Specialized S-Works M5 HT

DiscoStu73

I'm new to this biking lark but managed to land myself a bargain 'first' bike from my local free-ads paper.




Specialized S-Works M5 HT 2005 frame
Rock Shox SID Team fork
Specialized body geometry saddle
Thompson elite seatpost
Specialized seatpost clamp
X-lite bars
Thompson elite stem
Can Creek s1 headset
SRAM 9.0 esp shifters
Hope mono mini hydraulic brake set
Hope hubs
Mavic 717 disc rims
Deore LX crank
Deore XT front mech
SRAM esp rear mech
Shimano rear cassette
Panaracer fire xc pro tyres

Weighs in at 10.8kg!
It's a mental bike for what I paid for it, I just have to justify having it by actually leaving the house...

Tim.s

Go on then, hurt me, how much?

DiscoStu73

Well, I was looking at 3 new bikes around the £500 price mark before I bought this.
And this was a lot less.

Is you a-hurting?

Tim.s

Meh, im glad for you, nice to see someone get a barguin. 8)

Im looking for a nippy hardtail and would of snapped that up like you did. I'd love an M5 spesh, was looking at the new Stumpy hardtail at the weekend and very nearly put my money down as a deposit on that but its a bit light and fragile for me, the older ones seem to have more substance to them.

DiscoStu73

Given that I lack experience, I would have been happy with one of the new £500 bikes that was on my list. I was probably going to get the Giant XTC4 but I did also try the Specialized Hardrock Pro Disc and it felt really good.
I would have upgraded or replaced that bike in the next year or two as I progress, so I'm obviously delighted that I won't have to do that now, as long as I don't do anything stupid on this one!

Tim.s

They are a world apart, consider that the new Stumpy HT comp is £1400 so yours would of been a similar price in its day.

The main upgrade is in the material, The Rockhopper uses M4 tubing which is great but M5 tubing is lighter, stiffer and just generally better. I would of willingly put £500 of my hard earned on the table for that bike.

SpinningJenny

tarting in this part of the forum too.... i don't blame you! it looks just as lovely over here! Enjoy it!

DiscoStu73

Haha, I've been caught out!
I'm just chuffed, is all. The guy I bought it from claimed it cost £2500 new, that is certainly true if it had been the stock factory specced bike with full XTR components.
The spec of this one isn't far off though, so still prob around the £2000 mark. The RS SID Team fork would cost more to replace than I paid for the whole bike!

Tim.s

DiscoStu73 wrote:

Haha, I've been caught out!
I'm just chuffed, is all. The guy I bought it from claimed it cost £2500 new, that is certainly true if it had been the stock factory specced bike with full XTR components.
The spec of this one isn't far off though, so still prob around the £2000 mark. The RS SID Team fork would cost more to replace than I paid for the whole bike!

Thats a little OTT since this -

http://www.specializedconceptstore.co.u ... T%20EXPERT

is £1700, and yes look after those forks you dont want to be replacing them at todays prices, lol.

DiscoStu73

Tim.s wrote:

Thats a little OTT since this -

http://www.specializedconceptstore.co.u ... T%20EXPERT

is £1700, and yes look after those forks you dont want to be replacing them at todays prices, lol.

But Tim, I don't have a Stumpjumper, and the one you linked to isn't an S-Works.
Looksee:
S-Works frame + fork ONLY at £2446.80
and here's the
S-Works Stumpjumper at a phenomenal £4404.25!

Both from the same store you linked to and both crazy prices!
Before I went to see the bike, I had looked up various sites for info on it. THIS was the earliest page I could find with prices, and it's the 2006 model at $4400, so only a year after mine. Ok it's in USD but still, the exchange rate wasn't that great at the time!

There is no way in the world I would ever pay those kinds of prices for a bike. I just couldn't possibly justify it! Which is kinda the point of me posting this, to show that you can get lucky and find a bargain now and then.

Tim.s

Close but no cigar

The S-works hardtail mutated into the Stumpjumper Hardtail a few years back. The bikes you linked to there are S-works carbon frames. The original S-works (like yours) was alloy.

Otherwise we would of ended up with a S-works alloy and an S-works carbon which didnt make much sense as the S-works is considered to be the 'best'

Todays equivilant of the bike you have there would be the Stumpy HT.

Simples.

Fodder666

DiscoStu73 wrote:

Haha, I've been caught out!
I'm just chuffed, is all. The guy I bought it from claimed it cost £2500 new, that is certainly true if it had been the stock factory specced bike with full XTR components.
The spec of this one isn't far off though, so still prob around the £2000 mark. The RS SID Team fork would cost more to replace than I paid for the whole bike!

Specialized didn't do full spec S-works bikes until 2007, I got my 2006 S-Works M5 Hardtail as a frame only and built it up with full XT groupset for less than £2000. You got a good bargain so enjoy.

DiscoStu73

The 2005 S-Works M5 HT was sold as a complete bike in the US, and frameset only in the UK. The 2005 M5 was the 'best' at the time, and at the time it cost a shedload. The complete bike, as linked earlier, would have been £2417 with the average exchange rate for that year being £1.82 to the dollar. I couldn't find a price for the UK frameset. The S-Works frame has indeed evolved on to carbon, but at the time (and it's only a few years ago) this S-Works was the big deal.
That's all I had to go on before I bought it. When buying second hand, you have to weigh up what it would have cost originally against what it's worth now. Whatever is being currently sold new is irrelevant. I merely pointed out that the current S-Works range is a crazy price, as would this bike have been in 2005 as it is from the same stable.
Regardless of what it might or might not have cost as new in the UK I still got an amazing deal and that's the main thing!

Tim.s

Yes, quite right.

The main thing is you enjoy it and are happy with the price you paid for it.

And if you ever feel like getting rid of it........................let me know!

DiscoStu73

You'll be the first!

Fodder666

The 2006 Frame only price was £699.99 off www.evanscycles.com and yes, I totally agree that the frame/bike was the dogs bollocks at the time, it's still much better than a lot around now. In fact they still produce it for the european market.

DiscoStu73

And still tons better than I would have got had I bought something new for my £500 budget!