cudak888 

Too much beautiful mid-range stuff here.

Elitists!

-Kurt

roccobike

+1, maybe +100.

Sixty Fiver

These mid range bikes often don't get enough love what with folks like Cuda having a stash of Paramounts and others with some pretty spectacular rides.

These mid range bikes are built for daily driving day in and day out and do not pretend to be anything else... that in itself is something beautiful.

cranky old dude

I've got a very modest collection of low end bikes. Here's a few of them.....

roccobike

I should have written down the prices for each bike and posted on the evaluation sub-forum. In less than 5 days, four of the five bikes are gone. All low end Schwinns, all for over $100 each all sold.

gerv 

+1. There are a lot of hi-ten bikes that aren't the most beautiful, but they can serve a very important function.. getting from A to B. So we pull them out of the dumpster and put them into service. And yes, that is something beautiful.

kroozer 

Grab that carrot and start riding it now, you'll have more fun and drop weight even faster!

drewsoccer2

who would want to collect crap for god sake its like collecting bird poop try just buying a nice bike and riding it apposed to staring at a pile of junk in the garage or better yet use the money to donate to youth cycling organizations there are kids out there that cant even afford a bike to ride and you people sit here collecting more bikes than you can ride you make me sick

rugerben

First of all, there's this really cool new fad called 'punctuation.' Try it some time.

Second...huh? What's wrong with you?

DavidW56

Uh-oh...

Drewsoccer2, what rugerben is saying is that your remarks may be found offensive and insensitive by some members of this forum. We kid each other, but we aren't rude.

The older bicycles pictured on this forum are often rescued by members from the trash,and restored to rideworthiness. The fact that these bikes are 20-40 years old or older, and still able to function well, says they most certainly are not "junk". And many members do indeed donate these restored bikes to those who don't have any. Of those who resell these bikes, only a few make or expect much of a profit, because they don't charge for labor. They do it for the sake of returning a bike to daily use, and to introduce someone new to the simple joy of riding a bike.

gerv 

If making a profit was the objective, there would be lots better ways of doing it. Seems like many here are fascinated by turning material bound for the landfill into restored, roadworthy means of transportation. Pretty neat stuff...

jgedwa

He has a Drew right there in his name, what more info do you need here?

roccobike

Hey gang, drewsoccer2 was really banned.

cudak888 

True, but you aren't doing them a favor by putting them in a thread about low-end bikes. Half of the bikes that I see here are far too good to be worthy of the term "low-end" - they are well-built machines that will serve their purpose well. I would hardly venture to call a Raleigh Twenty "low-end" - same for the Schwinn 354, Le Jeunet, and Suteki; amongst others.

Unless a bike has copious steel components that should be swapped out before use, it isn't low end in my book. Low-end is Sears/J.C. Higgins, Montgomery-Wards, Columbia, Murray, Huffy, etc - stuff that needs some fiddling to be decent.

-Kurt

social suicide

How low can you go**********??

DavidW56

Yes, I didn't word that well. Of course, there are people here who successfully flip bikes for profit, and usually to support their hobby, not so much as a means of support. I think, from most of the posts I've read, that of those who resell bikes, most sales are not really making much, if any profit, if labor was assigned a cost. The main intention is to restore bikes to usefulness that otherwise headed for the landfill, and to attract new fans to bicycling.

DavidW56

I think a low-end bike is anything that I can afford, and everything else is mid-to-high end! hee hee

cudak888 

Looks as if its rather decent in construction, though I fear that I see a BMA/6 decal on the seattube (e.g., Columbia).

-Kurt

social suicide

Sears Tote Cycle. And it came with lightweight fenders too.

cudak888 

Even Schwinn fenders can rust, and I challenge anybody here in this room to say that a pair of present-day "made in the USA" Wald fenders won't turn to rust after sitting 3 months outdoors.. Condition after neglect isn't what I base "low-end" on - its the initial quality the bike was built to.

-Kurt

Herneka

I agree with Cudak. I was more just curious if any there were any collections of the Huffy's, Murray's, etc., out there. And while I do consider the Varsity low end, due to it's heavy steel construction, steel parts, one-piece crank, etc., I still really like them. And they ride pretty well, too.

I've probably overpaid for most of my bikes, but each one has a story behind it, and some history. So what if I could have taken all the money I spent and bought a brand-new bike? It would be considered on the low-end of modern bike standards. No carbon fiber, nothing fancy. Sometimes it's just nice to have something you like and can depend on, without spending your inheritance.

GretaDog

Found in a dumpster..
I was going to attach a sweet photo of the restoration but first post, so no pictures.
Pretty weak policy.
It's green with white tires and gold chain.

scarlson 

I have a few in my island of misfit bikes. It's not that I even like collecting misfit bikes, but they just won't leave!
1) Rusty Raleigh Sports ladies frame bike with too many upgrades: Phil Wood BB, aluminum rims laced to original hub, new fork in order to fit modern headset, aluminum stem, aluminum bars, aluminum brake levers, lightweight plastic fenders. The thing is such a sleeper, fast but ugly, which is why nobody wants it.
2) Columbia Sports 3-speed, mysteriously missing original fenders. I can't give it away for free!
3) Early '80s Trek 620 or something with dents and minor damage from too small a seatpost being inserted at one point that makes nobody want it even though it's fine
4) Motobecane mixte with an English threaded freewheel screwed permanently onto a French hub, along with a slammed and rusted-in-place seatpost. I can't give this one away either!

They came to me in various states of disrepair, so I fixed them up as it was the right thing to do, and it was easy. Clearly these bikes chose me and not the other way around, but now that I've fixed them they just won't leave!

Vonruden

Sweet Zombie thread

redneckwes

Zombie thread from a decade ago!

I have a Concord. I think it's French, cost me $3, makes a UO-8 look like a PX-10.

Have/had a few oddballs along the way, Sears "Ted Williams" and such.