I have an old bike of my dad's that has a "Concord" tag on the front of the frame. I am pretty sure that the frame is from the late 70's or early 80's. It looks to have some racing, or what would have been cutting edge back then, brakes and shifters. Based on the pictures, I was wondering what I actually had on my hands if anything. Is it worth getting fixed up?
Nothing cutting edge. Suntour made millions of those shift levers. Concords were lower end Japanese bikes imported in the 1970s. Worth fixing up if you have the time/tools/aptitude/access to affordable parts, otherwise, you will be upside down on it by the time you were done.
Now as a family momento, you may want to fix it regardless. Certainly if I had my father's old bike, I would fix it up regardless of how good a bike it was. But to make money, no.
Realize 1970s was the bike boom. For every decent bike, there were hundreds of bottom end bikes made. At one point, there were waiting lists to buy any new bike, so a lot of buyers took just about anything. After the boom, bike mfrs had to improve their products to stay alive. Most did not make it.
Last edited by wrk101; 04-27-12 at 05:29 PM.
I agree with "wrk101". The bicycle has minimal collectable value although it will be fun to ride, assuming you are not expecting stellar performance.
As for spending money fixing it up, I would say no, unless the sentimental value holds any weight. If so, just clean and polish the bicycle. Spend only what you need to to make it road worthy and then ride it for a while. If the ride quality proves to your liking, then you could consider a more in-depth restoration, but I would still exercise caution with investing any amount of money in the bike.
Learn how to find, restore and maintain vintage road bicycles at... MY "TEN SPEEDS"
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