Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - Help me identify my mystery impulse present buy...

Hi,

I hope you don't mind a long-term lurker coming out of the woodwork expecting people to put in effort for him, but I've got a mini-mystery that I'm not making any headway on myself. On a bit of an impulse I've bought a bike for my girlfriend who had her old bike stolen (a brush-painted gold hardtail BSO with fairy lights on it; no idea why they would want to steal that ;)). It's advertised as a 'Ladies Daytona Racing Bike' which hasn't helped much because all searches for Daytona bikes are swamped by motorbikes... (by the way, the frame sticker is partially removed, but it definitely says 'Daytona', not 'Dayton'. It's too young to be a Dayton anyway).

The headtube sticker will presumably give clues to those who are familiar with these sorts of bikes - it has 'USA' in red block serif font, vertical, on a red background, with a white lozenge underlaid with six blue stars on it.

It's a fairly normal ladies' frame, nondescript lugs, 5x1 gears, drop bars with cross levers, silver paint.



Here are some pictures on the ebay listing - I'll upload better ones as soon as I get my hands on it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ladies-Vintage-Retro-Daytona-Racing-Bike-/320814680312?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item4ab20b88f8 (scroll down for pics)

I appreciate it's nothing special and there probably won't be much detail to be gleaned from it, but any details re. maker, date, anything really would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!
Ben

It's really hard to identify anything from the pictures, but the shifting system appears to be Shimano and the levers appear to be resin. These first came out in 1975, Given that the crankset, rims, bars and stem are steel, my best guess, pending more info, is a late 1970s, entry level, department store model.

Shimano parts will have date codes. +1 Typical department store bike from the late 1970s. Companies slapped any decals you wanted onto their generic bikes. I bought one bike in the 1970s from a lawn mower repair shop, they did not even sell new lawn mowers, but they had their own "brand" of bicycles.

I have a Murray that looks similar. Very heavy, low end bike with 559 tires.