Mountain Biking - Put it back together or buy new?

After a 2 yr break from riding, I feel the need to get back into the saddle. A lot of that comes from my recent move to Fruita, Colorado. Every weekend I see bikes on top of cars, in the back of trucks, etc. There's apparently some killer riding around here, the guy in the local bike shop said there's over 200 trails around Fruita!!

Now for the dilema... I have a collection of parts that could be re-assembled, plus the addition of new parts, and be a decent hardtail. The parts consist of a '95, 19" Specialized StumpJumper frame, a '01 Marzocchi Bomber Z4 fork, a handful of XT components, etc. To make it rideable again, I'll need to replace the shifters/brake levers, bottom bracket, headset, wheel sets, cables and front derailuer.

So my question is... do I spend the money on putting it back together and riding on an old-school frame or should I just forget it and buy something new? (I think I'm really looking for excuses to buy a new full-suspension ride.) Thoughts?

Buy new. Your 10 year old Stumpy should be retired to Mexican food and beer runs. Maybe take her for a coffee run too.

Well if the frame is in good condition and depending on if it is any good. 10 years is a long time in biking. You might want to buy a new bike and put the stumpjuper together to have as a extra bike for running to the store.

Is there an echo in here?

Thanks for the advice folks, I think buying new is probably my best option. I was worried that the overall cost of getting the bike back together would be a good chunk of what a new bike would cost. Might as well spend wisely and have something to ride for 10 more yrs.

They're right, it would probably be good to just get a new bike, but it doesn't cost anything to look! Maybe check out some online sites and see how much your total would run for fixing your bike. It is free to look, which always gives me great pleasure. ;)

some sites that I've found particularly appealing to look at are http://www.jensonusa.com/ http://www.nashbar.com/ and http://www.supergo.com. There are a couple more in the "Shop" section of this site (top bar): http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=224

I recently built a bike for my brother using old parts. It's a '94 Trek 930 frame, Rock Shox Quadra 10s (2 whole inches of travel! :D), an old STX front derailleur, Exage cranks, LX rear derailleur, and so on and so forth. It turned out quite nicely, and I cleaned out my closet pretty well. :p New items he had to buy:

Front wheel
Cables
Chain
Seat collar
Innertubes
Front brakes

He also bought a cheap Cateye headlight and taillight, as he rides only at night. He spent a total of about $160. It will need new shifters eventually. I used some ancient Altus rapidfire plus shifters and one of them just kind of fell apart. :lol: I put it back together and it works great for now, but I can't see it being very durable. :( The reason he chose to go this route is because he couldn't find any new, fairly affordable bikes that he liked, and the Trek frame was in great shape and reasonably light. I say if you really like the frame and fork, then go for it. Otherwise I'd buy a new bike.

I was in the same position earlier. I went to the shop to price the new parts I HAD to have to make the bike run, and it was around $400. For $800 I bought a new hardtail, disc brakes, 9-speed compo.
See my post and replies here: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=143291
My new ride: http://fujibikes.com/2005/bikes.asp?id=43 (I got the disc model I think is a late 1995, spec'd somewhat differently).