FelixScout

...I think they should consider that.





https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...7061293152821/

The leaves are a nice touch.

icemilkcoffee 

This would make an awesome yard art piece. Or living room art piece. Love the art deco design touches.

Dylansbob 

Looks like it really "mastered" the road.

SurferRosa

... for a typical entry into this thread:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...y-ads-811.html

Murray Missile 

You can scoff but that would bring an easy $100 here. As is.

Bianchi84

As the Race Announcer on Breaking Away says: "Mount your Roadmaster bicycle !"

Charliekeet

Needs more creeping vines.
But seriously yeah, the headbadge and rear fender, rack are really cool.

FelixScout

I suppose to the right person looking for an art piece you would be absolutely right.

Cougrrcj

AMF made the Roadmasters!

Murray Missile 

The early Roadmasters were made by the Cleveland Welding Company and are quite desirable in certain bike circles. I've sold a few bikes like this so I know I'm absolutely right. Ever heard of "Rat Rod Bikes"? There's a large club near me whose members take these potential art pieces and rebuild all the mechanicals, clean them up preserving the original paint and patina and do club rides, swap meet, shows, etc. In some cases they do some customizing, in some case they do a lot of customizing. Great bunch of guys who would give you the shirt off their backs, they just have different taste in bikes than some. I for one think they're stuff is pretty cool and they put a lot of work into them.

These are examples from the internet:

Erzulis Boat 

All day long.

easyupbug 

Thanks Murray Missile, you brought back wonderful memories. Wish I kept and had not stripped down my 1948 JC Higgins to race through the desert with my buddies. Might need to rethink my collection,
would love to have it back.

OldsCOOL

I would go through the bearings/chain and tires...ride as is.

Reynolds 

A man's rust bucket is another's patina.

Murray Missile 

Doing that to a '55 Columbia A29. Mechanical overhaul, new stainless spokes in original wheels and a set of Thick Slicks but leaving the dents, scratches and rust.

cudak888 

Rust bucket? Yes.

Overpriced? Hell yes; this type of bike seems to turn anyone into a gold digger.

Is it too far gone? No. Oxalic acid does wonders, as does a mechanical refresh - even if one retains all the rust for their preferred look ("patina" if you must).

Will it be fun to ride? Maybe. But not with some generic wobblematic 26x2.125 ballooner tires on it. Pay close attention to the fact that every single one of those rat rod balloners ride on high-quality rubber.

-Kurt

Murray Missile 

Gold digger? Sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree on this one, market demand drives the prices. If I have 3 people willing to pay $100 for the same old rusty bike that needs everything I'm not going to argue with them, I'm going to collect $100 and roll up the next one for sale. The sad part is that I've struggled to get $100 for some really clean vintage road bikes that were ready to roll that I had more than that in! Selling a few of these rust buckets has helped finance my bike hobby too some extent. Selling this 1955 Columbia Goodyear HiWay Patrol:



Paid for this 1981 Peugeot PXN10 Super Competition:



The old balloon tired bikes are no more overpriced than just abut anything else vintage these days. Have you seen the prices old rusty Tonka, Structo, etc. toy trucks are going for?! Stuff that wouldn't bring 25 cents at a yard sale 20 years ago is bringing upwards of $100 with missing and broken parts, peeled and faded paint, rust, etc. In some cases the rustier the better. I like the old beat up played with stuff but not at today's prices. I have a few I picked up over the years back when I thought they were overpriced but bought them anyway. I should probably sell them now because I could make a killing but my Granddaughter likes playing with them.

Here's the Columbia I'm going to renovate mechanically, I have better rims and a Bendix 2 speed rear hub for it. I'll remove the loose rust and clean it up, recover the saddle and put better grips on it but the original paint stays. I'm too tall for it and will probably sell it when done but it's about the journey, not the destination. I'm going to build a single speed out of an old Univega Nuovo Sport frameset too "just because".

FelixScout

[QUOTE=Murray Missile;22044944]The early Roadmasters were made by the Cleveland Welding Company and are quite desirable in certain bike circles. I've sold a few bikes like this so I know I'm absolutely right. Ever heard of "Rat Rod Bikes"? There's a large club near me whose members take these potential art pieces and rebuild all the mechanicals, clean them up preserving the original paint and patina and do club rides, swap meet, shows, etc. In some cases they do some customizing, in some case they do a lot of customizing. Great bunch of guys who would give you the shirt off their backs, they just have different taste in bikes than some. I for one think they're stuff is pretty cool and they put a lot of work into them./QUOTE]

That is very cool. And maybe those are the few who do look at this as more than lawn art or just a sadly and terminally neglected bike who would pay money for this. To them I doff my hat.

Darth Lefty 

It would need to rust a lot before it lost enough steel to be a problem.

joking, but in the United States there were hardly any road bikes to speak of prior to the 1972 bike boom and you don’t see a lot of kids bikes older than the muscle bike fad either. If you want an older bike, this is the kind of bike it is. And it will definitely look great next to a rat rod as is, or fixed up and painted next to a classic car. The intact tank I’m sure is a big bonus.

cudak888 

Market demand drives sale prices. It doesn't drive gold diggers.

While I fully agree this happens with vintage lightweights as well, anything old and beat up with balloon tires is very likely to be listed at an outrageous price. This is almost always regardless of condition and the seller is typically a novice.

A few examples straight off the local OfferUp:

Columbia Five Star Superb - appears to be an original, but brush painted red over all the rust. $800:


Ladies' Rollfast (Columbia) - rusty, beat-up repaint with a lot of the repaint down to primer. $300.


One Columbia, one JC Higgins (Murray). Surprisingly nice, if not perfect; one bike is wearing middleweight tires. Still, the price is questionable - condition or otherwise, they're both ladies' bikes and only the Columbia is a fairly recognizable, arguably desirable bike.


Let's not forget that the majority of these are Columbias, which seem to be a lot more plentiful than anything else, despite being - in my eyes - the most underbuilt and underwhelming balloon-tire bikes out there.

-Kurt

rjhammett

Does anyone know what the end results would be if you gave the bike an OA bath and a polish or would it be better to leave as is?

cudak888 

Depends on the look that you want. Also depends on how thick the paint is, as if you're going to OA it, you're going to wind up polishing it afterwards.

I just did this on a Raleigh DL-5:

Before:


Out of the OA bath (mind, the stays didn't get fully submerged):



Darker areas is where the haze has been polished off. Brown areas have not been touched.





Outrageously good results here, but keep in mind that since this bike has a chaincase, this is also the area most shielded to weathering:



-Kurt

Darth Lefty 

Are the races polishable, does it get new bearing balls? Part of this Mad Max approach to restoration is that there's supposed to be something great hiding under the grime. But to draw an analogy, my FIL's Woody carries a surfboard and I don't think he's been surfing in decades.

Murray Missile 

Oh, THOSE gold diggers.............. yeah I wasn't thinking about them, we're in agreement there. Guess I misunderstood where you were headed, I was still in $100 for a rusty original mode LOL. Yes, I see some of that and those same people will have a ratty old "Varsinental" listed as a rare collectible racing bike for 2 or 300 bucks. They think if it says Schwinn Chicago it's worth it's considerable weight in gold but will scrap a Panasonic built Tempo with Tange Champion No.2 frameset because it's made in Japan so therefore not a "real" Schwinn. I'm not really a Schwinn guy but I have a few Schwinn road bikes, primarily because they were my size and fairly cheap, they weren't "real" Schwinns LOL. Then there's the people with the 3 and 400 dollar 1970's Raleigh Grand Prixs...... I have another name besides gold diggers for those sellers but this is a family site so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Columbias were the "poor" kids Schwinn it seems and you could get a lot of gadgets on one for less than a stripped down Schwinn. There's a lot of nostalgia for them plus they did have cool graphics and style counts when dealing with balloon tire bikes. But yeah, the examples you listed would be outrageously priced even for a men's model in mint condition.

Murray Missile 

Front fender on my A29, as found on the left and after #0000 steel wool and WD-40 on the right. It has also been rattle canned at some point. The rattle can green is almost the exact same shade of gren as the original but they covered up the white graphics. I do plant to strip it down to the original paint to expose what's left of the graphics.