Should I rescue her. Giant Carbon MCM

tim_wand

Theres a bloke near us sells bikes out of an Industrial unit. Last week my mate got a set of Ksyriums of him for a steal ( sorry to talk about the dark side ) . Any ways thought I d have a look see if I could get a set of winter hoops for my Road bike.

Whilst I m looking through the rack I Spy a Giant MCM team Carbon, A bike of my dreams in the yester years when I did a bit of X.C racing.

I wouldn't contemplate buying a 15 year old carbon road bike who's providence I didn't know , but this appealed to me.

Its the disc mount version and its teamed up with a Rock Shox Judy and some crappy 8 speed Gruppo which is mainly XT rear mech and STX/RC chainset and some wheels which look like a Halo copy of Cross Maxes ( heavy as hell)

The guy would take £200 all in for it. Is it worth it?

I m thinking of throwing some 9 speed XTR a set of Shimano discs and maybe an Old Pace RC38 at it.

I ve not riden MTB for quite a while, but my Road Club tends to go all perverted and head off to the hills in the Winter, and something Quirky and a bit retro appeals to me.

rockmonkeysc

I wouldn't touch a carbon frame of that age.

The Rookie

If you want it as a curio, go ahead, but carbon frames of that era weighed more than a decent ally frame now, it's 8 speed and has forks that don't deserve the use of the word suspension, so don't buy it as a serious bike.

£100 sounds about right.

tim_wand

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19764557#p19764557]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

I wouldn't touch a carbon frame of that age.

That's the element that worries me. Reckon most carbon frames have a finite life and it certainly don't extend to 15 years, At least with Steel or Ally there's evident tell tale signs of when a frames shot.

As I would be buying it really just for the frame! and the rest would be binned, it is a bit of a leap of faith.

rockmonkeysc

Carbon wasn't very good 15 years ago. There's no reason why it would have a shorter life than aluminium but carbon manufacturing has moved on a lot in 15 years.

Ber Nard

I'd buy it as a piece of nostalgia if you've always wanted one. To scratch an itch, so to speak. I wouldn't buy it as a means to getting back in to MTBing.