Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Well I have a new mountain bike, thanks to my Christmas presents.  My old lovely yellow Trek 8000 SHX mountain bike had a problem with the front derailleur.  So I took it to a bike shop.  Their initial reaction was to laugh as the bike’s geometry was so old.  They now do not make bikes with that kind of geometry.  It was 16 years old.  So the bike mechanic after looking at the front derailleur looked at the rest of the parts.  The list of parts that needed upgrading or replacing is shown below:-

Front suspension unit - $300 as the new units come with new types of brakes, meant new brake levers, plus new cables, plus of course the rear as well. New front and rear derailleur - just worn out New chain - worn out New saddle - worn out New front wheel - rims worn out, so much so that it was becoming dangerous New bottom bracket - too much play New front and rear cassettes - worn to an inch of their life New cables for gears New grips for handlebars - worn out

So essentially I was left with a good rear wheel (fairly new as it’s 7 years old), gear shifters and a frame. The cost to fix it up was $1000.  There were new bikes of a similar standard for $1100.

But today I saw a second hand one for sale, that was literally just down the road.  So now I have the bike below:-

[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“625” caption=“my new bike”] [/caption]

It is a  specialized rockhopper comp disc

Now I have disc brakes and a working suspension unit.  I haven’t tried it out yet, but am looking forward to it.