Fix or replace my bike?
 

Several years ago, after not having ridden a bicycle in 20 years, my mother-in-law gave me her old Trek 800. I had it tuned up and started riding a little, in hopes of doing some family rides. Well it took longer than expected to get the kids interested in riding on 2 wheels, so the family riding only started happening this spring. In the meantime, I added a rack, a better saddle and smooth tires and used the bike for errand running and some light grocery-getting.

So now my daughter keeps bugging me to go on rides with her (she's 9 and just got a Raleigh Eva and is in love with it, after having only hand-me-down Walmart bikes in the past) and it's clear that my bike is old. The handlebars aren't totally comfortable for my puny wrists, and the rear sprocket is showing signs of significant wear. The shifting isn't always as smooth as I'd like it.

So I have two options: replace the sprockets and chain, and consider swapping out the handlebars for something more comfortable, or buy a new bike. I'm torn. I'm usually one for fixing things rather than always just running and replacing with something shiny and new, but I ride a Specialized Vita the other day and really liked it. At the LBS I like, they have it for $470. We have the money, but I hate spending it-- I'm ridiculously frugal most of the time. In your opinion, what should I do? Fix the old reliable bike, or buy the shiny new one?

Replacing chains and cassettes (freewheels) is normal bike maintenance.

New bikes are fun to ride.

You could always sell the 800 and us the money toward the new bike.

well that didn't help at all. ;) I totally understand what you're saying though. I can repair the worn stuff and still have a very usable bike at a cheaper price than buying new. But a new bike is, well, new. And shiny. Selling this one probably wouldn't do much for the pocketbook, as I live in the land of cheapskates, and probably couldn't get more than $25 for it.

You know you want the new bike.
Just go get it and have more fun riding.

You have a nice blog.
Post some pics of the bike and the kids.

Oh gee, I forgot that link was there. I've migrated to a new blog since then. But thank you. :)

ETA: have updated sig to new link.

New blog is much better.

Post some pics of the old 800 bike.

Here it is. Sorry for the less-than-artistic picture. It's raining today, so I took it inside the garage.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-m...0/IMG_1680.JPG

This is a tough decision. If you look up reviews of the bike, you will find that it could be as old as 21 years, it wasn't an expensive bike to start with (mostly sold for less than $250 by bike shops), and one negative comment that often shows up is that it is heavy. I didn't see a weight listed in any of the reviews.

From the picture it looks as though you have taken good care of the bike and not left it out in the weather. If you need to rely on a bike shop to do the maintenance and repairs, the answer is probably no. If you have somebody with bike repair knowledge and a modest set of tools who would help you, then it is a lot more likely to make sense to upgrade it. You can learn how to do some of the repairs yourself by going to www.sheldonbrown.com and looking up the tutorials on bike maintenance. This stuff is not rocket science. I've fixed up many 10 to 20 year old bikes for people I know who can not afford a new one. I buy most of my parts by mail order because it ends up way cheaper than visiting my local bike shop - one which charged someone I met recently $98 for a "tune up". Darned if I couldn't figure out what the charge was for because it didn't involve any new parts. Fortunately, the bike cost a lot more than $250 new or it would have been a real rip-off.

The closest LBS to me has an $89 tune-up and also a $129 one. They also are asking $130 more for the Vita than the one I'm going to buy from. Umm, no thanks. I can do a fair amount of maintenance, I'm a whiz with youtube videos and online tutorials too. But replacing the drive train is something that is beyond my reach at this point.

After fretting all day about this, I think I'll probably keep the old bike for just-in-case, but also buy the new one. As solid as my old faithful bike is, it just doesn't seem feasible at this point to put real $$ into it.

The older bikes are really built tough and are pretty durable. Keeping it seems like a reasonable thing to do. Once you get a new one,you'll also have a spare.And maybe later you might want to rebuild it. I have a older Raliegh USA mtb and love it.It's about 16 years old. When it comes time to buy a new one,I'll still keep it around.

One question. How well does the frame fit. I've got a 30 year old road bike I'm in the process of upgrading because the frame seem more comfortable than any of the newer bikes I have.