Used bike question

parking_question_chap

Hi

Further to my previous thread I have located a used Giant mountain bike on gumtree. Its about 10 years old with aluminium frame, discs and front suspension.

Priced at £90 and I have been sent some photos and it seems in really good condition. I am just wondering

i) Is it a bit risky buying a 10 year old aluminium frame?
ii) Would it be easy/cheap to swap out the front fork for a non suspension? I have no idea about compability of bike parts.
iii) Given I am only doing a 6 mile round trip to and from work. Are there arguments for keeping the suspsension to offset the harsher ride of the aluminium frame?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

I think I d leave replacing the suspension on it for the time being. You may be replacing it soon for a nice lightweight hybrid if you get the bug. Planet Xs London Road hybrid with hydraulic brakes only weighs a mere 9kg when that monster you have bought will be more like 13/14kgs and will feel like you re pedaling with the brakes on and will not make the cycling experience very good. And before you say that the Planet X bike is too expensive I saw one go through Ebay at only £250 last month.
It may well be such a heavy bike to carry up flights of stairs that it puts you off biking to work. I would nt get involved with swapping the forks, its still going to be a cumbersome lump even with the ally frame.
If you want "harsh " try a ride on my 7.5 kg road bike with rock hard tyres and carbon frame and a saddle like a razor blade. Your backside will adapt to anything and at 3miles at a time commute you will not be on it long enough to suffer discomfort.

Norman_Castle

I've got an alloy framed Scott which is 15 years old and has done 10,000+ miles without a problem. Changing the forks is simple enough but for a 3 mile commute I would stiffen the suspension if adjustable and consider different tyres depending on whats currently on it.

parking_question_chap

Which tyres should I be thinking about getting?

Keep_pedalling

As you seem to know very little about bikes, why are you looking at something that you are thinking about significantly modifying, and will cover you with wet grime evertime you ride it in the rain because it does not take mudguards?

esuhl

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

As you seem to know very little about bikes, why are you looking at something that you are thinking about significantly modifying, and will cover you with wet grime evertime you ride it in the rain because it does not take mudguards?

Surely every bike takes mudguards. It's just a matter of how to attach them.

My bike has a rear mudguard attached to the seat post. The old front mudguard was strapped onto the down tube, but I've replaced it with one that attaches to the top of the forks at the base of the head tube.

parking_question_chap

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

As you seem to know very little about bikes, why are you looking at something that you are thinking about significantly modifying, and will cover you with wet grime evertime you ride it in the rain because it does not take mudguards?

You are correct I know next to nothing about bikes, hence I am asking for comments on here.

From what I have read on various forums, seems this bike is better regarded when compared aginst similar offerings for the same money.

In terms of mechanics in general I am pretty good, though I need to learn bike specific engineering. Generally I can pick up this knowledge when people offer constructive advice or through youtube videos and given that I am soon to be a bike owner, I feel the need to learn about these things, and maybe try my own modifications as its something I am interested in (though not previously in relation to cycles).

The bike already has mudguards.

Keep_pedalling

Cool! half the fun of owning a bike it tinkering with it.

Norman_Castle

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Which tyres should I be thinking about getting?

As you are presumably commuting on tarmac mixed use or full road tyres will have less rolling resistance than off road tyres.

Head_The_Ball

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Which tyres should I be thinking about getting?

I would strongly recommend puncture resistant tyres such as Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

The last thing you want on a commute to work is a puncture. Fixing a puncture in the rain on a busy road is not fun.

Puncture resistant tyres are heavier and have more rolling resistance and therefore require more pedal effort but hey, you want to lose weight (you wrote that in your other thread) and frankly I didn't notice much difference when I fitted Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres to my hybrid bike.

I did notice the difference of a puncture every few weeks to zero punctures in the 2 years since I fitted them.

Johnmcl7

parking_question_chap wrote: »

i) Is it a bit risky buying a 10 year old aluminium frame?
ii) Would it be easy/cheap to swap out the front fork for a non suspension? I have no idea about compability of bike parts.
iii) Given I am only doing a 6 mile round trip to and from work. Are there arguments for keeping the suspsension to offset the harsher ride of the aluminium frame?

Thanks

I don't think it's risky buying a ten year old frame if it's from a decent make, I have a few friends that ride old aluminium MTB's and they still work well. The only concerns I'd have are the same as a newer one that there's no manufacturing defects or crash damage but both would be noticeable.

With regards to suspension, for a short ride like yours I wouldn't bother changing it. I agree with the comments about sticking with a rigid fork when choosing a new, cheaper MTB for cycling on the road but I think for your use and that bike it will be absolutely fine.

Personally I find suspension is good for soaking up impacts but doesn't work so well on constant rough ground while bigger, softer tyres are the other way round. I've recently changed from a rigid mountain bike with 4in tyres to a hardtail mountain bike with 3in tyres, cross country along bumpy stony and rooty stuff the rigid bike is better and I've been finding the new one a bit hard on my wrists even with the suspension open. However on fast downhill sections it's the other way round with the suspension absorbing the hard impacts allowing me to carry a lot more speed whereas the rigid, I had to limit my speed as the impacts were too hard on my wrists.

On the suspension bikes I had the suspension locked out most of the time as the bigger softer tyres are easily up to the job of smoothing out canal paths and similar. All my road riding is on a rigid bike on narrow, high pressures tyres which I wouldn't ride off road even on a canal path but fine for the road.

With cycling many aspects come down to personal preference so there's no real right or wrong answer - it's all a trade off so it's a case of choosing what you prefer.

John