advice please on retro mtb's

[itsaretrovibe]

Hi

I've just joined the forum and wondered if people could give me some advice.

At the moment I have two early 90's retro MTBs. One is a Specialized Stumpjumper XT pro (the top of the range at the time) and the other is a custom built bike with dave yates frame, pace forks and loads of titanium bits (it was my dads and he spared no expense in putting it together).

Both are in really good condition although neither has been ridden for nearly 10 years now with the exception of a quick occasional run up and down our road to make sure they worked. It seems a shame to have them sat doing nothing, I had always planned on getting back into mountain biking but have found other toys to spend my money on.

What I would like is to get a cheapish road bike or commuter (maybe with hub gears) to ride to work on. The two options I have are to sell one bike and convert the other or sell both and buy a second hand bike more suited to my commute.

Could you let me know your thoughts on which is the best route to take, how easy it would be to sell my bikes, what kind of money I could expect to get for them, the best place to advertise them and which bike of the two would be more in demand.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[perry]

I wont tell you there is a useless how much is my stuff worth thread probably a couple of threads above this one , nor will I be one of the people who is pming you making an offer on the Dave Yates

I will say keep the Dave , you dad would be pretty gutted if you just sold it off , unless your a midget and he is in the running for tallest man . Keep the Dave clean and use it , change some stuff on the Specialized to make it a bit more road friendly , doesn't need to be much , slicks , maybe a higher gear etc . I used to ride 30 miles to work and back on a kona lavadome with slicks and singlespeed so don't worry about having a " commuter " bike or a hybrid .

Or keep them both for light offroad use and buy something else specifically for work , doesn't need to be much £100 can build a sturdy bike from 2nd hand parts sourced from here and the bay .

 

[Inigo Montoya]

sell one bike and convert the other

bad idea. both bikes seem to be nice additions to a retrobikers collection. it would be a shame to degrade one of them to a commuter.

sell both and buy a second hand bike more suited to my commute

good idea

put some pictures in the "what is it worth" thread and you should get an impression of their value.

 

[itsaretrovibe]

thank you both for your advice

Perry - Yeah I know what you mean about it being a shame to sell the dave yates, the reason i've kept it so long has been sentimental reasons but I’m sure my dad would prefer it was used rather than gathering dust. I live in the city now and what free time I do have is spent climbing and I don't have the time for another outdoor pastime.

Inigo – thanks for the advice, I think you’re right I would much rather they go to a retro enthusiast who will enjoy them for that they are

 

[itsaretrovibe]

i've posted the dave yates on the whats my xyz worth forum

 

[tintin40]

keep them both and ride them for what they were made for and enjoy.
Nice bikes to have. more pictures of both please

 

[itsaretrovibe]

hi glad yopu like the pictures, i'll get the stumpjumper pics up at the weekend hopefully

yeah everyone keeps telling me to keep them but i just can't justify it, i live in the city now and never get chance to ride them when i do get out in the country at the weekend i spend my time climbing

really fancy getting myself a road bike or building a commuter (maybe a single speed or hub shifter) to hack around town on, it would get far more use but to justify getting a new bike i need to sell my old bikes first, got an amazing Hoffman flat land bmx that needs shifting as well as the dave yates and stumpjumper