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A couple days ago my friend gave me an old bike.

Much of the bike is very rusty although the frame and handlebar does not have as much rust. I am not a bike expert and have been learning quite a bit about bikes on the internet since the day I received the bike. I looked it up on Google and found that it is worth somewhere around $200 and is pretty much something you can get at Walmart.

Since the bike is so broken down and rusty I thought of reusing the frame and getting everything else to make a new bike. My budget for the parts is about $200. I am planning on riding about 150 miles a week on the bike.

What I am asking is should I be at all concerned about the quality of the frame?

Or do you think I should save up for a pre-built bike?

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  • possible duplicate of Are older road bike parts compatible with newer standards? How do older and newer bikes match up performance wise? – paparazzo Sep 24 '15 at 20:13
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    It is difficult to assess the quality of the fame without detailed pictures or the frame in hand. $200 will be a tight budget to build a bike from a frame up. – Rider_X Sep 24 '15 at 20:25
  • Welcome to the Bicycles Stack Exchange site @Jacob. I've edited your question a bit to improve the readability of the question. My changes should not affect the overall meaning of your question but if for any reason you disagree with them feel free to re-edit the question. – Glenn Stevens Sep 24 '15 at 21:19
  • 200 dollars will give you a pretty decent used bike. If its a BSO (you said its something you can get at Walmart, so it probably is), chuck it and spend the 200 bucks on a used bike. – Batman Sep 24 '15 at 21:34
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Personally, I would save up for a decent bike in better condition. The cost of labor to overhaul a bike is substantial, and it's not really worth it if the bike components are crummy to start with. You may end up spending more in components and labor than getting a decent bike. There are frequently deals to be had on decent used bikes.

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  • on the other hand if Jacob is mechanically inclined it could be a fun project to do yourself. Of course he would probably have to purchase some bike specific repair tools to do that which would eat into his budget for components. – Glenn Stevens Sep 24 '15 at 21:34

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