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So I unexpectedly have a couple of retro bikes on my hands and I am wondering what to do with them.
I am generally anti-hoarding, preferring to see things used, and so my initial reaction was to sell them or donate them to people who will use them.
However, when prepping them for getting rid tonight and taking photos, I came over all sentimental as these hold a few memories for me.
The first one is a Marin Eldridge grade circa 1994. My first really, really nice mountain bike. It's been butchered into a hybrid since then, but with some care and attention I could get it back to its glory. Still got lots of original components including the epicly long stem.
The second is a lovely frame - early '70s Clive Stuart CX/tourer thing. Lovely lugged Reynolds 531. More modern 90s componentry generally. It's too small for me to use properly but with a bit of care would be a lovely thing to look at, especially the wonderful frame. I could see myself spending a fortune on period componentry if I got into restoring it though.
Anyway, I have zero time at present, or in the foreseeable, to give these the attention to bring them up to scratch. Also no space to display them. So they would probably have to go out of the way up in the loft, with the intention of them being a project for me to work on when time (eventually!) allows. i.e. probably once the kids have grown up and buggered off!
So, WWSTWD?
I'm thinking I am inclined to keep them. Seems a bit criminal and goes against my better judgement, but once given away for peanuts I'll not get them back.
How many of you have kept a bike as a project and then actually bothered to do it? How many still have them lying around in lofts?
I'd have to keep the eldridge grade! The early 90s was a great era, probably as I was able to start buying decent bikes and for me all things mtb took off. I remember all the Marin bikes around that time fondly..and I'm sure so will many more people
Refurbish it.... I think you'll be glad you did
Currently working on something myself, not near as old as yours, mines 2002 Rockymountain oxygen. Like you i could never have gotton rid of it.. So i get more enjoyment from keeping it and riding it every now and again..
Sell them for peanuts, eat said peanuts, pick up another different retro mtb for a few peanuts more, preferably one needing little or no work doing. Ride, enjoy the simplicity.
Get rid. They mean nothing to anyone but you. In time they will become an albatross around your neck. Remember the words of Renton… you are not the bike you ride. Choose life.
In time they will become an albatross around your neck.
I agree
They mean nothing to anyone but you
But I'm me!
Thus, this is my dilemma
Albatross? Bollocks.
I'd say keep them if you have the space. They will mean even more when you get round to restoration, more than someone else's you might buy.
Not quite as old, my 2004 Cove Hummer has been languishing in the garage feeling sorry for itself for ages. All the places I've taken it ( did Kamikaze run in Mammoth, Whistler, Morzine, Tahoe etc etc). Just the other day I (nearly) stripped it down and hung the frame on the wall. Just in time I stopped myself got a few things done to make it more rideable and went for a play in the woods. What a hoot! Nowhere near as efficient as my 29er but a right party machine! The memories came flooding back 😎 So now once or twice a month we shall go play together. 👍
Keep the Marin if it fits you nicely. Sell the other one.
This thread needs pitchures
I have a retro bike. I don't ride it off road anymore but I use it to the shops/pub. Still nice bike but just my MTBing has moved on.
I've got a 1997 Indy Fab SS Deluxe that's been retro-modded and still gets ridden.
Just have to remind myself of its limits when I'm on it, and not ride it like my long n slack hardtail!
How many of you have kept a bike as a project and then actually bothered to do it? How many still have them lying around in lofts?
I have two 90s MTBs and two 90s road bikes in the loft. They've been there 15 years or more.
Despite all the banter about giving them to charity and/or scrap I've kept them because I knew one day, when I wasn't controlled by the clock, I would ride them again.
I'm retiring in May and this very week I've got one of them down. it needs some work but I'll ride it again soon.
So yeah keep them.
Pitchure (sic), as requested...
you get so little for them second unless they are collectable that it's worth just keeping them. Keep your memories alive ; )
Clearing out my dad's crap after he died has taught me not to hoard stuff, I'll be off to Recycleabike in Uxbridge soon, to hand then a car load of stuff that other people will make good use of 🙂
I've say that road bikes depending on vintage (back to 80's / 90's steel for me) are perfectly good to ride and differences are much less than MTB's in terms of new vs retro.
Old road bikes are fine, but road bikes of any vintage that don't fit well are horrible to ride. No point in keeping a bike to look at. I had such a bike once: it had some of, if not the, finest welding I've ever laid eyes on; but I hardly ever rode it, because I had another bike with identical geometry that I was happy to get scruffy. I haven't ever regretted selling the boutique version and keeping the workaday one.
A 90s rigid MTB that fits, though, is a handy thing. Commuter, tourer, family holiday bike, it'll do all of those things. And since it's worth buttons to anyone else, there's little point in getting rid of it unless you personally know someone you want to simply give it to.
They're just "things". I get the impression that the Marin isn't the actual one you had in your youth, so it doesn't actually have that much significance to you.
My first proper decent mountain bike got stolen- I'd had it ten years and had just tarted it up with new paint and parts. It got nicked from outside my house and I was sad for a night, but ten years down the line this is the first time I've thought of it in ages and I don't miss it. I also had my first expensive mountain bike frame, a 2002 Specialized Enduro, with no shock or bolts hanging up in my garage for posterity. We moved house and weren't going to have a garage - I gave it to the scrap man. It was just junk filling up my storage space that didn't really serve any purpose.
I just rebuilt an old-ish Kona Lava Dome. I did a full year adventure on it so it had some memories and didn't want it to die, nor stay in a loft somewhere. So I got some disc mounts brazed on to it, fitted some overly bling hope brakes that I had intended for another build that didn't happen and single speeded it. It now does child carrying and the odd commute when my knees are feeling up to it
I managed to hang on to my 94 Eldridge Grade for about 15 years. I even used it regularly despite having an FS and a more modern HT. It was ideal as a holiday bike. It was prised from my fingers by the eldest son who needed a commuter for his new job in that London. Needless to say it got nicked very quickly and once I had finished ranting at son , I never really thought about it again until I read your thread . Get rid, ride your modern bikes.
Old bikes are crap. Nostalgia is overrated. Get rid.
I had a titanium Saracen for years - bought in the days when Saracen made XC race bikes that were really good. Ridden and raced it loads - even won a couple of races on it.
It got upgraded over the years and it still looked really cool, always got loads of comments when I had it as my spare bike at 24hr races. But eventually it was just sitting in the spare room - immaculate as I'd stripped it down, polished it all, it had new cables and chain. So I didnt really want to ride it again and get it filthy, it was really not suited to Lake & Peak District rocky trails anyway and after many years of it sitting around in various spare rooms, I sold it (for a decent price as by then it was sort of retro cool).
Better off gone, I don't miss it.