What Happens to Old Mountain Bikes?

With bike sales on the up, often wondered what happens to all the old bikes that you no longer see on the trails? I’m not talking about Halfords specials here but expensive good quality older bikes – (for example ten year old Marin Mount Visions or similar spec bikes from other manufacturers).

You never see these in a skip, you rarely see them ridden on the trails anymore, the local chavs seem to prefer Halfords specials to a second hand Marin so none to be seen here either.

So have they all broken, do people have a collection of old bikes in a garage never to see the light of day again, do people trade them in to bike shops which then get sent back to the manufacturers, do people sling them into the local canal, do they get recycled, are they sent abroad to the 3rd World?

With old cars its easy – 99% end up in a scrap yard but for bikes I have no idea?

my dad has a Marin Palisades Trail behind the shed in his garden. might sling him a few quid and use it as a daily hack.

Mine usualy either get sold if there’s still some value in it, or binned if there’s not. Stil got a stack of three or 4 old frames though that could be used, but give it’d be £400 for a drivetrain/finishing kit/etc and on-one would do a scandal frame for peanuts it’d be silly spending money on them when for 20% more you could build a nicer ‘new’ bike.

well i have just retired a 7 year old santa cruz blur. I striped it and the forks and wheels went down the food chain to the singlespeed and all the other bits went in the junk box. The frame was cleaned and is now hanging on the garage wall

I still have my yellow Rockhopper with a u-brake! Must be well over 20 years old!

retrobike.co.uk

Mine became a commuter, 20 years later it’s still going strong.

My DH frame is from 2002, XC frame from 2000 and my wifes frame is from 2001.

Still get hammered on a weekly basis, showing no signs of ageing yet…

I still have my ’95 GT Tequesta.
A friend has an 80s Marin Palisades Trail, and when I was at his place for a party recently I spotted some tatty old bikes in the shed, one of which was an original Orange P7 with Pace forks and Maguras. The whols thing had been brush painted with blackboard paint.

My 15 year old Rift Zone is my training bike. I don’t ride it at trail centres or race it but I use it the rest of the time.

Only the frame is original though…

Old Raleighs were sold on Ebay for not a lot… but better than scrapping them as they still worked (sort of) hopefully they are enjoying retirement pootling down tow paths and to the pub.

I’ve used my old worthless bikes for hack bikes for going to the shops. My first real bike, a Specialized Hardrock Cromo, ended up as a nice resprayed SS that was then nicked. I now have my neighbour’s 1997 Rockhopper with ’98 Kona P2s on it that I found in their skip and singlespeeded and pimped from my spares box for riding to the Co-op and pootling with my wife. I think it and a mid 90’s Orange Clockwork were destined to destruction, although I never saw the Clockwork.

Many just get passed on to relatives who leave them in the garage (my dad has a 1997 GT Pantera with Rockshox Judy “Long Travel” 80mm forks!) if they aren’t worth anything, chucked out or the people that ride such old bikes are perhaps only marginally interested and don’t ride often or eventually just stop riding and leave it in the garage thinking “I’ll use it again soon”.

I have, if I’m honest with myself, a completely dead Specialized Enduro Expert frame from 2002 in my parent’s cellar. No shock, totally in bits, cracked rear end. It’s worth nothing to anyone but I hang onto it for some reason.

My main bike is still a 2002 Ellsworth Id, on its 3rd set of forks, 3rd chainstay and almost every component apart from the wheels has worn out / broken over the last 11 years, still a great bike IMO, can’t see me changing it in the near future.

you rarely see them ridden on the trails anymore,

Dunno about that, a ten year old bike isn’t really all that old, there’s plenty of current parts that will fit them I see plenty of 10+ year old Frames still in use out and about…

20+ year old now that’s getting on, and you see fewwer early to mid 90’s bikes about now but there’s a few still in service…

The fact over 20 odd years they either get used as commuters, break, or go and rust in the back of a shed…

Dunno if I agree with any usable bike / frame becoming a display piece, either ride it, bin it or flog it but don’t hang it up like it’s art an unused bike is a sad, sad thing to behold…

Retrobike is the place to go if you want to see some tasty older bikes…

I carry on riding it.

Years ago I stopped buying lots of bikes and aimed more for the ‘bike for life’ approach. More expensive but cheap in the long run.

I’ve put my 1994 ibis on the subs bench late last year with a crack but its going for a weld in May and will then be back in action. Might even put a disk mount on it. eeek. blasphemy.

Just because you don’t see many in skips it doesn’t mean they’re not there. I reckon a lot of people chuck them out without a second thought, just as they would with a broken old washing machine or TV.

old bikes go to live on a farm with other old bikes where they can roam free and be happy

my old frame is on the mantle piece in the house

like this

I have, if I’m honest with myself, a completely dead Specialized Enduro Expert frame from 2002 in my parent’s cellar. No shock, totally in bits, cracked rear end. It’s worth nothing to anyone but I hang onto it for some reason.

It’s worth something to someone, someone with a cracked front end and working rear for example, lots of people like to keep their old bikes usable for as long as possible and there comes a point where other people’s ‘worthless’ bits are the only spares.

I’ve still got a 16 year old Klein I use regularly, and a couple of decade plus frames in use too.

I thought they get chucked in the river…

Amedias- I think part of me is hanging on to the idea that I will rebuild it one day. It was the bike that got me to where I am today with bikes and was rather special to me.

Anyone who would waste a 916 by hanging it on the wall deserves a run up kick to the fork.

+1 for Retrobike forum.

I sold every last part of my 1998 Kona Hei Hei on there last year, and got almost £600 for the Ti frame alone!! Check out the garage guys, there may be some value there.

Old MTBs don’t die, they just go down hill.

Boom boom
sorry 🙂