Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Nishiki Cresta

Hi, I found this bike on craigslist asking for $225. I was wondering if you guys thought it was worth the price. The owner doesn't know the year, but he says it has suntour symmetric components. Thanks!

I could be wrong but Id be surprised if that was $225 brand new from kmart in the 80's. to me its worth maybe $100, sorry.

That is a little bitty frame. 48cm. Does it fit you? Are you relatively short? Like 5'2". Google is a good thing.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Nishiki+Cresta&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

It looks clean cosmetically. If it's mechanically sound and it's your size it might be worth the price depending on your local market. Bay area is a hot market from what I hear on the forums. It looks like a flipper bike with the new saddle and bar tape so it could have been completely overhauled, maybe just cleaned up.

Small size + touring model = possible premium price. Ride it and see if you like it.

Yea, I'm 5'3" so i'm looking for a 48cm-50cm frame.

The only thing i was really concerned about was the suntour derailleur. I was reading on sheldon brown's page that it was a pretty mediocre system. I don't need anything high performance, but do you guys think that it will run smoothly for a long period of time?

Ideally I wanted a bike with shimano 600, but all the bikes I've seen so far have been around $300, which is a little too much for me

I could be wrong but Id be surprised if that was $225 brand new from kmart in the 80's. to me its worth maybe $100, sorry.

??? Are we looking at the same bike?

SP
Bend, OR

If you are in a market where Shimano 600 brings $300+ I would say that bike is priced OK. Paint, tape and general condition look good. In my area that is a $100 bike but I can buy the shimano for much less that $200. A lot depend on the market. That is a tough size to find so consider that as well. I have been able to tune suntour derailleurs to work just fine and they will last a long time. Not a 'steal' but could be reasonable for a good usable bike.

I live in the SF bay area. I've been looking for a bike for about a month, and i had found a shogun 600 i really liked but it was priced at $375, though it did come with the shimano 600 components. Here's a pic of the other bike I liked

That is a pretty nice touring model. If it fits I would say, if it is in good shape and does not need tires and the like, the price is fair (retail).

Thats a good deal, and I don't remember Sheldon bashing Suntour. If anything, Suntour stuff from the 1980s is highly thought of. The Mountech RD was questionable, but easy to replace.

As far as the KMart comment, that is wrong.

Sheldon Brown posted this about the Suntour Symmetric shifters


This was a fundamentally flawed design, because it moves the front derailer inboard every time you downshift the rear. If you keep going up and down in back, eventually the front derailer will be too far inward to run properly on the big ring.

They'll work with any low-normal front derailer, after a fashion. The problem they were intended to solve was later solved by fine tuning the shape of the front derailer cage.

Bad news is that nothing else will fit that braze on. Good news is that the bikes these came on were otherwise super-quality frames, comparable to frames that sell for a thousand bucks or more today.

See: http://sheldonbrown.com/japan

Sheldon "A Good Idea On Paper..." Brown

Sheldon Brown posted this about the Suntour Symmetric shifters

And though Sheldon is right on most things, there's a general consensus that he was wrong on this. If you search the forum you'll find explanations on why he was wrong. I rode Symmetric shifters for a while and they functioned flawlessly.

Here's one such thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/514867-Test-your-wits-Suntour-Symmetric-reassembly-challenge!-With-pics!

Hi, I found this bike on craigslist asking for $225. I was wondering if you guys thought it was worth the price. The owner doesn't know the year, but he says it has suntour symmetric components. Thanks!
My 2 cents worth.
$200 is not out of range for that bike as a buyer, but to buy and resell its too high.
I have a '83 Cresta and the bike is awesome on the open road. Mine has canti brakes so the one you are looking at is newer then '83.
Nishiki made a quality frame. And there are 2 ways around "Suntour Symmetric shifters".
Nobody will like my 2nd answer.
1. Suntour made an adapter to use with the braze-on, so you could use regular DT shifters.
2. Ignore the braze-on and use a clamp style.

Me personally....I don't mind my "Suntour Symmetric shifters".
OK you got my 2 Cents worth. Good Luck.
Cory

+1: Add me to the "I like Suntour Symmetric shifters as well. I probably have had at least a dozen of them, likely more like 20. They work well.

Small size makes that bike a better deal. If you need a touring bike, with that small of a frame, really tough to find. I would move on it.

+1 I would prefer the canti brake version. A lot of models of various Japanese touring bikes went back and forth on canti brakes. Some years will have them, others won't.

As far as Suntour in general, for friction shifting bikes, I have almost standardized on a couple of Suntour models from the 1980s. I keep an eye out for them, and have put them on dozens of bikes.

I just looked at the pic again...Thats not even a braze-on shifter, so going to regular DT shifters would be so easy.

I had a Nishiki Cresta with Symmetric shifters, and they were clamp-ons. Go for it, it is a great bike at a very fair price. The Kmart comment above was ignorant and wrong.