If you remember purchasing the bike you also know if it was a high-end racing model or a basic bike from Walmart. If you or a relative are the original owner you probably know when you bought it, so you have a good idea of the bicycle’s age. If you just bought a bike for $50, you have established the value of the bicycle (and you are not likely to be able to sell it for $2000 to somebody else). Please don’t email or call us asking to appraise your old Schwinn.Ĭlose-ups of the parts tell a lot about your bikeīy the way, you probably know more about your bike than we do. Old Schwinn Varsitys have little or no resale value today. Just because a bike is old (or you remember it fondly) that doesn’t mean that it appreciated in value over the years. They were inexpensive, and they were everywhere. This forty year old bike looks the same as it did the day it was built, and things that normally give out over four decades (like bar tape, brake pads, chain, and the saddle) are as fresh as ever.Ī gentle note to Schwinn aficionados out there: Schwinn produced a lot of bikes. We joke about the heft and limited performance of these old Schwinns, but they were definitely built to last. Schwinn primarily approved of thick steel construction and chrome plating the hell out of everything in 1975, the end result being a bike that tips our scale at a robust 42 pounds. This particular Varsity is sporting “Chestnut” paint (lime green and yellow being the other choices) and is outfitted with a host of “Schwinn Approved” components. The only real difference between the Mongoose and the DeCoster frame is the oval (instead of round) cutout in the front head tube gusset. Bikes like this one with the short frame were only available in the nickel finish. There were different color versions in nickel, Red, Blue, and Yellow. The bike kits came in long or short frame versions made of 4130 chromoly. Manufactured by BMX Products, Inc., they were very similar to the Mongoose Motomag. Roger DeCoster bikes were produced from 1976 to 1983 and were sold as frame kits at most Schwinn bicycle shops across the country. This is a Roger DeCoster BMX bike, and while it may not be at the top of your wish list today, you really couldn’t have had a better birthday gift as ten-year-old in 1977. Unless you give them other ideas you may end up with a restored kids’ bike from 1977 as a birthday gift. Big thanks to Richard and Jeremy for preserving this fun bit of cycling (and oil company) history.īefore you interupt your spouse to show off this web page, excitedly recalling the virtues of your first BMX bike, you should be warned: Your 50th birthday is coming up. His bike was saved from the trash heap by Jeremy Hutsell of Capp’s bike shop in Topeka Kansas. This bike was originally owned by an Ohio native named Richard Alexander.
In the late ’70′s, an era when different types of steel was really your only bike options, it would have been nice to be able to try out a Graftek. By comparison, the Graftek would seem like you were jumping up and down on shag carpeting. Imagine jumping up and down on a parquet basketball court (that’s the steel bike). It was almost like the graftek had under-inflated tires. 22 lbs) and the feedback from the road was noticably muted. The steering seemed quite similar, but there was a marked difference in sensation coming up through the pedals. Speaking of steel, we rode a steel Colnago with the same components and then tried out the Graftek to see how different the bikes would feel. That’s a spare tire holder under the saddle. Notable things include Raleigh’s Telex number (Telex!), the fact that the air freight from London to the Moscow airport was only about $10 less than the cost of the entire bike, and that the “E” on the typewriter was wearing out. The bike was in pretty good shape when we got it, so if the KGB took it apart at any time, they did a stealthy job and got all of the pieces back in the right place.īy the way, if you click on our photo of the original invoice it’ll expand and you’ll be able to make out some neat details.
Left unattended, Richard’s Raleigh may have been inspected once or twice to see if secret messages were being transported inside the tubes. We can imagine that theft wasn’t a big concern. Having all of your bike rides monitored by the secret police might have actually been a plus. Richard works in the office of the naval Attaché and rides his bike around Moscow during his down time. Lyndon Johnson is in the White House, Leonid Brezhnev is running the Soviet Union, and the superpowers are fighting a Cold War.
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