Originally Posted by
prj71
Yes..."Back in the day" when that's all that existed. Not so much compared to what he have now. Kind of like back in the day all the cars had drum brakes. Now we have disc brakes.
Maybe it was harsh of me to say leave it at the dump. I know I personally would have not brought that home nor do I ever go scavenging for stuff at the dump. But maybe if the OP doesn't ride it, it could be donated to a local neighborhood kid.
I will argue for old XT. I have two old XT derailleurs (7 and 8 speed) running 9 speed quite nicely and yes a little more vintage but shifts like a freakin' dream. Maybe a notch down from my XT 11 speed but on par with my actual 9 speed XT rear.
I get it is vintage stuff but it is acres better than the modern stuff of that number of speeds and honestly for the average rider not a bad way to go. Having a vintage bike in the stable is fun sometimes. I love my high end bikes, Di2 is awesome, Rohloff E-14 awesome all that sort of stuff but it is fun to just have a bike to mess around on.