mr geeker

I recently bought an "old" giant quasar road bike for $3 at work (it was going to be tossed in to the scrap bin otherwise) and I cant really find anything on it except that it's from the late 80's. Any info on this model would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

xiaoman1 

Hi, Why not post a pic?
Ben

mr geeker

it's in my car and i'm in my nice toasty house... I can post pictures tomorrow.

mr geeker

Ungaro

For your investment, you can't go too wrong. Fix it up and you might have a nice little get around bike. Good to have if you don't want your nice ride to be pinched at the cafe.

Velo Mule

Nice bike. Steel lugged frame, decent components, aluminum rims. Looks like a working bike that may need air in the tires, some adjustments and maybe some new brake hoods.

mr geeker

A little work is right. it needs, if nothing else, a front wheel, which is why I got it for $3.

Giacomo 1 

So the guy actually asked for 3 bucks or you talked him down from 5?

I'd love to hear how this high-stakes negotiation went down!

Actually, its not a bad looking bike.

mr geeker

No high stakes negotiations were involved, sorry. The story behind the price: I work for a nonprofit company that specializes in the sale of second hand merchandise, the bike itself was going to be tossed into the metal bin for scrap recycling since it was donated without a front wheel. I saved it and took it to the store attached to the company HQ and persuaded the manager of the store to sell it to me for the meager price of three dollars, instead of what ever pennies on the pound we would have got out of it for scrap weight. She agreed that it would be a waste to scrap such a "nice" bike and sold it to me at the end of my shift.

Pcampeau

DiegoFrogs

It may even have some chromoly tubes, if I'm picking up correctly on the label on the seat tube. It also has mounts for two bottle holders, which is a really nice feature not normally found on low-end bikes from this period.

If I recall correctly from my Giant-built Schwinns, I think the serial will be stamped into the non-drive-side rear dropout. Maybe that will help you peg down the age.

Edit: Or maybe on one of the headlugs. My memory is not what it once was.

sloar 

Nice save, I hate seeing bikes get scrapped. Even if you don't want it someone will need it.

madpogue 

^^^^ +1 all. Def a few notches above "bike boom" level. I'd guess it at mid-'80s. Taiwan made, before the move to China. Per this photo on someone's blogspot page, it appears at least part of the frame is Cromoly. Suntour Accushift 6-speed, very early index shifting. Sugino crank with bolt-on chainrings. Pretty nice Dia Compe brakes. Probably one of the last of its generation that does NOT have aero brake levers.

The next level "up" model (probably a Kronos) would have a QR rear wheel, derailleur ear on the dropout, downtube shifters, no "turkey leg" brake levers, and an aluminum alloy seatpost with an integrated allen bolt angle adjustment. Nutted rear wheel is probably why only the front is missing (probably stolen). You could swap in a nicer seatpost, ditch the turkey levers, find a matching QR front wheel and have quite a nice get-around bike.

The real is why, especially a non-profit specializing in used merchandise, would they think an otherwise rather nice bike (or any other item of value, for that matter) would be "scrap" for want of one, fairly readily found, part. My most recent bike purchase was more than $3, granted, but the seller had listed it in the "parts" section of CL simply because the front wheel had been stolen. I guess I don't get what kind of thinking goes into the notion that something so easy to remove would be so difficult to replace.

curbtender

As much as I dislike them, many people want the turkey levers and kickstand. I always laugh when a test rider looks like they are trying to kick start a bike without a stand. Nice save, front wheels are a dime a dozen.

mr geeker

I may have found a front wheel for my $3 bike, for $2 instead of the wopping $50 for a brand new one. I got to give credit to the asst. store manager at where I got the bike for this, shes awesome. The bad news is that means that the bike it is currently attached to (a brown mid 70's to early 80's Schwinn) is going to end up in the scrap bin. Wish I could save it too, but as is, I was told I cant have another bike. I guess 3 is too many.

madpogue 

Offer $10 for the whole Schwinn....

noglider 

Maybe if you sell a bike or two and show your wife the cash (or give it to her), she'll think three are not too many.

curbtender

Ha, another lost soul. That how you started Tom?

mr geeker

I don't know how it is in New York, but here in the Midwest marrying your auntie is, at the very least, frowned upon As for the bike, I ended up paying $3 for the wheel, not the $2 that I was expecting. But at that price I'm not going to argue when the alternative is $30-$50. The bike it came off of was either a colligate or a continental, and yes, I wish I could have kept it from becoming another item in the scrap metal bin.

maybe I should have called this thread $6 dollar bicycle?

noglider 

Kind of. We were living in Maplewood, NJ, and we had more room than in the city. My daughter's bike got stolen. I went to the police auction to look for it and get her a bike if hers wasn't there. I came home with three bikes. I started fixing up bikes to give away to needy people. Then it started making me busy, and I got famous in the town. People asked me to sell them bikes. For my birthday, my wife cleared out a space in the basement so I could have a real workshop. For my wife, it wasn't about the money, it was about supporting a hobby that was fulfilling for me. She encouraged me to equip myself with all kinds of tools, etc.

It got pretty out of hand when the project queue became too big to manage, and I nearly qualified for the Hoarders TV show. When we moved out, I donated most of the bikes and parts to a bike coop in Newark that served underprivileged people.

mr geeker

I had that many bmx's when I was a teen, boardering on hoarders territory I mean. It's part of how I was able to buy my bazooka brand new. As far as the shop I bought it from knew, I was the first in Des Moines to have one.

On a seperate note, I think I'm going to use this thread for my Quasar project bike build. Still wish I could find specs for it though.



$13 for both at Walmart.

LesterOfPuppets

I hope they fit. That doesn't strike me as being a 27" wheeled bike, but it could be I suppose.

madpogue 

Def looks like 700c on that bike. Unless the front wheel from that Schwinn is a 27. And I thought Mall-wart was supposed to be cheap. I've never paid more than $5 for an innertube.

LesterOfPuppets

Oh theyre tubes, I was thinking tires. Should be able to use those. Might be a tad fat for 23s or 25s though.

mr geeker

Or theyll be just perfect for the 27 x 1 1/4 wheels that go on it...