General Cycling Discussion - Found a Giant Butte (haha), better than same vintage Huffy?

I'm pretty sure the answer is the Giant is a better bike. The story is that I have a Huffy Manitoba that I bought brand new in 1992 or so for around 180 dollars. I have never used it until my older son started using it around 3 years ago. It passed down to the other son when the first son went and bought a new Diamondback. My other son Willy who is using my Huffy is heavy, around 290 pounds or so.

We recently had to do a crapload of work to the Huffy due to total neglect of maintenance by me. The rear axle snapped on him and when I replaced the wheel, I discovered a ton other broken issues. We replaced the front drive crank and sprockets, the old ones were all bent up. Replaced all the cables. Replaced one of the friction indexing SIS shifters. Got the bike back into good working order. But its still a Huffy. I can tell a huge difference between the Huffy and my Specialized.

So fast forward to today. I was in my back shed next to my garage cleaning it out for the first time in years since I really moved to this house. I found a Giant Butte back in there. Medium frame so it would fit my son or I well. It is complete but needs major cleaning and the cables all need to be replaced. It has Shimano GS200 series components on it. The only real problem I see is that it looks like the front chainrings are out of round. When I spin the pedel, I can see the edge of the chainring wobbling.

Should I let my son ride the Giant or the Huffy? The things going for the huffy are well, its all there and is in riding condition and has a carbon steel frame (strong, heavy). The Giant has a chrome moly steel frame (unsure if its as strong but a tad lighter).

I'm pretty sure the answer is the Giant is a better bike. The story is that I have a Huffy Manitoba that I bought brand new in 1992 or so for around 180 dollars. I have never used it until my older son started using it around 3 years ago. It passed down to the other son when the first son went and bought a new Diamondback. My other son Willy who is using my Huffy is heavy, around 290 pounds or so.

We recently had to do a crapload of work to the Huffy due to total neglect of maintenance by me. The rear axle snapped on him and when I replaced the wheel, I discovered a ton other broken issues. We replaced the front drive crank and sprockets, the old ones were all bent up. Replaced all the cables. Replaced one of the friction indexing SIS shifters. Got the bike back into good working order. But its still a Huffy. I can tell a huge difference between the Huffy and my Specialized.

So fast forward to today. I was in my back shed next to my garage cleaning it out for the first time in years since I really moved to this house. I found a Giant Butte back in there. Medium frame so it would fit my son or I well. It is complete but needs major cleaning and the cables all need to be replaced. It has Shimano GS200 series components on it. The only real problem I see is that it looks like the front chainrings are out of round. When I spin the pedel, I can see the edge of the chainring wobbling.

Should I let my son ride the Giant or the Huffy? The things going for the huffy are well, its all there and is in riding condition and has a carbon steel frame (strong, heavy). The Giant has a chrome moly steel frame (unsure if its as strong but a tad lighter).


The Giant is both lighter and stronger, and has far better components.

Depends what you mean when you say wobbling and out of round. If they are Biopace chainrings, then they are supposed to have somewhat of an oval shape.

The Giant should be a great bike, although the shifters are likely going to need replacing, and possibly the brakes too. If they work, then they work, but I'd keep an eye on them. Once it is up and running, I'd definitely take it over the Huffy.

Giant...I have several of them and they are great bikes. I have 3 from around 1989 that are still going strong.

Also I believe the Butte came with the ovaloid chain rings which do look like they are bent as they go around.

Aaron :)

Yup!! They are biopace!! Sweet, so there ISN"T anything wrong with the oval shape of the chainrings. LOL

Well I'm fixing it up. I have lubed everything up and I got everything but the left side shifter working properly. The right shifter is working fine and indexes quite well.

Why the "ha ha"? You're not aware that butte rhymes with cute?

Buttes were great bikes. Sold for about $330 and gave you a little more for your $$ than other bikes in the same price range. They changed the name to Yukon in 1992. Too many butt jokes I guess...

Why the "ha ha"? You're not aware that butte rhymes with cute?
To 90 percent of the people out there, the first thing that they will think when they see "Giant Butte" is going to be Giant Butt. :)

Why the "ha ha"? You're not aware that butte rhymes with cute?

It's still funny. Like when I was looking at the map and spotted the place name of "Elephant Butte". Nyuk nyuk nyuk.