Originally Posted by davester

Well, I agree that those non-shocked early mountain bikes are great multipurpose bikes, and that, combined with the fact that they sell for pennies on the dollar on craigslist is why I bought a nice Trek 970 for my wife (about $120 in perfect virtually unridden condition). Seriously, these things are a fantastic deal. It's complete horses hit that they need $6-800 in parts and many hours of labor to recondition as suggested by Rivendell. There are zillions sitting in garages that have hardly ever been ridden. For this reason I think it's ridiculous to buy an expensive Rivendell instead of a perfectly good used bike of this sort.