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Steele-Bike
07-12-01, 12:56 PM
As a MT Biker, I am a bit naive when it comes to road bikes. The last road bike I owned was a Centurian Lemans and that was 12 yrs ago.
Yesterday a neighbor offered to sell me a 15 yr old Shogun road bike. He says he bought it new for $600 and wants $150. I cannot remember the model...it was something like a Shogun (blank) GT and had Shimano Deore components.
I would imagine a bike that old would need a lot of upgrades which would equal a lot more money. Does this bike sound like a good deal?
Originally posted by Steele-Bike
As a MT Biker, I am a bit naive when it comes to road bikes. The last road bike I owned was a Centurian Lemans and that was 12 yrs ago.
Yesterday a neighbor offered to sell me a 15 yr old Shogun road bike. He says he bought it new for $600 and wants $150. I cannot remember the model...it was something like a Shogun (blank) GT and had Shimano Deore components.
I would imagine a bike that old would need a lot of upgrades which would equal a lot more money. Does this bike sound like a good deal?
The need for upgrades depends on whether or not you have to ride with the latest and greatest gear. My road ride is a Specialized Sequoia of similar age, the only upgrades are the rear derailleur (upgraded to 6-speed indexed shifting; it was originally 5-speed friction) and dual-pivot brakes (the originals were a bit weak).
This oldie but goodie still has the goods; I doubt if something brand new could significantly improve my overall speed or climbing abilities. And, it's kind of fun to be able to demonstrate that older equipment is still plenty capable.
Seriously, the one BIG leap in equipment was the move to indexed shifting that took place right around the time this bike was built--no more minute adjustments to the rear derailleur required! If this bike's got that, then no big upgrades should be needed.
Even if it's still got friction shifting, your LBS should be able to retrofit with a 6- or 7-speed freewheel, derailleur and indexed downtube shifters for not a lot of $$. Even 8- or 9- speed is possible, but then you'll need a bit of frame bending to spread the rear triangle and a new wheelset. Older bikes used a 126-mm rear dropout spacing, the extra space required for 8 or more cogs required a change to 130-mm spacing of the dropouts. At this point, your total cost will start to approach that of a new (but still decent) lower-end road bike, so it's a lot harder to justify.
$600 back in the mid-80's bought the equivalent of at least a $1200-1500 bike today, so it's probably got a good set of components that should still be in good shape today--just make sure that you get it serviced, as the grease in the bearings may have hardened it it hasn't been used recently. I'd say it's worth buying, as long as everything appears to be in good shape and you limit upgrading to what I did to the Sequoia (if it's needed). At that point, leave it alone and enjoy the ride.
SteveF
Classic lugged steel rider
If the bike has friction shifting, and you acquire the bike, give the friction shift a fair try before replacing it: you may end up wishing your other bike(s) had friction instead of indexing!