Newbie with a 15 year old Nashbar 3000
 

Hi everyone. I've dug out my Nashbar 3000 that I bought about 15 years ago and road maybe a couple dozen times and it's been sitting in a dry garage until a couple days ago. It appears to be dirty, flat tires and in need of a tune up, but generally in near new condition in terms of wear and tear. I want to do some road riding for physical conditioning and recreation. Short rides now, getting progressively longer. I'm planning on taking it to a LBS for a tune-up and am looking for any advice on component upgrades. I know nothing about the sport and suspect technology has progressed in the last 15 years. Is this bicycle worth the cost of some worthwhile upgrades while I get some miles and experiance, or should I leave it alone? I see a lot of discussion about changing out drop bars, saddles, tire sizes, etc... Thoughts and advice appreciated.

my vote, make it rideable. if you dig the bike heroin like the rest of us, you'll buy more.

get it to ride-able condition, put some miles in on the road, spend some time here, and you will probably realize you want to upgrade to a whole new bike, or at least have a better idea of what you do need.

Get it rideable at minimum cost, ride a bit then get a new bike.

Try the house-brand or closeout tires at Nashbar or Performance Bike.

Don't buy any upgrades, just save up for a new bike.

Thanks for the responses.
 

Looks like I leave the ride as is for now and look ahead for complete replacement. Thanks for your thoughts and advice!
Wokabout

If the old bike doesn't have clipless pedals you might consider buying a set of those. Of course you would need appropriate shoes, too. That's not dirt cheap* but the pedals and shoes would be transferrable to a new bike if you were to go that route. To me, there are two eras in cycling, BCP and ACP - before clipless pedals and after clipless pedals. And after is sooo much better. If you're going to be riding even a moderately large amount of miles they are really nice to have.

* Like everything else they come in a range of prices. You can spend a whole lot of money if you want to but you can also scrape by on the lower end by shopping for deals at Performance or Nashbar or other online bike stores and maybe by looking for house brands. My first pair of biking shoes (back in the toe clip era) was from Performance and they worked just fine. They wouldn't have wowed any high end roadie, but they were just what I needed to get my foot in the door (pun intended, more or less).

Thanks! I'll check clipless pedals and shoes.