I'm going to be selling my wife's bike and I can't decide if I should sell it as-is or convert it to SS. It's a late 1990's Specialized Hardrock with partially horizontal dropouts. The components are of so-so quality, so I was thinking of trying to apeal to the SS crowd. What's everyone think? Will I get more for it multi-geared or SS?

Thanks,

Dave

i would leave it geared, if the buyer wants it converted, then they can do it themselves
but i doubt somone would buy it SS to convert back to geared.
cutting off the Der's and removing shifters etc will turn off anyone who wants it geared.
i say leave it, my opinion...

if selling is the primary objective then leave it.

I would think there would be a bigger set of potential buyers looking for a MTN bike, vs a SS.

Sell it as is but punch up the fact that it's got semi-horizontal drop.

I would chop-shop it. Take off the shifters and derailluers and sell them separatly, then sell off the two extra chainrings, and tell everyone it's a 7 speed cassette (or 8). Make money in droves if you can.

what size frame is it?

Sell it as is and you are selling a HardRock that is just like everyone else's.

Convert it to single speed and you have something a little more marketable in today's market. Offer the extra components as a freebie to help drive up bidding.

Start bidding very low. Those first few bids show interest and will incite others to get in on the action.

Good Luck.

Wow. Thanks for all of the replies! Looks like that's two votes for converting it and three for selling as is. Although the chop shop idea sounds like a good one too. I'll still have to give this some thought - part of me wants to convert it just for the fun of it and also knowing the good deed I've done for creating yet another SS.

leagalize_it: It's a 19" frame (center to top). You interested? I'll hook you up with a no cost conversion

Dave