swissycle

I'm thinking of a second bike to complement my alu frame, track geometry, 28 mm tire road bike: steel frame, slack geometry, wider tires--a country bike, if you will, for moderate type 2 gravel trails and winter commuting.

WIth that in mind, this 1989 Giant Sierra is available for $150. What's the general view of this bike almost 35 years on?

And I can't help but notice the horizontal dropouts--could it make a good single speed conversion?

georges1

I would keep it as is , change tires by either continental or michelin and probably change the rims by more stronger ones.Good and durable bike like anything made by Giant in the past.

RB1-luvr

I dig mtb bikes of that era, but the only thing that would keep me from buying that one (maybe) is the under-the-chainstay u-brake. I had one of those back in the day and didn't love it.

Pompiere

The under chainstay brakes aren't good for muddy conditions, but I never had any problems with them for everything else. I have a Ross Mt. Hood with a similar setup that I use for trails and short trips.

beicster 

I am not sure how good the dropouts will be for a single speed. I have seen a few horizontal drop outs on MTB's of that period and they often have an extra bit of metal between the opening and the back of the dropout which limits how much you can move them. It may be fine on this one but if you really want to go single speed, you should check the dropouts.

Overall, I would love to have that bike if it was bigger and for sale locally.

Jeff Wills

The Shimano “Rapidfire” shifters have been replaced with friction thumb shifters, probably out of necessity. This is not a bad thing- the original shifters were failure-prone.

Between that and the semi-slick tires, whoever worked it over knew what they were doing. It’s a perfectly adequate street/trail bike.

mrv 

I've got a similar vintage 1989 Panasonic MountianCat. I paid $200 (a little bit on the high side, probably) a year and a half ago. Mine's a lugged frame w/ unicrown fork. When I got it, the bike had the original steel handlebars and steel seat post. Also a solid axle / bolt on rear wheel. (all just HEAVY!) And it's got the BB-rear brake. It's a little bit of a pain as it's just more of a hassle to get to the it - releasing the cable, making sure the straddle cable is seated right. It works just fine, but I'm not cycling in mud - it's my touring bike (I updated a lot of it and set up for touring, it's a shade under 35 lbs...)

I also have a fully rigid RockHopper (about a '90, I think) I use for trail riding. It clear 26in x 2.3in tires, so it's pretty nice on the trails - at my slow skeeredee-cat pace.

This GIANT looks TIG welded (vs. my lugged Japanese PanaKat). I think $150 for this bike is fine. It looks ready to roll as is. In SE Michigan, it might be a little bit high, but the entire 80s metal market is a bit collapsed around here.
There's a guy who referred a late '80s Peugeot Orient Express near me. He's asking $450. It's a beautiful frame - lugged steel, bi-plane crown fork. Very nice paint. It's been up for sale for a looong time.

-- I hope he can hang on to it long enough so I can keep riding my Panasonic until it breaks! (.... if ever....)

romperrr 

At that price, in that condition, I think you'll love it.

Romany275

This one’s not going anywhere -

I think I’ll be hanging on to this one - my winter bike.
Here’s mine - a bit newer and aluminum framed but what a bike! The welds on this look like something off a commercial fishing vessel. I think you did very well.

romany275

swissycle

Took it out for a ride this morning--comfy bike!

Any recommendations for fenders (the tires are 1.95" wide)? And bar ends that could be added to the existing handlebars?

pastorbobnlnh 

Your Giant reminds me of my 1988 Schwinn High Sierra. It also has a U-brake and the same slack geometry.

I was able to fit SKS plastic fenders for 26" MTB wheels on mine with plenty of clearance room. I'm running smooth tires on it which are about the same size as your tires. I added racks and it makes for a great all day touring bike to explore dirt roads and paths.

swissycle

I think Giant made the frames for Schwinn at that time, right? Would explain why the bikes are so similar. Thanks for the fender tip!

Romany275

I also have SKS fenders - you can see the rear fender in the second photo of my Giant. I use the quick-release style, which go on and off in seconds. Although not shown I also have the SKS front mud guard, which attaches to the downtube right behind the tire. They’re not perfect but they keep the big slop off and that’s all I need.

romany275

mrv 

These are from RivBike

seems like SKS has one wheel size-kind of a one fender fits all. There’s enough flex where it seems to work fine.

oh! Wait PS- the b65 fenders were used with my 2in tires. It was super tight under the unicrown fork. When i enter to 1 3/4 tires, I pulled these narrower fenders out of my parts bin.

If you get new fenders I’d go narrower. Than the B65.

cyccommute 

That model and year of Giant didn’t come with Rapidfire shifters. It should have Shimano thumb shifters but it looks like those have been replaced. Thumb shifters are bomb proof and the cockroaches that take over from us will likely still be riding them. Here’s a picture from the catalog.

Don’t damn the bike with faint praise! That’s not a “gravel bike”. That is a fully capable mountain bike similar to the ones I rode in that era on trails that are still being ridden today by modern dual suspension wonder bikes.

Giant made a lot of frames for everyone for a very long time. They started making frames in 1972 but didn’t sell their own brand as a company until 1981.

cyccommute 

You can find all kinds of bar ends on line or, if you have a bicycle co-op near you, you can find bucket loads of them there. They seem to be part of the larval stage of bicycles.

Korina

Congrats on the great find! I really like my Planet Bike Cascadia fenders; not too expensive and you can choose between black and silver. They also make clip-on fenders if that's your jam. Next will be swept bars; I like Velo-Orange's Tourist bar, but there are a lot of good options these days.

(Imagine Emperor Palpatine) Heh. Heh. Heh. Welcome to the slack side of the Force.

swissycle

I wonder if the thumb shifters on mine are original but lost the caps (with the brand written on them) somewhere along the line?

Indeed! To be fair, those are own my limitations, not the bike's.

cyccommute 

Those don’t look like Shimano shifters at all. The body and levers on Shimano’s look like the ones in this article.