Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Rough estimated Value, vintage handmade bike

my friends really been looking into getting a road bike for commuting and just the over all fun of it and he happened upon one in his aunts friends garage, whom he was helping move some stuff and she gave it to him. it used to be her husbands who owned a bike shop at one time and this was his main bike. he sent me some pics and some info on it but i cant really find anything online except that you can still get drop outs and the like for it.

its a GP Wilson
if anyone has any info on its maker, or what year it is or what its worth that would be great.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/l_c72f610170164b558e6d17335d2b83e9.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/l_bd002c2bb30e45a49bdb7f659993fa97.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/l_1d6c19fc1ecb4da595fccb697f94e407.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/l_c23c88cbe2e2461684eefd47295370d2.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/l_6475c6327ced4f9198d9b1c4d098dfaf.jpg

Wow, that is quite the bike, I like the bar tape/paint combo. The lugs look similar to the Haden lugs used on the Mk V Raleigh Professional. It looks like some decent craftsmanship on the lug work too, at least better than my Raleigh.

Matt

I've never heard of GPWilson but that is absolutely meaningless, in itself.

The crank arms and rear derailleur have a year stamped on them. That will set a lower bound, assuming they are original.

The recessed allen nut on the front brake, combined with the non-conical nuts on the front brake also constrain the date.

I think the paint color implies the mid-80's but not necessarily.

What's the ferrule on the head tube lug all about?

The rims look a bit more modern.

the info i found was that GP Wilson was a builder of wheel drop outs and other bike making materials in our home town of Hemet CA. which is where the bike was found. a few websites still offer his products but that's all the info i could find.

Cool bike---- enuff said !

Maybe a custom made bike? Since it was a bike shop owner, he probably had connections and may have had it made for him. Cool bike!

Man..That is a sweet find! I love the champagne color. I feel you can safely assume the bike is worth quite a bit judging by the components and the quality of the craftsmanship. All cleaned up and ready to roll I personally wouldn't take less than $500 for it. I know you could make more than that parting it out but that would be a sin to do to such a lovely bike. I'm jealous!

+1 Parts likely worth more than whole bike unfortunately. But a nice one for sure.

Looks like a faded purpley pink to mee. year is difficult to say.

Given, that from what I can see that parts are pre-1978 I'm going to have to say no later than 1980. This includes old logo cinelli and the patent dustcap. It's got over the BB cable routing which points to earlier. The styling to me is a little more 1970s than 1980s, the old style british brake cable says 1970s too. My guess it reynolds 531. Given that you could easily make $100 parting this bike out I would take no less than $750 for it personally. But I am poor, if I did not have need to pay off debt etc.. and was selling it too a friend $500 seems pretty good. The cinelli bar and stem combo along is probably worth $100 a alone.

I wonder if there is a matching ferrule on the other side of the head tube? If so then it might be a cable mount for barend shifters to contain the cable housing and help keep the headtube paint from getting all cable rub worn, who knows?

Do you have a better shot of the headbadge? Looks interesting.

I found this .pdf file about George P. Wilson:
http://www.dominguezcycles.com/products/findings/gpwilson/doc/gpwilson.pdf

Note this portion of the text:

Because of their scarcity, renowned durability, and aesthetic appeal,
attempts were made to copy the unique properties and design of the
G.P. Wilson dropouts. But, due to the nature of the material used in
their manufacture and the specialized post-casting treatments
required to bring out its full potential, these copies invariably lacked
the combination of properties inherent in the original G.P. Wilson
dropouts, resulting in over-sized, or out-of-proportion designs, or
designs that lacked the durability of the original.

To the right buyer I'd say that your friend has quite the find there. This bike would be a keeper if it came into my ownership/stewardship. Print out the .pdf file and pass it along to your friend. And if he just wants to get rid of the bike then pass along my user name as well :thumb:

It's a nice looking bike with an interesting heritage attached to it, sort of one of those "industry insider" bikes that wouldn't bring much from the general public but could generate considerable interest from bicycle people. I could be wrong, but this just feels like a great find to me.

Here's some additional text on an old page that googled-up:
http://search.bikelist.org/beta/TreeView.aspx?id=14109
Refers to G.P.Wilson as "Buster".

Here's the search string I used on Google.com to find these with:
+"G. P. Wilson" +bicycle

Definitely seems to be a potentially very nice bike. And if your friend trys to "Drew" it up then whack him with a pedal wrench. ;)

If the dropouts are a key distinguishing feature, please post a close-up photograph of them when you get a chance.

i cant really get any pictures of the bike, im like 1000miles away from my friend.

but heres a link and some text to the only info i could find online about GP Wilson stuff.

http://www.dominguezcycles.com/pages/products.php?cat_id=4#g.p._wilson_dropouts

" The unique design of G.P. Wilson dropouts encompasses graceful curves, cutouts, thinness, light weight, corrosion-resistance, and durability – a combination made possible by the nature of the material used in their manufacture and post-casting treatments. No other dropouts offer the combination of low weight and durability of G.P. Wilson dropouts.

G.P. Wilson dropouts may be brazed at temperatures from 1050° F to 1900° F, without serious structural degradation, using silver- or bronze-alloy filler rods with appropriate fluxes.

G.P. Wilson dropouts may be finished in a variety of ways: prime and paint; sand and buff for a chrome-like finish; 0.0005” electro-polish for a shine more brilliant than chrome; sand-blast for a matte grey finish; and glass bead-blast for a frosty white finish.

Available as a set of front and rear dropouts in Standard or Super-Light versions. "

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/gp_wilson_slr_finished_2.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/gpwilson_std_brazed.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n265/runslikeapenguin/gpwilson_sl.jpg

Is this bike for sale? I'm local hemet area and interested

the loop on the lug is for the rear brake cable. You can see there is no matching loop on the other side. Made for a bad angle so the owner skipped it.

I would say early 80's, but nothing really conflicts with late '70s either. Never heard of the dropouts or the builder. That's very interesting.

A bike shop owner would be likely to have a pile of parts of various vintages to put on the bike.