is it worth upgrading an old Bianchi Broadway

[Sneekeeman]

Hi All,
I have an old Bianchi Broadway cross-terrain type bike from the late 80's/early 90's that I bought while in college. I'm the original owner and it's basically just sat since I bought it new. I am now thinking of fixing it up to take on family rides with my 2 year old son in tow (either a trailer or one of those bolt-on child seats).

My question, is this bike worth doing any upgrades to? The bike is in nearly-new condition. Steel frame, straight handlebars, shimano 15-spd shifters. Would there be much to gain by having my LBS upgrade my components to a newer 24/27 speed and maybe swapping out the straight bars for road-bike style bars? Given that I will have a 2-yr old in tow, I think the strength of steel frame that I have would outweigh the weight savings of a new aluminum frame road bike. (Maybe I'll get one of those someday if I decide to get into the road-biking thing.) Until then, it looks like I should be able to make some upgrades to my current bike and have the budget equivelant of a Trek 520.

What upgrades are recommended? What would give me the most bang for the buck? How much should I expect to spend to have my bike shop get this thing in order? Am I crazy for even thinking of upgrading this bike in the first place?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[dobber]

Ride the bike. Have your LBS do a quick once over, if your not inclined to the wrenching aspect. Maybe replace the tires and tubes. Then just go out an ride it.

Enjoy the ride. Don't fuss over extra gears, drop bars etc, etc. See if the bike suits your immediate needs. After your start racking up miles, then perhaps look at targeted component upgrades. More gears would be kinda foolish if your riding is all flat terrain. Drop bars wouldn't be an advantage if your riding style is more upright. A new seat might be the ticket if your caboose is now more sensitive.

Just my two cents. I rode (for fitness) my MTB for about the past 4-5 years. This summer, while the MTB was up for matenance, I dragged an old run-of-the-mill Peugoet down from the attic where it had hung for 12+ years. Put new tires on it and had logged some 1000+ miles on it. Downtube friction shifters, 12 speed, clipped pedals, all "old school". And I loved it. Finally upgraded to a '99 Lemond Alpe D' Hues (bargain deal, my brother didn't like it). The Peugoet became a single-speeder and I've logged more miles on it then the Lemond and MTB combined. So in the end I was stripping off components......

 

[boudreaux]

Originally posted by Sneekeeman
Hi All,
Until then, it looks like I should be able to make some upgrades to my current bike and have the budget equivelant of a Trek 520.

What upgrades are recommended? What would give me the most bang for the buck? How much should I expect to spend to have my bike shop get this thing in order? Am I crazy for even thinking of upgrading this bike in the first place?

Thanks,
Scott

Just ride it. Otherwise you will quickly spend more than it is worth or more than the price of something new if you start paying LBS to stick new stuff on it.

 

[Sneekeeman]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like a tune-up and maybe smoother tires are in order...and that's about it.

After doing some more reading through postings here it sounds like the sensible thing to do is ride what I've got for a bit so that I can make a better decision when I decide to upgrade to a new bike.

Thanks,
Scott