Dog is getting too old to go on long walks and walking is boring alone, so started looking for a decent Mtn bike to ride around my neighborhood (we have a 5 mile ashphalt path) and maybe to the state park that has dozens of miles of dirt paths. Wanted something I did not have to work on, the only free time I ever have is on weekends. Found this on craigslist about 3 miles away, picked it up for $100
Craigslist find - Gary Fisher
- Thread starter Barkleymut
- Start date
I’ve got a yellow Gary Fisher I used as my commuter bike in Hawaii.
It mostly sucks as a road bike, but it was useful for the purpose I had it.
It mostly sucks as a road bike, but it was useful for the purpose I had it.
Good score!
I havenot been on a bike in at least 10 years, this one felt comfortable (still does) and appears to be well built. I am 51 Y.O. and not looking to set any records. Just want to burn a few calories at a leisurely pace.
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- Jan 8, 2024
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Solid piece of transportation right there. You did good,
Nice. I think at times of getting an old school non-suspension mountain bike again. I have a borrowed full suspension and it's nice enough, but it also has juice brakes and I have no idea how to service them.
But I prefer my road bike so no plans to go out of my way to get another bike. I think I'm at the S level anyhow (you know, N+1 / S-1 is the right amount of bikes to own, one more than you have but one less than when the significant other threatens divorce).
In college I lived 4 miles from school and did commute in on a Gary Fischer mountain bike. I put on a milk crate that originally held 6 gallons of milk. It was quite the beast of a setup, served me well, sad that it got rusty and eventually I tossed it out.
But I prefer my road bike so no plans to go out of my way to get another bike. I think I'm at the S level anyhow (you know, N+1 / S-1 is the right amount of bikes to own, one more than you have but one less than when the significant other threatens divorce).
In college I lived 4 miles from school and did commute in on a Gary Fischer mountain bike. I put on a milk crate that originally held 6 gallons of milk. It was quite the beast of a setup, served me well, sad that it got rusty and eventually I tossed it out.
I swapped my hydro disks to manual disks. Best thing you can do. The pro's will tell you not to - but they work great for me and stay in calibration unlike the hydro ones. And no they don't stop quite as well, but as long as your not racing downhills I think there fine.
I'll wait and see if my friend forgets I have the bike... he was past the S-1 number and I think he's hiding the bike here.
It's been a couple of years, I might be able to do such a swap and tell him it was always like that, that his memory is going if he thinks otherwise.
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- Jan 6, 2005
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My first real mountain bike was a steel frame Gary Fisher hardtail. I loved it and rode that thing until a chainstay broke. I still have the frame in my storage building and will never part with it.
Nice find and good to read that used bike prices are back to normal again. That resembles a mountain bike I resurrected last month for a friend, a Giant hardtail from the 1990s. Replace cracked headset, all new chainrings, chain, rebuild wheels, overhaul/service forks, all cables, bearings, brake and derailleur pivots. The amount of work made the job non-economic, would cost greater that the bike is worth unless you can do it yourself. Back on the road again ready for its second life. He plans to ride it across WA state on the Palouse trail with us this summer.
Seems okay for $100. One of the Trek-Fisher bikes. Low end. Should be fine for puttering around on paved trails. It's not a mountain bike.
Well I learned a bit more about that old Giant I resurrected. It's from the late 80s, not the early 90s, equipped with one of the last versions of Suntour as they were being sold a few years before they went out of business. Even though the right/rear shifter was ratcheted (left/front was not), it was not index shifting - the ratchet was just to hold it in place (strange, since you lose the infinite fine adjustment that is needed for friction shifting). After resuscitation it ran well but only on pavement. As soon as it hit bumps the chain would pop off the front or rear. Turns out the chain tension was too low because that old RD had tired springs. The RD was Shimano, so apparently the OEM Suntour had been replaced at some point over the years.
The springs were so tired, using the alternate internal pin locations didn't fix the problem. As a replacement, I found a vintage Suntour Mountech! And it's a version II that fixed the guide pulley issues of the version I. It's not the OEM RD, this bike was too cheap to come equipped with Mountech, but it's such an awesome piece of vintage gear I couldn't resist.
Oh yeah, that beautiful derailleur just begs to be fondled as one is struck with a wave of nostalgia. The bike gods were surely smiling upon my efforts. This is a replacement that does full justice to this vintage bike, dual pivots giving huge capacity and one of the best shifting derailleurs before the modern age. Note that the cable routes through the inside of parallelogram, another unique touch of that cool Suntour engineering.
For our upcoming multi-day gravel adventure ride, I recommended Conti Cross King tires but the owner ignored my advice and got Schwalbe tires. Of course he got 3 flats in the first week because they are complete garbage. No chance they will withstand the infamous goat-head thorns of the John Wayne / Palouse trail. So I got him a set of Cross Kings. Now the bike rides like a vintage dream and is truly ready for a big adventure.
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