Dilemma (of the non-serious variety)
NikProwse
Posts: 22
Hi
Thoughts, please:
In order to avoid my pride and joy being knackered by salt this winter, I dusted off an old Marin MTB I have in the garage. Needed a service, took it to a local place that reconditions old bikes for sale and does servicing as well. Turns out I needed a new chain, BB and cassette, which with labour put the cost within spitting distance of one of their 'new' MTBs (£140). Rode a couple up and down the street outside, one Specialized Rockhopper was very nice. Good condition lots of new kit, nice bike. Would certainly do for the winter.
The Dilemma is: I'm not one to get rid of bikes lightly. I love them, cherish them and look after them (generally). Thought I'd have the Marin for years to come. But now I'm in a quandry: do I give in my old bike because it's quite expensive to repair and buy something that's possibly better but which I don't love, just because of cost, or do I hang on to the old one...?
Nik
Thoughts, please:
In order to avoid my pride and joy being knackered by salt this winter, I dusted off an old Marin MTB I have in the garage. Needed a service, took it to a local place that reconditions old bikes for sale and does servicing as well. Turns out I needed a new chain, BB and cassette, which with labour put the cost within spitting distance of one of their 'new' MTBs (£140). Rode a couple up and down the street outside, one Specialized Rockhopper was very nice. Good condition lots of new kit, nice bike. Would certainly do for the winter.
The Dilemma is: I'm not one to get rid of bikes lightly. I love them, cherish them and look after them (generally). Thought I'd have the Marin for years to come. But now I'm in a quandry: do I give in my old bike because it's quite expensive to repair and buy something that's possibly better but which I don't love, just because of cost, or do I hang on to the old one...?
Nik
0
Comments
-
+1 for the old guy.
You won't miss something you never had...BikeRadar Communities Manager0 -
An old Marin? probably 7 speed, maybe 8. New chain / cassette / BB won't cost much, maybe £40 or £50. All pretty straightforward repairs if you have the tools (which again won't be that expensive). Unless it is a heap of junk it will probably be better than any new bike you can get for £140.0
-
Maybe use the old boy as a bike to learn how to do your own maintenance on. Will cost you a fraction of the shop price. If the Marin will do what you need to on the trail then I wouldn't change.
Now if you are that time short it may be another story. But learning and changing a cassette and chain is an hours work. The BB could be more of an issue.
The only way this will mount up to the higher cost is the purchasing of tools, which if you can afford can be used again and again.
IF everything is rusted to bits then the story changes0 -
Bung a new chain on it and see how you get on ? Or run what you have and see how that goes ?
£140 seems very OTT to me.
15 BB
10 Chain
15 Cassette
Thats £40 I make it - prob even cheaper. They are taking the pee.0 -
To be fair, I did say 'spitting distance', about 20 quid actually, and that was £60 labour plus about £60 worth of new gear, everything mentioned plus cables and brake blocks. So the cost of the repair isn't out of order. It's made me think I need to make more effort to service my own bikes: I do have the tools, but not often got the time spare. Given the choice I shall make time, replace the parts, save the cost of the labour and get a warm glow of satisfaction from the job.... cheers guys, you've helped me decide.
Or, of course, the BB might be seized....
Cheers all & good ridin'
Nik0 -
Depends on what Marin it is, probably better to keep it. My old Marin is just used as a pub hack and if I'm going somewhere I need to leave the bike locked up. It rides a lot better than it looks though, nearly sold it once but then realised I'd not get anything as good for anywhere near what it would sell for. Glad I kept it.0
-
It rides a lot better than it looks though
Exactly! It ain't pretty, but it's pretty responsive.0 -
Fit it yourself even if you don't have the tools you are looking at £20-30. Alternatively I'd just grease up the BB and fit a new chain and cassette.0
-
Fit it yourself even if you don't have the tools you are looking at £20-30. Alternatively I'd just grease up the BB and fit a new chain and cassette.
Of course we're assuming it actually needs a new chain and cassette, in my experience its default practice for an LBS servicing a clunker to say it needs new chain, cassette, cables and brake pads (the latter two are usually fair enough).0 -
+1An old Marin? probably 7 speed, maybe 8. New chain / cassette / BB won't cost much, maybe £40 or £50. All pretty straightforward repairs if you have the tools (which again won't be that expensive). Unless it is a heap of junk it will probably be better than any new bike you can get for £140.
You can get a basic tool kit for around £30 or so and then your set , regreased the wheel bearings on the commuter today that took mebbe 20-30 mins for the two wheels from start to finish and saved a bundle in LBS charges .Don`t get me wrong some jobs i will leave for the LBS but i try to do most of my own servicing.FCN 3/5/90 -
New shiny bikes are more likely to attract the attention of cycle thieves too - another advantage of a well-serviced well loved older machine.FFS! Harden up and grow a pair
0 -
for myself I came very close to selling, my old Hardtail, a few years back, but before I got around to it, had a serious accident and the old hardtail was how I got out by myself unaided etc, an whole 3 miles! and has been turned into a safe fun durable commuter. I've very thankful that I has it at that time.
I'm well aware that when it has a new wheel etc like last week that the cost is worth more than it's value, But I couldn't care that bike is important to me.
rather depends how attached to the bike you are, and as been said you can't miss a newer bike.0 -
I've decided to do the servicing myself, so save labour costs, The bike needs quite a lot of TLC, actually, and I've decided to have it resprayed (there's a lot of rust lower down). I've found a company doing old-school Marin decals at a reasonable price too, so I'll be able to make it look something like the original bike, but with a new paint job. Very pleased I didn't abandon it!
Nik0
