kc0yef 

I must have them... MUhahahahhha

dimini

While "cleaning house" last year, I donated both my properly-maintained Bridgestone MB3 hard tail and my Trek Y22 to Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. I even left the SPD pedals on each. My bicycle count was up to about 12 or so and seemed silly to hang onto these two bikes as I prefer not to be a collector of physical things, even though it was looking like it.

Anyway, I have daydreams of having really made some kid's day as they were trolling the local thrift stores looking for treasures and finding a pristine Trek Y22 for $50. When I was a teen working at my local bike shop, I did weekly thrift store scavenger hunts searching for any sort of 'undiscovered" treasure. I hope somebody snapped up my two vintage mountain bikes in their own version of thrift store hunts. I'd post photos, but apparently forbidden from posting photos until I reach a minimum qty of posts.

himespau 

so true...

Ed333

So , having embarked upon my 80th year, I am doing the Swedish Cleaning....haven't gotten to the bikes yet, but this thread has me thinking....
1- 1980 Trek 850, black, with bull moose bars + wraparound forward extension bar, Shimano friction shifters, 15 gears, nice very low low gear, low bottom bracket, 24" frame, nice flex to that chromoly, woman 's Avocet touring saddle, long rear chain stays (good for bags or baskets when you have size 14 feet), original oval bear claw pedals (I could do without them), short top tube, upright head angle...I was thinking of swapping out the bullmoose bars for an English Bobby set for upright casual riding around town, grocery shopping, etc...actually the thing has all the makings of an ultimate bulletproof touring bike. Very comfortable, reminds me of an old Univega touring bike I had. So should I keep it, and if not, where is the best place to list it?

2- a later 80's Wicked fat Chance, all original (except for stem and bar, which I swapped for a higher more upright riding position; I am not a Boy Racer. But I still have the original bar and stem...Shimano click shifters....21 speeds...21" frame...same question? And how much? Collector value, with low miles?

3-my wife's late 80s Fisher Hoo-Koo-E-Koo, French blue with yellow trim, Biopace chain rings, Shimano click shifters, derided in the press at the time as being an 'arm-pit cooler', but it turned her into a Kamikaze rider. She doesn't know I am asking this, but same questions?

Ed up here in Maine, finally seeing some sunshine...

eshew

Exactly. After the vintage BMX market exploded people are finally taking notice of these old bikes. I've been collecting and selling for about 7 years and they are becoming increasingly rare & get gobbled up in minutes to hours rather than days if they are priced under the market.

When I first started buying them most of my finds went over to Europe due to the strong Euro & hunger for US vintage bikes. Selling them locally was much more difficult. They only website really focused on them at the time was retrobike & some mean old codgers in the mtbr.com vintage classic forum.

Since then the Euro has crashed. the BMX market has blown up pushing many of those BMX collectors into mtb's. An equal demand stateside now. Tons of facebook groups are now focused on old bikes as well.

There are many more buyers now and considerably much less stock. Very rare to find a boutique bike with all the high end parts that isn't gobbled up in minutes around Seattle. If you're not first, or ready to offer above asking you might as well forget about it.

fietsbob

Stumpjumper sport with a broken dropout, resurrected , now serves as my studded tire 0C bike ..

yukiinu

Gone to thriftshops, salvation army goodwill everyone. To the tune of "where have all the flowers gone"

Lemond1985

Old 80's Raleigh Teton for $150. I'm assuming anything with thumb shifters would be 80's era, since I think thumbies had been (unwisely) phased out the turn of the decade. If it's a Raleigh, I'm sure it's decent quality, but some of the 80's MTB designs did not seem all that well-thought-out.


https://fresno.craigslist.org/bik/d/...882124663.html



"Do we just put fat tires on a road frame?"
"Should the wheelbase be really long?"
"Slack angles?"
"How extreme will the off-roading be?"

I think some of the later 1990's designs had more of this kind of stuff figured out better.

eshew

They were thought out as an evolutionary step from old road bikes. Seat tubes were very tall due to the road bike geometry which called for exactly that. Long Seat tubes & short posts. Since short seat posts were common those were used.

Thats why most early 80's bikes look so funny. Took a half decade for longer seat posts to become common enough to build around.

Some ideas like slack head tubes & wide rims are again in fad, but long and low they were not.

Size wise they were a bit odd. My 83 Ritchey is a 21" perfect for my 5'10ish height. That silver horse must be a 24 or 25". If you were unlucky enough to be above 6'3 that was what you got to ride bitd, lucky you.

"Klunkerz" on Amazon is a great movie highlighting the cali side of mountain bikes early on.

Lemond1985

I remember back in the late 70's, in California, there were people who built MTB's in their garages, because you still couldn't buy them yet from commercial manufacturers. The big bike companies were kinda surprised by the whole phenomenon, and slow to catch on. And many of the home made MTB's were designed only for downhill use, so they could weigh a lot and it wouldn't matter.

I'm not sure if the whole MTB thing started in the Bay Area, or sprang up in several places around the same time, but I can remember MTB's when they were considered a bit "underground". Some of the bikes were not much different from motorcycle frames, IIRC., built for strength and not lightness. This was about the time when Jobs and Wozniak were working on their early computers, the Bay Area was an interesting place to be back then.

curbtender

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...isals/1172257-

Schwinnhund

They're not all gone. I still have my original Schwinn Sidewinder that I bought from a Schwinn dealer in 1982 (I think). All I have done is change the handlebars to Nashbar Trekkers for long-distance riding. Still rides as good as ever.

merziac

They used to be low hanging fruit, especially if you knew what you were looking for, not so much anymore.

cudak888 

That thing looks like a chrome DL-1 decided to integrate its stays, forego its rod brakes, and go to the mountains.

This thread has reminded me that I have what I believe is a '89 Stumpjumper kicking around in the shed. All original example too, but both wheels are shot. Neighbor literally rode the wheels off of it by cracking both the front and rear hubs. Go figure.

-Kurt

wrk101

Sure enough, found this 1987 High Sierra yesterday. Bronze chrome, roller cam brakes, cartridge bearing wheel hubs, and thumb shifters.


1987 Schwinn High Sierra by wrk101, on Flickr


1987 Schwinn High Sierra by wrk101, on Flickr

2cam16

There you go!

uncleivan 

They are still out there, but the general publics' perception of what a mountain bike looks like has changed. A vintage mountain bike to the average person looks like a "hybrid" or "comfort" bike in some cases (especially with a seat change) so thats how they list them.

kc0yef 

kc0yef 

kc0yef 

due ruote 

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...th-appraisals/

You should post those at the above link, with pictures.

wrk101

OK, found another one. This one is a little later, I am guessing 1991. Full Deore XT plus Tange Prestige frame, only thing wrong is the size.



1991 Prairie Breaker by bill, on Flickr