Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Cleaned up 1986 Trek 310 -- worth it?

I've been really looking for a good mid-80's Japanese road bike for the last couple of weeks. Today I came across a 1986 Trek 310. These were made in Japan (someone said that Bridgestone made them). It has been cleaned up -- in other words a flipper is flipping it. It's my size and I like the look of it.

New tires, new cables and new saddle are included in the deal.

It's all Suntour and all original except the front wheel has been replaced. Runs on 27" tires.

The guy is asking $225 for it. I figure he bought it for $50 or $75 and put $50 into it plus some time. He's a regular bike flipper and this is his business. I'd be shooting for $175 to $200 tops. He's a local guy, so it's just a short drive away.

What do you think? Wait it out and find my own for $50? Or just go ahead if it's as good as it looks?

Here's some photos:

197623 197624 197625 197622http://www.bikeforums.net/images/misc/pencil.png

I would want to know why the front wheel has been replaced. Was it crashed? Is the fork damaged? Maybe it got stolen. If there is no damage and it fits you then you could do a lot worse for the price depending on your area.

Treks are easy to sell where I live and if I were the flipper I would be firm on the price in my market. Ishiwata may not mean much to most buyers and if it were Reynolds tubing it might have more name recognition and bring more money. It looks pretty nice. Just my 2¢.

http://www.vintage-trek.com/images/trek/86TrekCatalog.pdf

+1. Ask questions before deciding. It is a pretty bike and if it fits, you could do a lot worse.

How hard are you willing/able/ready to look? Finding one for $50 usually doesn't just happen, its the result of pretty aggressive looking. If you are willing/able to do this kind of search (well beyond the local C/L), then I would wait. But if you want a good bike to ride, he's probably pretty close to market value.

310's are uncommon and are really nice bikes - What he is asking is not out of line at all, assuming he did the maintenance on it, and it isn't damaged from a front end.

Everyone's initial thoughts on this were right -- there was something wrong with the frame or the fork. The guy selling is a flipper and either he didn't ride it or he thought I'd not realize it, but when you took your hand off the bars the bike stepped right dramatically.

He changed out the wheel with another wheel and it still did it. It did this for him too and he did seem generally surprised. He didn't try at all to sell it at that point.

I guess he bought a bad bike to try to flip. It must have been crashed.

Oh well. It would have been too easy.

Good for you to to the homework first. I ALWAYS do a hands free on a test ride for this very reason and have passed on a few bikes that otherwise looked to be OK.
I did buy a bike on an auction site once and was not able to ride it first and got stung with a slightly tweaked fork. I had to replace it and barely broke even when selling it.
Responsible sellers will take a bike on a hard and fast ride first to make sure it's all tight and safe.

+1 Great job catching the wrecked bike. Changed out wheel or fork often = crash.