rjhammett

I am in the process of selling off a number of my bikes. I am a little stumped on the value of my Motorola Team bike that I may put up for sale. It is an actual team bike (Michel Zanoli). It is a MX Leader with all the original Dura Ace 7400 series components. The frame size is 61.5cm measured center to center. I would consider it in very good to excellent condition. I am not finding any comparables so am asking the 'experts' for a guess as to value.

rccardr 

Zanoli was the guy with the bad temper, yes?
Even as just a nice Motorola Merckx, in a large-ish size, should be worth some decent bux.

gkamieneski

Yes. I remember him punching out a rider in a sprint. Believe it was a North American race too.

alexihnen 

I’ve purchased a couple team bikes similar to this one. On one hand, this bike *should be ~$1,500 and maybe you assume some added value as a pro bike. On the other hand, you will have to be patient to find the right buyer. I have a similarly sized restored Merckx 7-Eleven team bike (unknown rider) listed for $2,900 that hasn’t sold.

macstuff 

There's a guy here in town that specializes in collecting team bikes. He has originals of many, including all the Merckx, motos, 7-11s, Raleigh's, Miyatas, postals etc.
He's been fire selling all of them in his retirement.
None of them are known rider bikes tho.
Motorola's $1500, 7-11s $1700-1900
They've been for sale for a couple years and he's only sold a couple. More collector bikes than anything else.
Not a lot of people want to ride someone else's achievements.
If you ride it, you may be expected to ride at that level. Competing with people is one thing competing with your own bike is another... 😜

VtwinVince

That is cool, and my size. If this was local.....

Sedgemop 

I don't think I'd let it go for less than $2000.

repechage

To exploit the team bike angle I think it should appear just like when it was team bike. No idea how it was configured.
I think otherwise it is just a very nice condition Eddy Merckx, values are depressed right now, might recoup a bit.
demographics are moving the wrong direction, the number of USA retirees is way up, the beginning of the boomer retirement.
‘in your favor, it has index.

rjhammett

Other than the saddle, seat post and tires it is all original as it was raced. I am a US retiree and that is one of the reasons I am selling off some of my bikes and components. I don't want my kids to have to deal with all of it.

plonz 

That’s a great bike. Probably in the low 1Ks these days. Might be one to hold onto until the values come back up.

Sedgemop 

If this valuation is true, then I'm a candidate for the OP's bike. I don't want to think prices are that low for an actual team bike. I know we're running out of people who care about such things, though. Doubt the values are coming back up.

randyjawa 

That Mercks is a lovely bike, high end to say the least and team issued. The price on such bikes is still going up, in my opinion. In general, lower end vintage road bikes have dropped (a lot) in value but the higher end ones are still going up in value. If the providence of the bike can be verified, that alone will add to the value. Were the bike mine, I would hang on to it unless I got my price.

The funny thing is, this summer two team bikes came my way - a Specialized Sirrus and a Trek Alpha SL 2200. Both bikes were raced by a professional racer who happens to be my neighbors son. Both bikes were given to the young man by Specialized and Trek, respectively. That said, the young fella is not a super duper well know rider, so that will not place greater value on either bike...





The third (actually, I got this one first) sports team livery, or so I have been told. The bike, a Devinci mountain bike, found in reasonably good shape, and sporting Ford team livery was found by me at a local dump. Is the Devinci a team bike? I don't know but I do know that I really like my new/old mountain bike. This is in "as found" condition and, pretty much, unsafe to ride...


and as it sits now, refurbished, road worthy and safe to ride, although the bike could still use a more proper cleaning and fit adjusting, starting with saddle tilt...



So, what value would I put on the OP's bike? Two grand ($2,000.00) US, at least. I am old and would start seeking a buyer right away, if the OP's intent is to sell. I would put the bike up for sale on Ebay, with really good pictures and complete description and be prepared to wait for the right buyer to come along.

Sedgemop 

I hazarded $2000 in a post above and I think that's right as a minimum. Don't think value has decreased much on the truly special bikes. Interested to see what the market will bear these days.

ljsense

Getting a value on a bike from this board is sort of like getting a quote from a pawn shop.

If you need to sell it in a matter of days or weeks, maybe their lowball estimates have some merit.

But the thing is, that's one of the coolest vintage steel racing bikes around. There's some tall guy with money out there who idolized that bike in his youth.

I'd list it at more than $5,000, and maybe take offers for just the frame. You can probably get $700 to a grand parting out the 7400 components, wheels, etc.

Let it sit on eBay or pinkpike or wherever for a few years; the right person eventually will find it. Do not auction it.

People walk out of bike shops all the time with $5,000 bikes, and what do they really have? Nothing special. That bike is special.

alexihnen 

Ha! Love the pawn shop comment. And it can be true. Many of us have lurked for a long time and have stumbled upon some amazing deals. Anecdotally, I used to ask about values here and have stopped. I posted a special Austro-Daimler here once and got a ~$800 consensus. I sold the bike, minus bar/stem and saddle for $2,200. I think I posted a Trek 770 as well and got the same value estimates. It sold for $1,600.

Some bikes are special because of their condition, component group, provenance, or whatever. They take longer to sell and it can be rather random, but they do have greater value.

Edit: Of course as I think about this the most common occurrence is someone who has a nice bike and is told that it's worth $4,000 or whatever when it's an $800 bike.