Advice required re retro Stumpjumper

[wordnumb]

Hi - first post. This site was recommended by somebody at BikeRadar.

Last night some drunks trashed my retro Stumpjumper. Fortunately the main culpret was arrested and there are enough witnesses to take him to court. The police want to know what the bike was worth - and I have no idea what to say to them.

I'm not interested in using this as an opportunity to upgrade, I want the bike repaired or replaced to as close as is possible.

Is there anyone who posts here who could suggest a value or give me an idea what to ask for?

I don't know the exact age of the bike, I've been told it was made in the mid 80s. It was reissued last year as the Stumpjumper Classic*. Barring the BB and grips it was all original and in pretty good nic with a purple fading to blue paint job.

Damage-wise the wheels are dead, the top tube and forks are gauged where it was being kicked against a rock wall. Can't tell if the frame is warped.

I can take a photo and upload if anyone can help.

Cheers.

* I did try to link to the Classic on Specialized's site, but apparently noobs aren't allowed to post urls.

 

[The Ken]

Sorry to here about your trouble, a few folk have found the site this way. :cry:

Here is a link to the re-issue, this is the cheapest one I've found.
http://www.mikevaughancycles.co.uk/prod ... p372&rs=gb

A stumpy that early is hard to find over here, post some pic's of the frame and mechanicals, I'm sure someone will give you a ballpark.

- even if one of the US members could give a dollar value you could add postage and vat for a replacement.

hopefully you'l manage to find another, but I would treat the frame as bent after that pounding, maybe even get a friendly bike shop to write a letter to say so.

good luck, and err... welcome to the site.


edit - additionally if you value your bike as a set of individual components it will total up to a bit more, then add shop fees for a rebuild. I did this when I was hit and the insurace company accepted it as it was technically bought that way having been built up over a number of years.

 

[Russell]

I sold a pretty much complete one for £225 a few months back, original and great condition.

The poster above is right in that the sum of the parts are worth more than the complete bike (go figure) so you need to work out a value based on that really. All of the original parts are pretty easy to get hold of with a little searching though.

Strictly speaking though, if your insurance is 'new for old', then you need to put the value as the cost of the latest equivalent model, which was the re-issue.. £1100

 

[wordnumb]

Thank you both. Ken, you're right about not trusting the frame, not worth the risk. It's such a waste of an excellent bike. Guess I could live with the reissue, it'd be an excuse to start a retro build project from scratch.