Hello from Toronto

I look forward to learning from each and every one of you. There is a wealth of information here and you all seem very friendly

welcome to BF Rusty,
what kind of riding do you do, city/heavy traffic, off road, countryside, some combination??

tell us about your hardware, whats your favorite bike?

ride safe.

I've only started riding recently since childhood. I spend most of my time in the city. Traffic can get a little crazy here but zipping around makes it worthwhile.

I picked up a beat up road bike from a friend of mine recently for next to nothing. I have been visiting a local DIY shop in an attempt to save the poor thing. So far I have replaced the tubes/tires. I've also changed the front break lines. I will get some pictures up soon in the right sub-forum. I am hoping for advice on whether money spent on parts will be worth my time.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

as far as replacing/upgrading parts, there is a fine line as to whether or not its a good idea. very hard to say without knowing all the details.

often people will try to convert one type of bike into another type of bike. I personally dont back this idea. I think that spending a boat load of money to create a monster that is no longer optimized for what it was designed to do is foolish. at best you end up with a bike that will suffice but it will never perform at the same level as a true road bike. (I have no quantitative data to support this, just my opinion. Please dont hammer me too hard all you happy converters out there).

Another time parts are replaced is when a bike is old and the parts have outlived their functional live spans and must be replaced. In this situation I would say that spending $200 to make an aged $500 bike useable again is well worth it, especially if you get that bike for a song.

Finally, upgraditice is a disease that a lot of us get periodically, I myself am afflicted. the desire to spend big money to replace components with the latest greatest shiney bits will put us all in the poor house. usually not worth it unless it is a marked increase in performance. Unfortunately that usually also means big bucks out of pocket.

I will say that many items are consumables and must be replaced every now and then, no choice, like tires/tubes, cables, brake pads, chain/cassette, handlebar tape..worth every penny.

Before spending anything on an old used bike it may be wise to tally up everything that needs replacement, price it out, and see where you land. if its an old bike with steel 27 inch wheels, and a 6 speed freewheel w/downtube shifters, then you would definitely net better buying someting new or at least newer.

welcome to the forum. fixing up an old bike worth it? depends on what worth it means to you. I recently put a bunch of money on an old khs aero comp frame, the reason? it is a steel aero frame... no one makes a new one like it and I love the way it looks... I stripped in down to the base triangle, painted it, added a carbon fork, threadless head set, new stem and bars, upgraded the group to ultegra 6800 with an ultegra wheelset and I have a one of a kind aero bike... it rides very much like my 2015 propel, just a bit softer....is it worth money and time I have in the conversion? not to anybody but me.

Welcome to Bike Forums!

Glad to hear and welcome to the site.