Vintage Skyway Bikes Find
 

I picked up these two vintage Skyway bikes at an estate sale. I found them hanging upside down from wheel hooks and the owner told me they've been hanging there for at least 25 or 30 years. I've bought and sold a few bikes over the years but they've been brands I'm familiar with like Schwinn or Western Flyer, I know very little about these including what they're worth. They do need some work, I'm wondering If I should start with the repairs and get them rideable or leave them alone so whoever buys them can do the repairs their self?


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No returns here. More value to the next owner to do their own work. I will admit not knowing about Skyway bikes.

They are lower end department store bikes, who sold them escapes me at the moment. Also from what I can recall they have no relation to the Skyway of BMX fame.

I would clean them up a bit, but not dump a lot of time or money into them. From what I gather the Skyway name has been used by several different companies over the years. There is a Skyway 3 speed with cottered cranks (like a Raleigh Sports) that is a very nice bike if you happen to run across one.

Aaron :)

Whenever you find old bikes that you intend to sell rather than keep, the best bet is to leave them alone as much as possible. If you're taking off some dust or whatever, no biggie, but going to heroic efforts will probably not yield enough profit to cover your time, and it may even have a negative impact on value (depending on how far you take your "cleaning"...some products/scrubbing strategies will damage finish.)

Those bikes right there probably aren't worth very much, but they sure are interesting.

Sometimes cleaning a bike up too much gives the buyer the impression that more has been done to the bike than has been done! Not always the case. I'd rather present a less than pristine condition bike that is mechanically sound! I don't want mess up decals and such. A lot of my people can't do the mechanical stuff but can really make a bike shine! Works out great for everyone involved!

If you are looking at your time by the hour, they aren't worth messing with. If you have spare time, tinker because you like to and make a few $, I would get them ride-able, I think you would have better luck at selling them. I see them selling to 20 somethings in the city looking for cheep, quirky, retro transportation to get them to the market, grab lunch, etc.