Help ! Rescue or move on? How knackered is too knackered

[The_Doc]

[b] Question: Should I restore this old thing, buy all the parts and bring it back to life?
Or move on? [/b]

It's my old bike from about 1989 (probably). A Dawes with a Reynolds 500 frame (Chromium, , alloyed steel.)

Everything is stuck and rusted. Its been outdoors for 10+ years.
Brake cables, seized/rusted. - I've cut these off already, but now got cold feet.
Gear cables seized.
wheel bearings and wheel rims run freely, but I want road wheels, not off-road MTB tyres. It is destined for casual tarmac use.
Frame seems structurally intact.



I don't want to throw good money after bad.

thoughts....

[gazza285]

Cheap when new, and now worthless. The only reason to resurrect that would be for sentimental reasons.

[sociopath]

At best you could keep the frame, the rest should just go in a skip.

Thing is, to then replace everything would probably cost more than a new bike

[Tony1963]

Make a shed ornament out of it.

[megaphone]

The most I would do with that is convert it to a single speed. Can ride it to the shops or the pub and not worry too much about it getting nicked.

[V1nce Fox]

megaphone said:

The most I would do with that is convert it to a single speed. Can ride it to the shops or the pub and not worry too much about it getting nicked.

Seconded. Would make a good singlespeed.

[Mars]

I turned an old mountain bike into a single speed. I kept the frame, forks, wheels, brakes, stem, bars, seat post and bottom bracket but still managed to spend a fortune on cables, tyres, tubes, crank, chain, single speed conversion, saddle, and grips. And after all that it was still only worth about 1/5th what I'd spent on it.

[megaphone]

Could do single speed on the cheap, keep existing crank and cassette, that's if you can lube and free up. Just stick a chain on the middle sprockets. £10 for brake cables, £15 for a chain. £30 for some 'city' road tyres.

Still over £50 though, so probably better off buying a cheap runner.

[Fastpedeller]

Single speed route seems a good idea, but before you do that, it's worth checking the seatpin and handlebar stem more freely or you could be in for many, many hours of futile effort.

[Barchettaman]

I’m all for restoring old bikes but that one does look very far gone indeed, and wasn’t too wonderful a frame to begin with.

I think you might be throwing good money after bad with that, I’m afraid.

[The_Doc]

Thanks for the replies.
The killer blow was that the seatpin was completely rusted solid, and the guide-mounts for the brake cables came off in my hand,

Fitting it to me (seat height) and running new brake cables looked impossible...
.....so I've recycled it

I'll pick up a nice second-hand one.

[Fastpedeller]

The_Doc said:

Thanks for the replies.
The killer blow was that the seatpin was completely rusted solid, and the guide-mounts for the brake cables came off in my hand,

Fitting it to me (seat height) and running new brake cables looked impossible...
.....so I've recycled it

I'll pick up a nice second-hand one.

make sure you check the seatpin!!!

[V1nce Fox]

Right, you lot asked for it. I’m going to put up cheap mtb singlespeed pics for inspiration.

This is a Townsend Shaniko, possibly the cheapest lowest tech mtb you can get. My brother was going to take it to the tip. After removing all the bits it didn’t need anymore in order to be a singlespeed it now only weighs three quarters of a ton. It is however very relaxing and satisfying to ride. Your bike is a much better starting point than this. Dew it.

Edited by V1nce Fox on Monday 7th June 18:27

[Mars]

OK so here's the one I built and got carried away with buying parts for.

[CubanPete]

V1nce Fox said:

Right, you lot asked for it. I’m going to put up cheap mtb singlespeed pics for inspiration.

This is a Townsend Shaniko, possibly the cheapest lowest tech mtb you can get. My brother was going to take it to the tip. After removing all the bits it didn’t need anymore in order to be a singlespeed it now only weighs three quarters of a ton. It is however very relaxing and satisfying to ride. Your bike is a much better starting point than this. Dew it.

Edited by V1nce Fox on Monday 7th June 18:27

Very cool, I think not lugging the stand around would fix the weight problem.

[V1nce Fox]

CubanPete said:

V1nce Fox said:

Right, you lot asked for it. I’m going to put up cheap mtb singlespeed pics for inspiration.

This is a Townsend Shaniko, possibly the cheapest lowest tech mtb you can get. My brother was going to take it to the tip. After removing all the bits it didn’t need anymore in order to be a singlespeed it now only weighs three quarters of a ton. It is however very relaxing and satisfying to ride. Your bike is a much better starting point than this. Dew it.

Edited by V1nce Fox on Monday 7th June 18:27

Very cool, I think not lugging the stand around would fix the weight problem.

Tell you one thing i did discover while building this one (and this may help if anyone else wants to make a single from an old mtb) is that you can split apart a screw-on freewheel the same as you can with cassettes. The rear on mine is built that way and the crank is the original pressed steel cheapie with two rings chiselled off.

Oh and also, try to get something with horizontal(ish) rear dropouts. Vertical ones make chain lengths a bit tricky.

Edited by V1nce Fox on Tuesday 8th June 07:38