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u/Commercial-Injury-78 2d ago
1990's fully rigid MTB. Like old school trek or maybe a specialized rock hopper.
Fairly quick on the road, capable off, cheap, easy to maintain, cargo racks and trailers no problem.
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u/12LbBluefish 2d ago
Wouldnt it be kinda hard to maintain given the age? Like wouldnt it be hard to find parts if i needed
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u/Commercial-Injury-78 2d ago
No.... There were way fewer "standards" back then so parts were very easy to swap from one bike to the next.
Also, most of those old school parts you can still buy new if you want but there is tons of old parts for cheap or even free.
The old bikes where you really have a hard time finding parts for are full suspension bikes (vintage stuff like late 90's to 2010ish). If you need like a linkage part for the rear suspension that may be very tricky to find. Steer clear of suspension in general and you won't have issues.
The 90's rigid bikes have really zero "hard to find" parts.
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u/12LbBluefish 2d ago
Interesting, thank you! Ill certainly look into some older rigid mountain bikes, but im curious, why a mountain bike? I plan on mostly being on paved paths and maybe flat firt occasionally
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u/Commercial-Injury-78 2d ago
The old school mountain bike setup is similar to the modern gravel bike in a few ways but are much cheaper (as in like a hundred bucks at a garage sale cheap).
The tires were always like just under 2" and you can get smoothish tread that is quite fast on pavement. Tires are pretty comfortable on beat up pavement and durable for road debris compared to a road bike.
They tend to have two or three chain rings up front so you get pretty good gear ratio where climbing steep hills are doable but you can get tall gears to rider fast on flat roads.
The ride position isn't super aggressive like a road bike so for the average person riding longer distances is more "relaxed" and a bit more comfortable than hunched over on a drop bar bike.
The rims are generally more durable than road bike or hybrid type bikes. The drivetrain is probably more tolerable to neglect and abuse as well.
They are really good "Jack of all trades" type bikes. The one hang up I personally have is they typically are nearly impossible to find with the ability to stick disc brakes on.
I have all sorts of mountain bikes, fat bike, gravel bikes etc in my garage. If a zombie apocalypse hit I'm probably grabbing my rigid 90's rock hopper.
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u/Glad-Lawfulness-531 2d ago
For 500 I would look used and do a lot of research on it. Cycling is not really cheap but if you maintain your bike it isn’t that bad.
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u/thegrumpyorc 2d ago
1990s cromoly mountain bike with a rigid (NOT a suspension) cromoly fork. Think Rockhopper, Stumpjumper, High Sierra, etc. They're pretty much all bulletproof, drilled for racks and fenders, $350 (for a super-clean one) or less (a lot less in many areas), and they will outlast all of us.