Classic & Vintage - Swedish Crescent Road Bike

Browsing craigslist today and I found this
http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/bik/1408004775.html

i researched crescent road bikes, and i got a lot of mixed results. I searched on BF too and got mixed results. Some say it is heavy and has poor workmanship and some say that a crescent is a rare find and is a good bike.

should i jump on this?

Where I am , any bike @ $40 is gone in a hurry. I have 2 Crescent ladies 3 spds that I will rework a little & flip. Well made bikes & I would give $40 for the one in the ad.

Are you kidding me ? For $40 you get Huffys around here. Decent bike at a very fair price. They were OK bikes in their time, good parts and made well.

In general, Crescent and Monark built fine high-end bikes during the 60´s and 70´s. Merckx-bikes collaborated with Crescent and it says something about the pro´s opinion on Crescent road bikes. At the end of the day, whether you ride Crescent, Batavus or Pinarello from that era, its the components and the riders skill that´ll decide if its "good or bad".

"your" bike is small - will it fit you? I cant see on the pic what model, but it seems to a sport/commuter which means no reynolds and therefor on the heavier side. If it is model 308/309 it will have HiTen/Tange tubing. The orange colour is NOT a sign of high-end (top road bikes; models 318, 319 and 320), its merely the colour that made Crescent-bikes famous. Too cool not to buy if the size is OK:thumb:

You'll find diverse opinions on Crescent because they made a full range of models form entry level up to professional racers and because like many boom era manufacturers, they suffered quality laspes trying to meet demand. They were also producing bicycles in South America, as well as Sweden during the boom.

The bicycle in question appears to be an early 1970s, entry level, Sports or Sports Racer model by virtue of the steel crankset and downtube shifters. These models were spec'd with Huret Allvit shifters or Simplex Prestige derailleurs. Yes, it's going to be heavy, about 28-30 lbs but if it's in good condition and fits, $40 is a good price. As a bonus it, has fenders, and it looks like they may be Bluemels. It also appears to have a leather saddle and possibly aluminum rims. I would definitely be paying a visit to examine this bicycle more closely.

You can look thru the Crescent bikes at the top half of this page. Yes it is in Swedish, but after you go to one of the links, there is a box in the top that allows you to translate it. Good utilitarian bike. Pi of one of my 3 spds, below.

http://www.cykelhobby.com/svenska.htm

I just sold one of the early 'gas-pipe' models similar to the one pictured with components as stated by javal earlier in the thread; it was in excellent mechanical and cosmetic condition and it sold for $250 to a buyer who was delighted to get it.