1991 Marin Palisades - thinking of resurrecting, advice pls

[Daniel B]

Morning all,

I have owned this bike from new, but it hasn't had much use for the last probably 20 years!

It is completely original, IIRC aside from the tyres.

The frame does have some rust sadly, but presume it could be treated\sandblasted and built up to a decent standard.

Paintwork is so-so, and also the triggers on the shift levers on the right hand side don't seem to work too well.

I did have a plan to strip it and resurrect it, but with a young family I can see the opportunities to do so are getting less and less, and it seems a shame to see it languishing there.

Any idea of what it is worth, or is anyone on here interested?

Here is a pic:
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1481525/

Am located near Newbury.

Thanks

Dan

 

[hamster]

Re: 1991 Marin Palisades - 17.5" Frame

Probably it's worth around £100 or so. They are nice frames and make brilliant tourers. I have a 1990 version which has toured on 4 continents.

You can resurrect the shifters by giving them a good blast through with WD40. The grease inside hardens with age and gums the mechanism up.

The Zolatone paint is no longer available, but a near-equivalent matt powdercoat would cost around £60 including all preparation.

 

[Daniel B]

Re:

Thanks for taking the time to reply Hamster.

I'm actually wondering now if it might be more worth my time spending a little bit of cash on it to make it road worthy.

It's a bit sad I know, but I would like a bike I could run into town on and not worry about too much if that makes sense.

Not convinced I could bring myself to fit a rack to it though...........

I might have a look at the weekend, I think the shifters levers seem to actually be rubbing against each other, so think something may have broken inside.
But new shifters aren't exactly pricey are they.
Cassette and chain are cheap I would hope (Think it's 7 spd rear?) and hopefully the crankset will live.
Wheels are ok I think, but needs new tubes at the very least.

Would be nice to get the frame re-done - and yes I recall the Zolatone finish very well, somewhat unique!

I do LOVE that neon front end!

Hmmm, plenty of food for thought here, I think I may have changed my mind

Ok, so after some more research, looks like chain and cassette can be had for £15, 7spd shifters for circa £15 each.
Question - IF I wanted to make life simpler for myself, and go for an 8spd or 9spd cassette, would this fit with no issues, and would my original crankset handle the new thinner chain associated with a 9spd versus a 7spd?

I appreciate the purist would want to keep it original, but in my situation I am looking for a reliable usable bike so I can justify it's existence, so for me that is going to have to play second fiddle sadly. In an ideal world yes though.

 

[brocklanders023]

Re:

Great bikes and worth more to you than what you'll get selling I'm sure. If you want to sell the saddle let me know though.

You should be ok going 8sp with the parts you have but 9sp won't work very well. If I were you I'd just get the period parts as people will literally give them away due to them not being worth much.