Desert Ryder

I found a road bike locally that looks interesting

Campy rear derailleur. Crank arm says super maxy.

The head badge is Mongoose. what kind of info is available? Market value?

zukahn1 

Based on the head badge it's mid 80's American built Mongoose very nice chrome hand welded frame set. The build is a bit of mess just yuck on the bars brakes, miss matched pedals, cheap white tires and just a general look that whoever did the build didn't know what they were doing. That said could be a real nice project for a bigger rider since one would be buying it fro the frame set and Campy bits with storage locker discount $150-200 if the chrome is real good and the frame has no issues.

Desert Ryder

The more I look at it the more I see work needed. IMO, I think the builder kind of mixed a fixie with a road bike.
Vintage frame, 700C wheels, no rear brake, and bullhorn bars.
I know Mongoose had a titanium frame at one time and the seller thinks this is one of them.

In his ad, he says ti frame...oops. he changed it to aluminum after I asked about it in an email.
IMO it's still wrong. Pretty sure it's a Cro-Mo chromed frame.


https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/bik/...470942039.html

himespau 

The vitus he lists is probably the steel its made out of if it really is french as he claims. Not sure why a Mongoose in the 80's would have been made in france, but it could be he's completely mixed up.

zukahn1 

Well the seller got pretty much everything wrong in there add don't see a single sign of anything on the bike be Vitus, it's not French don't see a French part on the bike, it's a hand welded chro-mo chromed US built frame set this is how BMX Products Inc. made there nicer stuff BMX and Road in the early to mid 80's. Seller is a completely clueless flake if they listed the details correctly in there add they would likely get more responses and better price.

T-Mar

That appears to be an inexternally brazed Motobecane product from the mid 1980s. The cut on the top of the seat tube, binder bolt location and dropouts are all indicative of these Motobecane built frames. Offhand, I don't recall one with chrome or with Vitus tubing. They were typically Motolite or an unspecified Columbus tubing. However, for comparison, check out the above mentioned features in comparison to this Motobecane Mirage Sport. It would explain the Made in France sticker.

Bianchigirll 

I remember Mangusta, they had a model I really liked sort of Celesteish and chrome or white.

this bike might this frames smaller sibling.

https://www.roadbikereview.com/threa...his-is.203579/





That is huge frame does it actually fit? The RD looks like a Campi 980, their budget RD. I’d approach this like a project, it’s not like you just hop on and head out Lake Shore Drive. I don’t think I’d go more than $150 maybe 200 since it’s chrome and has a tidy seat cluster and binder.

the seller seems clueless to anything bike related, I’d suspect he’s one of those storage locker people

Clang

Here's the seller's great ad text for posterity:

BMX Vitus high performance - $1 (Paradise)

Selling BMX vitus quality performance really light made in france all are good tires are new condition frame are perfectly only needs One pedal text me for more info this bike is for marathon high speed no scratches or dents beautiful bike belonged to My son expensive bike only serious inquiries no flakes or scammers please text me or call me

No punctuation needed!

wrk101

Mongoose name pretty much destroyed the value. I've bought a few, as some had nice parts. This one's "value" IMO is the crankset plus the rear derailleur. If it fits, you would also end up with a nice chrome frame. If it were my size, I'd go for it IF the seller was realistic. But the ad sounds dreamland.

Desert Ryder

I had a Mongoose chrome frame like this one except for a MTB bike.
I built it up from just a frame. Rode it for years. About a year or two ago I finally sold the bare frame at a garage sale, bargain basement priced.

The seller never responded to my email about the above road bike.
I sent him a text to see what he's asking or if he's willing to part out the bike.

T-Mar

In the very late 1980s Mangusta offered a series of road/triathlon models with bonded aluminum frames. They were finished with their interpretation of Miami Vice colours, fading to polished aluminum in the centre of the main tubes. One of these colours was Aquamarine, so this may be what you remember...

zukahn1 

I would tend to agree the Mongoose label hurts the value of these so I guess it doesn't really matter much value wise if it is one of the early US built welded frame sets or one of the later French internal brazed ones. Both are really in great shape with full original campy group these should be a $600-700 but with the Mongoose label which has gone from pretty great when this bike was built to Walmart trash which it is now even in great shape these seem to take a a big discount of $200-300 or so over similar level campy equipped bikes from this time frame.

Desert Ryder

So I just spent some time texting with the guy.

OMg..LOL...I finally got an asking price out of him after multiple texts...

Ready??........


$15,000...yup. 15K. I asked if he meant $150 and he replied..15K....I LOL'd and told him he was dreaming.

Anyway, Of course, I got the old "You can't afford it anyway" line...I'm ok with that..LOL

zukahn1 

WOW that's crazy I was figuring the insane over the top ask would $1000-1500 based on what the best examples near perfect condition full Campy American built ones have sold for recently. So I guess you not going to get the bike no big deal something else will come along.

CroMo Mike 

now that right there is funny!

nesposito

I own an identical but stock bike. It is a Mongoose from 1986. That's the only year they made that model in chrome. It came with a Campy drive train and Stronglight cranks. The only thing changed on my bike is that I added a set of Mavic 4C rims. Mine is near new and I've been offered $1000 for it but didn't sell it. Not cause I think it's worth more but because it's too pretty to look at to let it go for $1000. I think the real value is somewhere in the $300-$400 range if it was REALLY nice.

Desert Ryder

https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/bik/...470942039.html


It's still for sale......