Value/price of an older Nishiki (cross post)
 

Hi folks a forum newbie with a newbie question. I hope you folks’ll help me out.

I have my eye on a 70’s Nishiki Professional touring bike. It’s all original, in fair shape, but would obviously need to be gone over and have some replacing and tweaking, etc. done. Just ballpark’in now, but what would you expect to pay for the decribed bike? And, is it worth the revamp for extended touring?

no more than 50 bucks. and, probably not worth the revamp. Buy a LHT in the box shipped to your LBS instead.

It depends on what the OP means by "is it worth it". If he/she has 1000+ to spend on a LHT then its not worth it. If he/she wants a ridable bike that could be used for touring and has less than 200$ to spend, then its definately worth it.

i bet it needs a new drivetrain, brakes, etc and new wheels to boot to tour in confidence. more than a couple of hundred. probably half the cost of a new LHT. 27 inch bikes are SO not worth revamping for "extended" touring in my opinion.

30 year old bikes are 30 year old bikes, ridedable as collectibles, and beater bikes. but not heavy touring, in my opinion. 30 year old steel bikes have a tendency to get noodley in the rear triangle.

I guess we should ask the OP. does it need a new drivetrain? Does it have a Malliard freehub cassette? Will it need new wheels? how many gears have you got, and what does it crank for gear inches? Will it need new rubber? 27 inch or 700c? cottered cranks? whats the BCD on the chainrings?

And most importantly, does the frame fit the OP?

all these questions make or break a bike revamp. stripping even a 50 dollar bike down to the bare frame, and rebuilding it from the ground up, will get the OP close to half the price of a LHT in the box. closer still to the price of a Bianchi Volpe.

Shifters, stem, headset, brakes, drivetrain, wheels, bottom bracket, crankset, small bits, and the expertise to rebuild it will make that Nishiki an expensive bike atop of what the rider spends for the bike.

I'd stay away from it....because old steel bikes are *cool*. It's possible to get a nice functional touring/commuter bike for under a thousand, brand new. Break down the cost of a Trek 520 down to cost per mile and it's one heck of a good value.

However, there are folks here in the Seattle area who don't think a Trek 520 or Jamis is *cool* enough for them. So they buy an *old school* used bike that's 20+ years old and try to upgrade it. In the end, this costs way more than a new bike.....and the finished product isn't all that hot.

I'm all for buying old bikes cheap and riding them into the dirt. But you can't make them what they are not....a new bike.

Hey thanks for all the input folks. I asked and the fella wants $200 for it. Purported to have not been ridden much, though, the seat looks well used. I would not be inclined to use any of the hardware (it all appears intact), it'd be a build-up just shy of painting it. I like the look of the bike, but (maybe I'm just cheap) two beans is probably more than I'm willing to pay for it based on what you folks have said. Thanks again for the excellent input.

P.S., the Jamis Aurora looks like what I'm thinking about. I have a Quest right now and like it bunches, it's a sweet ride. The Aurora is probably the smart, logical thing. Thanks for the "wake-up and smell the coffee."

You can't go wrong with the Aurora-- looking at it in terms of *cost per mile*, the Aurora is among the best values in cycling.

Lets say you got a older frame for free-- and you were do a frame-up build with new parts, it's likely cost you as much as the Aurora. The bike industry sells whole bikes way cheaper than bike parts. It helps to be internet/ebay savvy, and have a good knowledge of bike design, but still....that Jamis Aurora is still your best bet.

I have an old Nishiki touring bike. I don't know what model. It has a triple chainring and an old Blackburn rack - maybe their number one model? I was at a garage sale and they had this bike and an old set of panniers - front and rear. I asked how much for the panniers. The guy said $20 but I had to take the bike too. So I did. And it's been sitting in my greenhouse ever since. It's a little small for me. I think it would fit someone about 6'0" tall. I'm thinking about fixing it up for a friend. Hmmm.

Just for the sake of argument, I have a Nishiki International that I picked up through a landfill recycling project. It's from the late 80's and wasn't ridden much. It needed a new tire and tube. In the past 2 years I've put 4000 commuting kilometres on it, completely trouble free, except for the past month, where I've broken a spoke and had to replace the rear derailleur cable.
I plan on using this bike for some lengthy tours this year, I'll update on how things go

I'm glad to here their still are some old Nishikis rolling along-- they were a great bike. And I'm all for riding old bikes-- just don't try tp make them into a new bike, the cost can be just insane.

Older friction shifters work for a long time and a great choice for a bike ridden in all kinds of weather.