metabike

Looking for input on setting a reasonable price for this: 57cm, Diamondback designed by Centurion, RX100 7-speed drivetrain & brakes, no wheels, no seatpost, I do have a Hyperglide cassette to go along with it, horizontal dropouts so maybe it might have some appeal to the SS/fixie crowd. And it will be cleaned up and better photos taken when I list it on Ebay. Thank you for your help!

zukahn1 

Not a complete bike mid level frame with 7 speed components I would say only about 70-80$.

Bianchigirll 

Nice machine but I agree midlevel stuff and not complete. Does it git you? You may be better off buying some cheap wheels and riding it.



I think might have been the first year or two for the Diamond Back road machines and the Centurion Design thing was to jump the briodge to DB while dropping the Centurion brand.

T-Mar

+1, the bicycle appears to be a 1990 model. It's a nice. lower midrange model, but without the wheels $75 is about correct in an average market. I'd appreciate the serial number for my database.

metabike

Thank you all for your help. The bike does fit me and I had it built up with modern components for a while, but my wife's been having to deal with some medical stuff so some of my collection has to go to help pay the bills. (The brifters, newer wheels I had on it, etc. will fetch more individually than hung on this frame so that's why I put on the original RX stuff.) Considering the value vs. the hassle of selling it on Ebay , I guess I will just toss it up in the rafters for now and deal with disposing of it during the next garage clean-up project (maybe it will have gained some value by then).

Bianchigirll is correct on the history. The interesting thing about the bike is the "Avenir Equipped" logo - maybe the original saddle, seatpost or bars were from Avenir, because there isn't anything on there now (it would be kind of weird if they did the logo for those mundane pieces though).

T-Mar, the SN is 90A8278.

Bianchigirll 

I suspect atleast the seat and stem was Avenir as that was WSI aka Diamond Back's house brand for accesories.

zukahn1 

About this time I was surprised that WSI switched there road bike brand to Diamonback. Centurion seemed to have a much better reputation by this time the Diamonback brand had lost a lot off its luster from WSI greatly dialuting the brand buy selling some really sub par BMX and Mountainbikes under the brand that where sourced based more on cost than quality. If you had basically the same bike a year or so older and branded Centurion it would likely be worth $40-50 more. It is kinda odd that they put a Avenir equiped logo on the bike for what was likely just the saddle and post maybe it had a Avenir crank slo orginally.

T-Mar

The name change was driven by the takeover of WSI by China Bicycle Company. Sales were poor in 1989 and on top of that founder Weiner had just gone through a divorce and heart surgery and decided it was time to sell his majority shares, as did one of his minority shareholder partners. It was a time when road sales were declining and the dominant bicycle style was the ATB, so it was decided to consolidate the lines under what was the more successful brand name.

thinktubes 

$75 sounds about right. I owned one back in the day and it was a pretty decent rider if you like OS framed bikes.

frantik

Love the little details like that. It seems WSI significantly reduced their road bike offerings in 1990 (only 3-4 models?) and started expanding their MTB line up. I found a 1992 catalog and there were well over 10 different MTB models

WSI offered road bikes at most levels of the spectrum but that doesn't seem to have "tarnished" the Centurion name.


I live in an "above average" market and would sell that for at least $100 (but may have to be patient). the paint is one of those things where people love it or hate it so you have to wait for the right person. I'd mention the "Ironman" heritage of the bike too.. even though it's a downgrade from 1989 Ironman Expert, still worth mentioning imo

edit: i see you're going to put it on ebay.. maybe 100 shipped..

Bianchigirll 

Everybody cut back on road bikes. Bianchi had I think 3 or 4 not counting the three top of the line models (two of which were holdovers or leftovers) and tons of MTBs, ATBS, Hyvrids adn 'cross bikes.

T-Mar

In 1990 WSI offered 6 road bicycles and 10 ATBs. It was down to 3 road models in 1992. ATBs were up to 11 models (17 if you include hybrids, which weren't in the 1990 lineup).

The entry level models never tarnished Centurions reputation because, in my opinion, the reputation was never truly high. There's a limit to the reputation you can build when you're a contract manufacturer, as it makes it very difficult to crack the high end market. WSI tried this several times but was never successful. They were a reputable full range brand that got a boost in prestige in the late 1980s with the Dave Scott endorsement of the Ironman models, but they were more midrange and never truly vaulted the brand into the big leagues.

zukahn1 

Good point I never considered any of the WSI bikes truely high end Centurion or Diamonback even in their prime they where only midlevel at best and not high end weither BMX or Road. Yet for some reason a lot of people think of them as high end.