Who on here rides a crappy old bike?

’05 Spesh FRS XC Pro.

Forks – Goosed
Suspension bearings – Worn
Seat post – Fused to frame
Rear mech – Bent but still working
Tyres – Balding
Shifters – Don’t engage every now and again

Funds to replace/repair – Not available 😐

The other three are OK, but the FSR is my favourite.

Not me, I’d rather have a rigid singlespeed than a bike with all that kit that wasn’t working properly!

Zilog +1

Is this a thinly veiled appeal for parts… 🙂

(Kidding.) 🙂

No! I just wonder how many people on here ride around on the bicycle equivalent of Trigger’s Brush. The FSR is running nicely at the moment.

I’ll keep it until it snaps.

Yep,

Old (circa 2001) Hardrock. Still going strong and the only original part is the Frame and rear V-brakes. It is a bit mid-2000 retro though with the various bits of kit it has on it.

My favourite bike’s a 2005 Giant nrs.
I blinged it up a bit last year with new forks & wheels.
I also treated it to new cables, that was a revelation,being able to change gear without swinging on the lever!
It’s had a couple of b/b’s but still on it’s original chainset.

My road bike is a circa 1990 Dawes impulse. It’s borderline safe to ride.

At lest it’s not an orange 5!

Wanna buy my Orange 5 ? 🙂

I sometimes ride my 1988 Kona Explosif. It’s far from crappy though……

If I were you and had four bikes, my fav being the goosed one I would sell one to fund it’s repair. Or save up.

Is it not hard to enjoy it being so F*ed?

I only have one bike but do my best to keep it running well. Nothing more annoying than riding your only bike when somethings buggered.

If you went for good second hand kit it might not be horrendous to get right again.

I have an 18 month old Zesty, but still enjoy taking my yr 2000 ish Scott out as well

During the winter, this bike gets used more than the Zesty. For a 13 year old bike, it’s great. Bit of flex in the frame, compared to the Zesty, but great for xc work.

Road bike is 10 years old, MTB is 7 years old. Road bike pretty original, but the MTB has had pretty much every part changed apart from the cranks and handlebars. Everything works perfectly though, I’m slightly obsessive like that.

I’ve been riding a pompino for all my road riding and commuting for 9 years now. I’ve forgotten how many wheels I’ve been through, can’t bring myself to change it cos it just keeps going and going.

Mid 60s Raleigh 5 speed no bar tape paint knackered
Etc spent more on the gator skin tyres than the bike
But it does me for getting around

My main bike is a dented singlespeed rigid Inbred, Gets new brake pads occasionally but that’s it.

2005 commencal meta4. But new to me. forks are losing black anodising, scratched stancions, lost adjusters etc been modded for less travel dampings a bit crap. Bought for 60quid and done 6 years hard hard labour. Ducking great forks from the big m. Wheels are kinda round and kinda straight but defo need new front bearings. Shifters bent on lh and slow return on right. Frame is a bit small. Tyrea are tubeless but punctured and not sealing so I have to run tubes. All second hand kit. But I like it. For now. Doesn’t seem to slow me down looking at local strava times.

Other bikes are similarly raped but all work. My fave is my 1999 sunn bmix.

crappy, yes
old, no

dont really care what i ride nowadays tho, just riding is reward enough.

2004 vt2 which I think i managed to kill at last years meg avalanche

The ltd edition 853 inbreds from I think 06. Still my main and very favourite bikes

Old yes, crappy no.

2005 Orange five, everything working perfectly though 😀

1982 Raleigh Tempest, was rescued from a hedge that had grown around it.
Bit rusty and bent.
Got joint 4th in SSEC2010 and bagged 2nd in the Clunker Classic.

I can give your FSR a good home if your chucking it 🙂

I can give your FSR a good home if your chucking it

Never.

The newest mountain bike I own is from 2005. It does me fine. If I had the money spare I’d probably have an all-singing, all dancing XTR ****-wagon, but I don’t.

Old but not crappy

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Oh, apart from the rodbrakes 🙂

Me,but I don’t actually get out on it without the children so I’m always over-biked…for now !

what is a ****-wagon?

Used to run an 04ish inbred with ’99 V brakes ’98 bombers and some even older finishing kit, SS so no gears to worry about atleast. Bit of a clunker but it got me places, decided I’d had enough of doing the “parts bin SS” so I paid a bit of money for a proper one, nicer ride definitely, but more fun? erm……maybe a little.

Certainly old – trek 6500 HT*

But crappy? Hardly, it does everything that I ask. Of course, I would like a better bike (either lighter XC beast or more travel for the rougher stuff) but this bike keeps me going very well.

I spent a lot of my life examining the difference between price and value and find the current prices of bikes is a long way from their true value. So may well keep old faithful going!

* does anyone talk about manitou slates any more!?!

I thought a similar thing to you the other day Harry. oh dear

It looks pretty tired and battered next to the various exotica I was out with yesterday. I’d love something thats nice and light and pimpy. Chances of affording something light and pimpy any time soon? Zero!

Is a bike from 2005 really considered “Old”?

I don’t think it’ll be in Retrobike Contention for a fair few years…

Perhaps people are a bit too caught up in the shiney new, consumer bike whore thing these days. I blame the Mag’s…

Is a bike from 2005 really considered “Old”?

8 years yeah kinda,

actually thinking about it that does seem a bit rubbish don’t it?
Thing is technology marketing moves on quickly nowadays, how long before you have trouble getting replacements to fit your frame geometry/fittings?

Having said that I’ve a ’03ish heckler frame in the attic I’d build up tomorrow if I had room for it.

all my bikes are old/second hand but still work

my best mtb still has the orginal 4 pot xt disc brakes on it, sq taper bb, qr hubs, most of the bits must be at least 10 yrs old, when they break i’ll replace them.

still I don’t get out that much do to work and small children so has a pretty easy life

My main bike is an 06 Enduro but its far from knackered, the shock needs fixing but the rest is great.

This is an old knackered bike. My ’85 Raleigh Flyer. It was mostly original when I got it for £20 last year but have replaced the tyres bars and brakes. I have plans for a cheap refurb including painting it in a deep metallic red hopefully this year.

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IMAG0252[/url] by i_ache[/url], on Flickr

This pic has original (rusty) wheels, (threadbare on the sidewalls) tyres, brakes and stem.

Is a bike from 2005 really considered “Old”?

Not in my eyes, <5 years = new, 5 < 10 = mature, 10 < 15 = quite old, 15 > = old*

*but still not necessarily crappy!

my main, and most reliable ride is 12 years old this year, I have newer, and I have older, they all serve their purpose and finding spares for them is not really a problem, at least not the main consumable parts anyway.

I was having a similar discussion on saturday while out on dartmoor with my riding buddy, and I was complaining that modern parts don’t seem to last as long, I have XTR rear mechs and shifters that are well over a decade old, and some Hope hubs that are 15 this year original bearings in the front!), and the stuff I find wearing out and breaking is the more modern kit, and it’s not because I ride it more either, most of my mileage is on older kit..

pfft, crotchety old man rant over – bikes are great!

1996 hardrock sport, bb knackered, no front brake, middle and granny ring bent and don’t take a chain. Rust everywhere. I do 120 miles a week commuting on it. Think most days I must get something better but never do.

Ride? a bike? 😕 Does not compute…

Is a bike from 2005 really considered “Old”?

I’ve been riding it for most of the time I’ve been mountain biking, so it does have a fair bit of wear and tear.

Also as someone with a 125mm travel, 9-speed, 26″, 1 1/8″ head tubed bike, I’m slightly worried about the rolling programme of deliberate obsolescence that bike manufacturers seem to be pushing. I’m sure the replacements will still be out there, but they might be pig iron bits aimed at the lowest end of the market, as has happened to 7 speed, square taper, and other perfectly good but no longer sexy technologies.

I was complaining that modern parts don’t seem to last as long,

When I grew out of my kids bikes my dad dug his old bike out of the shed, all original parts including sturmey archer 3speed hub, replaced the gear cable good to go. As soon as I could I bought myself a mountain bike, dad complained when after 18months I needed to replace the drive chain, he pointed at his old bike still running despite the abuse I gave it* modern stuff indeed does not last. But i think it’s also the nature of mountain biking, I got a road bike on C2W only ever goes out in dry weather and obviously only on tarmac, think I’ve only replaced tyres (as glass had shredded them) 1 BB and 1 pair of brake pads in about 5 years. If we’d stuck to making everything from heavy duty steel our stuff would last longer but lightweight gear and especially funky 10spd, bouncy, disc braked lightweight gear it won’t last if you’re gonna cover it in grit every ride

*tho TBF it abused me more than I it, too big a frame plus badly adjusted 3speed = groinal top tube interface.

I think you’ll still be able to find 1 1/8 th forks second hand for a while yet, and the internal parts to keep existing ones running will be around for a while too, you just move on to looking at old stock or 2nd hand instead of new kit.

Plenty of options for square taper cranks, new old stock, posh stuff like middleburn, and then good old decent condition second hand.

7 speed not so much… but then 8 or 9sp upgrade is well worth while and plenty of parts still around. And even if you are hell bent on using and old 7speed wheel you just ditch the largest sprocket on the cassette and it will fit, and being that 8/9speed normally use 32 or 34 top cogs which were never available on 7speed you’re not actually losing out.

most older frames can at least accept new drivetrain standards which allow you to upgrade them, and as I said, I don’t think the fork problem will really be a major one for another few years, we’re only now at the stage where it’s almost impossible to get 1 inch forks (although there are still options 2nd hand for older Pace and Marz forks that work and are the right length for bikes of that era) and 1 inch stuff was pretty much phased out in the mid 90’s so that’s a pretty long innings.

I wouldn’t worry about it that much, by the time it is actually difficult to keep bikes like that running with decent kit it will be properly worn out or will have snapped.

I’m more worried by flash-in-the-pan standards that might leave people trapped, look at what happened to 1 1/4 steerers?

amedias guess you’re right, life in the old dogs yet, all the 29er fanboys and incoming 27.5er-geddon have subconsciously got me writing off 26ers

If we’d stuck to making everything from heavy duty steel our stuff would last longer but lightweight gear and especially funky 10spd, bouncy, disc braked lightweight gear it won’t last if you’re gonna cover it in grit every ride

indeed, but that doesn’t explain while my still-light 10-13 year old XTR 9sp kit is still going strong after gritty-sh1tty, but I couldn’t get 2010 onwards XT stuff to last more than 6 months in the same conditions while actually ridden less!

amedias guess you’re right, life in the old dogs yet, all the 29er fanboys and incoming 27.5er-geddon have subconsciously got me writing off 26ers

Noooo! don’t let them! I’m all for new shiny shiny stuff, but don’t forget about the silent majority of good old, faithful, boring, midrange bikes out on the hills every day, there’s nothing that makes me smile more than seeing a 15 year old, battle scarred bike, with barely an original component left, being slogged round the trails by a grinning idiot covered in mud, much better than seeing the 4k uber bike propped up outside the cafe and feeling sad that it’ll probably never even see a snapped chain before retirement…