Getting into weekend biking - advice?

[Shaytan]

Woah, first time going into the sports section - so, I haven't practiced any kind of sports in almost 4 years, since high school. I dislike team sports and surely don't want to pay an arm and a leg to go to the gym, so I pondered the idea of an old hobby of mine I loved to do - weekend biking (aka taking my amateur-level bike and going in slower pace around the local towns).

 

I'm lucky enough to live in an area where there are plenty of open roads with less traffic, plus it's a peaceful and joyful experience to go around in the morning when lesser people are in the streets. Well, back when I used to do this in high school years, I'd just bring a backpack with a bottle of water, meet with some friends and hope the best, with no tools, first-aid kit or whatsoever, which resulted namely in one time one of my friends at the time felt and got some nice scuffs, and another time this other dude broke his pedal in a ramp which resulted in going home by foot.

 

Since I don't really have anyone in the area to invite over, neither I want to be a stupid irresponsible teen, I'm planning what should I consider bringing with me, and even if should I make some upgrades to my bike or get a new one altogether. I already have a couple dumb phones to choose that would be just perfect to take and I'm also pondering to get a cheap bag to put under the seat or something to carry essential tools to fix what I think would be the most common issues in the road - a flat, snapped chain or snapped brakes/gears cables - and a small first-aid kit just in case.

 

However, the bike itself is the biggest issue. It's a sub $100 24" mountain bike I got when I was 13 or so. It's decent, has no rust spots, 18 gears and front suspension but: it's heavy as hell, the 1st and 6th gears on the rear wheel are unusable because due to design fault the chain will always slip from the gears, given the smaller wheels it requires pedaling more and the tires are worn out unevenly because of the time I thought it was fun to go to a local parking lot with plenty of ramps and "drift" around (having the rear wheel locked and sliding around in a powerslide - amazingly, I managed to never get hurt while doing that). I really don't wanna waste money on this, and so if I spend more that 30-40 bucks in everything it's already too much.

 

I'm pondering the idea of buying an old street/racing bike - I'm pretty sure my great-aunt has one from my deceased great-uncle gathering dust in the garage - they go for pretty cheap online too and I could restore one with off-the-shelf and second-hand parts, but I'm not sure how much better would an old 60s or 70s bike repaired with whatever I'd get for cheap would be compared to mine. What should I do? Keep in mind I'm not planning to become a regular cyclist neither enroll myself in a local competition, I just want to have some fun and take advantage of the good weather, plus if it was to waste money then I'd rather waste it elsewhere. Some websites with extra info would be appreciated too, cheers!

Edited May 20, 2018 by Shaytan

[GTA_CAT]

Hope it's not to late to answer. First you are true about your frugal budget. An expensive bike is a hole in your wallet and the hole gets bigger if you have to mantain or fix it. 

But hell,  a 24" bike is for kids and not suitable for you unless your height is less than 5 feet. It should be 26"-29". I guess you don't need suspension too much and should be minimum at these functional 3×6 gear. Then probably your bike has rim brakes, they are effective but the pads can wear out aswell the rim but as you won't ride that much they will be ok. Always that the bike has rear and front brakes of course. 

If you get the old bike at least you will need to change tyres, tubes, the chain and calibrate the gears and brakes. Maybe the pedals and gear, if there's too much rust. Then if that rust also attacked severely rims, axis or cables it's not worth. Overall, in a old bike the rigidness can give a lot of trouble. But all are suppositions, I don't know the conditions of the bike.

Edited June 9, 2018 by GTA_CAT

[Sinner!]

Don't fall off. 

[ddubz91]

Hope I'm not too late to pitch in either, but I've been an avid bike for over a decade so I'm happy to throw out some pointers!

 

In my opinion first off, riding a bike is definitely a healthy form of exercise! Not everyone needs to go the gym etc, when there's plenty of other options. I personally love being outdoors, yea I go to the gym but much prefer being outdoors blasting on my bike.

 

I've always said if the bike rolls, you can ride it. But if you've got a project bike you wanna go ahead with it, go for it. You can always find suitable parts at affordable prices on Ebay, Gumtree, Craigslist etc, whatever you have around your area. You'd be surprised how cheap it can be, like for instance I've found super deals on bikes because parents bought 'em for their kids, only for their kids to get into Fortnite instead. I would say build up the bike if you can man, trust me it's much more fun if you build up and customize the bike yourself. Plus you'll learn more about bike maintenance and what you like it in a bike.

[Guest]

Check gumtree or local selling sites, plenty of bikes being sold up on there for cheap. Might need some work and  done on them but you can usually get some pretty good deals. With upgrading/replacing an old bike it seems like it'd be more of a headache finding/replacing old parts not to mention standards have changed over the years for sizes/parts/etc that could be avoided by getting a cheap entry level mtb.

 

In March or something I picked up a 2014 Trek 3500 off my friend for £20 as it was just sitting in his shed. Went ahead did some maintenance and upgraded/replaced some parts;

 

Specialized bars/stem from a 2015 stuntjumper - £20

Odyssey BMX Grips - £8

DMR V6 Pedals - £15

Selle Italia Q-Bik Saddle - £15

Specialized Alex Rims 26 wheelset from a Specialized Hardrock - £20

 

Dropped the rear brake/mid deraileur as I didn't use them although when I get around to replacing the groupset I'll probably put them back.

 

 

Still needs a few upgrades/changes, gonna try and replace the forks with something from Rockshox as they're currently just stock Suntour ones that don't support the front Specialized wheel as it's QR. Also gonna get some new tyres soon but aside from that it's been reliable as f*ck for me, definitely helped with being more active etc. It's funny a few of my friends have rode it and all have them have said it feels really good and they usually end up being pretty shocked at how cheap it was overall.

Edited June 14, 2018 by Blaze