"specialzed stumpjumper"
 

guys i need some quick advice i have found a bike for really cheap its a "specialzed stumpjumper"
anyone know anything on these bikes should i buy it or not
i can get for 40 today
i need to know by the end of the day though
thanks
jeff

p.s. i posted this twice but dont know where the other one went

How old and what condition? Stumpies have always been the top of the Specialized line...or at least near the top (Skunkworks are the current top). If the bike is a mid-90's or above, that's a killer deal. Mid-90's and older, it's going to have a few limitations that you can't get past if you want to upgrade...most specifically, the headset will probably limit you to 1" which makes replacement forks difficult to obtain. The bike would still be off-road worthy but in a very painfully retrogrouch kind of way;)

40 for a Stumpjumper seems like a great deal if it all works. If suspension fork is shot, could cost quite a bit to repair or replace. Check it over carefully, but I would jump on a deal like that for sure.

I've got a 17 year old Stumpjumper as my commuter. No suspension either end.
I have beat this bike like it owes me money. It is still a reliable daily commuter.
Back in college I used to ride it daily down a flight of 40+ stairs.
I've jumped it off a loading dock. Repeatedly.
We've been through 3 car-related accidents.
There's over 35,000 miles on this bike, and I still ride it every single day to work.

Check the essentials on the one you can get for cheap:
Straight, non-dented, not broken frame.
Expensive components in good working order.
Cheap components in reasonable working order.

If it's good enough to go, with maybe a little bit of cheap parts and handiwork, then buy it.

I would purchase every stumpy I could get my hands on at $40.00 each. Get it!! They are fabulous bikes at nearly any age. That being said if the components are shot it will cost a bit to make it ridable.

Mud

sorry guys i didnt get the bike as it was all to peices, there were teeth missing off gears and pedals were missing not to mention the frame looked like it was bent to me. but he said it wasnt and it was just the paint makin it look like that any one have a orange and black one.

oh well there will be othere hopefully
jeff

I'm with cyccommute most of the way--it was probably a very nice bike in its day, and could be cleaned up, lubed and tuned so it would be very rideable today. If there's nothing serious wrong with it, I'd snap it up.
He's right about the 1" steerer, but I don't see that as a problem at all. One of my mountain bikes (an old one I never bothered to get rid of) is a Bridgestone from about that same era, comparable to the 'jumper, and I still ride it pretty often. It's the MB I learned on, and it's fun to go out and bash around in something you really have to RIDE, rather than just sitting on and pedalling. I have a suspension Cannondale, and I and enjoy it, but suspension has created a generation of sissies.

I still have a '92 Bridgestone MB5 and a '96 Stumpjumper, both rigid. They're great bikes, but as I have become a sissy, I don't ride them off road very much anymore.

According to this link, 86 SJ's were Black or Orange???
http://www.firstflightbikes.com/specialized_specs.htm