Originally Posted by wizard_swears

Let me begin by saying that I know next to nothing about bicycles which is how I let myself make what I am beginning to think was a very bad purchase.

Today I bought what I thought was a mildly used '03 or '04 Trek 4300 mountain bike. The asking price was $225 but I talked the guy down to $160 which seemed like a good deal to me at the time. I took the bike straight to the local bike shop and it turns out that it needs new cables, a new chain, and new tires. This will be almost $200 by the time they are done with the tune up.

After getting home and poking around on bikepedia I discovered that the bike is actually a '02 model.

Can anyone offer any encouraging information about this bike model that will make me feel as though I haven't just thrown my hard earned money down the toilet? I guess I got sucked in by the brand name.