Originally Posted by
Fenny07
Lol, I beg to differ! It’s nuts here in Ontario Canada. I called over 70 shops and NOTHING in my original specs was available. The absolute best I was able to do was a possibility of one in June and another one in August, and those weren’t even the specific models I was looking at. They were compromises with similar specs. Even the two I did find were from other provinces where the demand isn’t as crazy high. I’d be tacking another $200 on for shipping. No one will take pre-orders here and most have waiting lists for 4+ months. The last place I called has everything spoken for out into 2023! It is crazy here. I’ve been watching pinkbike and kijiji for a few weeks and bikes that are a couple of years old are going for at-new or above new prices. Anything resembling “decent” pricing is gone in minutes it seems. It does seem to be more reasonable with bikes more than a couple of years out.
Unfortunately, for someone like me who is still learning about bikes looking at older bikes is a total roll of the dice. There looks to be some more reasonable prices on older ones, I just don’t know what a good deal is when I see it!
So taking this two bike plan forward (gonna be fun getting the wife onboard with that one) what would I be looking for as far as older model mountain bikes? I’m not worried about finding a cheap dual purpose bike, but a good quality mountain bike might be harder for me to spot. Any models/years you’d recommend I keep an eye out for? My budget would be around $1500US. Is it doable in that price range?
Thanks, I’ll give that a shot!
I think so. Hang around here and you will get a sense of what is good and what isn't. When looking for used bikes, condition is important, but also look for bikes that were decent when they were new. In the mountain bike world, an bike that had Shimano Deore components or above (Deore XT, Deore LX) was probably a decent bike. In the hybrid world, stay away from no name brand components, and Shimano Tourney, which is entry level. Altus is the next level up, Acera, the next level, and Alivio the next level above that. Above that is Deore, which was built for mountain biking. For road components, Claris is entry level. Older bikes might have 2300, which was the group that preceded Claris. The next level up is Sora, then Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, and finally, Dura Ace. The thing is, even older Deore LX or Ultegra, even from 20 years ago should still be pretty decent.
To give you an example, the Bianchi Advantage I gave my cousin is from 24 years ago, but it is a decent family bike. It is 7 speed, which was decent 24 years ago, today would be entry level. But the derailleurs are STX, which is an a level below Deore, but above Acera, so pretty decent. It also comes with SRAM gripshifters, which still work fine. But if they ever wore out, Shimano makes 7 speed shifters that should work fine with older 7 speed derailleurs.
Another example of a family bike I got some years back was an old Trek 800. The derailleur was shot, so I put an Acera derailleur,and it worked fine with the original Altus shifters. Any of the Trek 7xx or 8xx bikes would make an excellent family bike. And shouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred dollars.
The Gitane I bought for my son has very old 8 speed 105 brifters on it, and they shift great. The rear derailleur is a Shimano 2300, which is entry level, but again, the old 8 speed 105 works fine with the modern derailleur.
For mountain bikes, stick with bikes with Deore level components and you should be fine. After that, fit, and condition is key.