’t sound ridiculous. If it’s got some 10 yr old low-end suspension forks you’d probably want to think about changing them for something rigid to save a chunk of weight.

you can’t use both large gear cogs at the same time.

You should never do that anyway so not a problem.

Light rigid forks (Kinesis Maxlight or Mosso), slick tyres (Conti SportContact 1.3) and a new chain (Wilko’s!) and you’ve got a “hybrid”.

The Hardrock is a decent frame, I would buy it at that price.

It’s a hard one. Plenty of people here would happily spend £80 just on the tires.

Assuming everything works okay, it still seems a little overpriced to me.

If you need to start replacing bits, the price can quickly rocket too. An example being, if you need a new chain and new cassette (the gears at the back), new gear cables and outers (the black tubes the cables pass through), it could cost another £80.

It is worth remembering that if things break, it can end up being very uneconomical. The cheapest 26″ ‘road tires’ I can find are £10 each. 25% of the cost of the bike!

Take it for a ride.

Do the brakes work?
Do the gears shift properly?
Do the wheels spin freely (listen for grinding sounds in the hubs) and are they true?
Does the handlebar rotate smoothly?

From the sound of it, you don’t even know if you’ll enjoy riding. It sounds like it could be a good bike (Specialized are nice bikes, in general) for you.

From the ‘replace it with road tires’, I guess the riding will be on road. I know these are in Brighton but, for joining the missus on 10 mile rides, I’d be looking at bikes more like these.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/raleigh-531-eluxe-2nd-hand-racer/1075745222

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/universal-hybrid-bike/1078782166

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/mans-23-inch-vintage-racer/1078747863

Even if not, your friend seems a little (but not massively) optimistic. Photos of the bike might show some upgrades that justify the price…

Happy riding

Thank you for taking your time to give my such an in depth opinion, I do really appreciate it 🙂

These are the only pictures I have seen at the moment.

THose forks will be terrible and you’d be better off with cheap rigid forks for riding on the road. Overall, not a bad bike by any means.

Just be aware, though, that once you’ve bought the bike and replaced the forks, chain and tyres then had someone give it a service, you might have been as well taking the 200+ quid and buying a new (but possibly not as nice looking) hybrid from Halfords.

An alternative view. For pootling about that bike will be fine as is. Lots of people ride bikes like that on the road everyday. My only advice would be buy a track pump and put 60psi in the tires. For rides up to 10 miles it will give you a good service.

Being a specialized you will always get some money back for it if you decide to upgrade in the future.

Seems fine as is really. I’d buy it, leave as is and see if this game is for you. In any case it’s a bike that’s never ever going to see a bike shop again, so use and abuse. Don’t like it, sell it on eBay….

I bought one of those in 2005, it was about £350 with v-brakes new. It’s still going strong, pretty indestructable (has had a fork upgrade), still on the original Deore chain/cassette etc. Has been my bike, loaner bike for mates mtb rides, my son-in-laws commuter (with road-ish tyres) and is now my daughters commuter.

Yes if it’s in good working order £80 is fair enough.

How tall are you? It looks tiny!

That was my first mountain bike only 5 years ago, Worked for me until I updated everything!

I’m 5ft8.

Tim (the current owner) is about 6ft5.

I bought one of those back in 2003.I did the Isle of Man E2E on it a couple of times & all sorts of stuff over here.Those forks are rubbish but for £80 it’ll get you into cycling.Mines hanging up in the garage as spare bike

That’s a good price if the main components are still working OK. If you end up replacing too much of the drivetrain (the cassette on the rear wheel, the chainrings next to the pedals) then the costs will mount up pretty quickly. If the chainrings are too worn to take a new chain without slipping all the time, you can’t replace them individually on that – you have to buy all three together with new cranks.

Then again, 7-speed stuff can be found very cheap new.

Make sure you get to ride it around the car park a bit before you buy it, to check it’s the right size and that it shifts through all the usual gear combinations OK.